For my much anticipated January 09 trip, I'm planning to bring my mask, snorkel, and hard soled booties. I was planning to rent fins in Bonaire, but heard the fins with the strap are impossible to rent. I'm trying to avoid bringing lots of luggage (flying from Boston), and am wondering if I should buy the fins here, or rent or buy on Bonaire??

You shouldn't have any trouble finding rental adjustable strap fins in Bonaire. Rental fins tend to be plain old paddle types, however. So if you're fond of split fins you might have to make do with paddles. Full-foot fins that are harder to come by. The coral shore makes it tough on bare feet so there's not as much demand for them. You can always e-mail a dive operator or resort to check.

I would email your resort directly and check.

When we lost our luggage on the way to Bonaire two years ago we had to settle for full fins from the dive operator we were using, they did not rent strap back fins. It was difficult for shore dives. I would definitely check ahead or buy fins. We were very happy when our luggage showed up 6 days into the trip.

cheryl, i agree with david and denise, check with your resort but plan on either taking fins with you or buying them there. i haven't heard of a resort that rents open heel fins.

I also have no idea who rents open heeled fins. One other consideration is that even open heeled fins come in sizes. So if you are really happy with your current combo...

If you end up buying on island, Carib Inn had a decent selection including some inexpensive ones available (you could always call or email them).

Thanks for the helpful info. I really appreciate it!I'm now leaning toward buying the fins here and bringing them.

Okay, my wife tells me I’m full of it. (Again.) I remember seeing dozens of fins behind the counter at BDA when they were renovating the shop in 2003, blue Quatro-style paddle fins, and swear they were open heel. My wife says they were full foot and that I even commented at the time: “Who would want full foot fins in Bonaire?” We also saw a couple of 10-year-old kids thrashing around in full foot rentals at the Sand Dollar pool one afternoon. I’m guessing that dive operators rent full foot fins because replacing worn-out straps are a maintenance issue, and the fact that their priority is catering to their dive boat customers rather than shore divers. Diving from a boat, full foot fins are fine.

cheryl, with the new baggage restrictions you might even consider waiting till you get to bonaire to buy your fins. carib inn has a good selection and the prices are the same or cheaper than what you'd pay in the states. there are also a few shops in town that carry a good selection of fins. that way you only have to tote them one way. just bring your booties with you when you try the fins on.

BDA rents open heel fins. Nothing from our experience with BDA or with visiting other dive shops (in our shopping around for our next trip) gave us the impression that there was a shortage of rental open heel fins on the island.

Divi doesn't rent open heel fins. I assumed it was because they really wanted you to buy them, or they expected all to dive from the boats--again, more income for them!!

We were at Bonaire Oceanfront Apartment in Oct and the Buddy Dive shop, on site, rents open heel fin's and boot as well! Yep, BOOTS! I couldn't beleave it. I talked to Rob(manager)about it and he said that they clean the boots in some special cleaner as they do the regulators.

(Message edited by ronindiana on November 9, 2008)