点评:My friend and I spent an amazing week diving with Beyond the Corals. We absolutely LOVED our experience. For some context, my friend was an open water diver with approximately 12 dives and I’m slightly more experienced (had ~80 dives coming in & my rescue cert).
I’ve been diving in a lot of places with a lot of operators — this place was hands-down the best operator I have ever gone diving with. The team was extremely organized and professional. The gear was excellent — just a pleasure to use — and exceptionally well and meticulously maintained. Their organizational system is highly efficient and allows for many opportunities to check that everything is good to go. Most importantly, the whole team is incredibly and deeply kind; has a great sense of humor; cares deeply about your safety and the quality of your experience; and excited and enthusiastic about sharing Bonaire’s reefs and their ecology with divers.
Because my friend got his AOW cert with them, I also got to see their approach to instruction firsthand (and to experience a guided deep dive, a wreck dive, and a guided night dive). The instruction is simply unparalleled — way, way better than I got when I was certified back in the day! Corina, our instructor, was just an absolute gem. She was extremely thorough and patient with questions, and made the course really fun for my friend. I actually learned a lot from just being around as my friend went through the course, and I saw how he emerged a much more comfortable, confident diver. The group size was small and so there was a lot of individual attention paid to each diver. Plus the overall vibe was positive, enthusiastic, and encouraging.
As guides, the staff is exceptional. The dive briefings are very thorough and informative and made the dives feel really safe, because we understood precisely what would happen during each component of the dive. We were also able to learn a lot about what we might see before we went, which was great. And underwater, every guide we had (including Jenna, Corina, and Flo) spotted all kinds of little tiny critters that I would never have seen (tons of nudibranchs, etc.). The pacing was great too. Most importantly, at no point in the process did I ever feel rushed or like anyone was even remotely impatient with me or my friend. It was the safest I’ve ever felt diving. Even when other divers we were with acted erratically (for example, when one diver started to swim off randomly in a different direction than the main group) Corina handled it easily and quickly and got everything back on track and the group back together.
So now add to the exceptional gear, exceptional instruction, and great, positive vibes Beyond the Corals’ conservation focus, which I thought was amazing and so meaningful to get to be a part of. We got to do a reef renewal discovery dive on our last dive and help clean the coral nursery, which my friend and I both absolutely loved. It’s so meditative, and it felt really great to put our dive skills to a conservation purpose. They also have tons of conservation specialities that I would really love to do on our next trip (including a very cool and unique sea turtle identification specialty).
Special shout outs to Jenna (who was incredibly nice to and patient with us during our refresher dive, and made us laugh through the whole process); Corina (who, as I mentioned above, is an amazing instructor — her enthusiasm and patience are simply unparalleled, and she made the whole week a total joy); Flo (who was a wonderful guide and did an amazing job explaining reef renewal and teaching us all about coral biology); and Jonathan (a gem of a human being, with such calm and positive vibes and phenomenal tips, hacks, and mantras for a safe and comfortable dive). We absolutely loved the whole team and already miss getting to dive with everyone. Thank you Beyond the Corals for an incredible experience and we look forward to coming back soon!!
翻译:我和朋友在Beyond the Corals体验了为期一周的潜水之旅,简直棒极了!我们非常享受这次经历。简单介绍一下背景:我的朋友是开放水域潜水员,总共深潜过12次左右;而我经验稍丰富些(此前已有约80次潜水经历,还持有救援证书)。
我曾在很多地方与多家潜水公司合作过——毫无疑问,Beyond the Corals是我迄今为止合作过的最优秀的潜水公司。他们的团队秩序井然且专业度极高。他们的设备棒极了——用起来令人愉悦——而且维护得极为细致周到。他们的组织体系效率极高,能让人有诸多机会确认所有设备都处于良好状态。最重要的是,整个团队都极其友善温柔,幽默感十足;他们十分关心潜水者的人身安全与体验质量,也热切渴望与各位潜水爱好者分享博内尔的珊瑚礁及其生态系统。因为我的朋友是在他们那里获得的AOW证书,我也得以亲眼目睹他们的教学方式(还亲身体验了有向导带领的深潜、沉船潜水以及夜间潜水)。他们的教学水平简直无与伦比——远远胜过我当年考取证书时所接受的教学!我们的教练科里娜真是一位不可多得的优秀教练。她极为细致周到,对各种问题也总是耐心解答,还让我的朋友在整个课程中都乐在其中。事实上,当我的朋友参加课程时,我仅仅通过旁听就学到了很多;我亲眼看到他逐渐成长为一名更加从容自信的潜水员。培训班的规模很小,因此每位学员都能得到充分的个性化指导。此外,整个氛围也积极向上、热情洋溢且充满鼓励。
作为向导,这里的工作人员表现得极为出色。潜水前的讲解极为详尽且信息丰富,让我们在潜水时倍感安全。因为我们清楚地知道在水下探险的每个阶段会发生什么。我们还能在出发前了解到可能会看到哪些生物,这真是太棒了。而在水下,我们遇到的每一位向导(包括詹娜、科里娜和弗洛)都发现了许多我绝对发现不了的微小生物(大量的海蛞蝓等等)。整个行程的节奏也恰到好处。最重要的是,在整个过程中,我从未感到仓促,也完全没感觉到有任何人对我或我的朋友表现出丝毫的不耐烦。这是我潜水以来感觉最安全的一次。即便与我们同行的其他潜水员行为有些反常(比如有个潜水员突然朝着与大部队相反的方向游去),科里娜也轻松而迅速地应对,让一切重新步入正轨,也让整个团队重新聚在一起。
所以,现在再加上顶级的装备、出色的教学以及良好的……积极的氛围:除了Beyond the Corals致力于珊瑚保护的工作——我觉得这真的很棒,能参与其中也意义非凡。在最后一次潜水时,我们进行了一次珊瑚礁修复探索潜水,还帮忙清理了珊瑚苗圃,我和我的朋友都极其享受这个过程。这种体验非常令人心静,能将自己的潜水技能用于环保事业也让人感觉棒极了。他们还提供许多保护相关的特色课程,我真的很想在下次旅行时参加(其中包括一门非常酷且独特的海龟辨识课程)。
特别要提一下詹娜——在我们参加复训潜水时,她对我们极其友善且耐心,全程都让我们开怀大笑;还有科丽娜——正如我上面所说,她是一位出色的教练——她的热情与耐心真的无与伦比。还有她,让整个一周都充满了欢乐);Flo(她是一位出色的向导,生动地为我们讲解珊瑚礁的再生过程以及珊瑚的生物学知识);以及Jonathan(真是个好人啊!他性格沉稳、充满正能量,还给了我们许多实用又贴心的建议与小窍门,帮助我们享受一次安全又愉快的潜水体验)。我们实在太喜欢整个团队了,现在就已经开始怀念能和大家一起潜水的时光。感谢Beyond the Corals为我们带来如此美妙的体验,我们期待着不久后能再次光临!!