People

News about People on, from, and going to Bonaire

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Bill Goodwin, Frequent Bonaire Visitor, Wins National Geographic Photographic Competition

Bill Goodwin, along with his wife, Donna, is a frequent visitor to Bonaire and the island’s reefs.  Both enjoy underwater photography, but Bill has recently just won a major photographic competition sponsored by National Geographic.

His shot of a peppermint shrimp in a sponge taken at Margate Bay in approximately 75 feet of water was first entered into the National Geographic competition.  There were 208,000 entries from 28 countries in 20 different language editions of the magazine. Bill placed first place in the Nature category (one of three categories: People, Places, Nature) in the English language National Geographic contest, but his image then went on to win first place in the worldwide competition.

Often a photographer will work with a subject for some time, taking multiple images.  Bill, however, took only this one shot of the shrimp.  His camera was a Sony DSC WX-1 and, unbelievably, the camera was just set on “auto.” The camera took the image at f/2.4, ISO 160, with a shutter speed of 1/100. He did not employ a filter, he had a finger over the internal strobe to avoid double flashing, and the lighting was provided by Underwater Kinetics Light Cannon (HID) handheld on an arm outside the sponge.

Donna Goodwin is also a photographer, and the two will work together many times.  When Bill is shooting, Donna may hold a light for him, or be on the lookout for other creatures that might make excellent subjects.  When Donna is shooting, Bill then will work as the assistant and lookout.  It’s obviously great teamwork which produces results, as evidenced by Bill’s excellent image.

Bill has been winning or placing in competitions since 2007, including the Our World Underwater 2008 Photo Contest and the 2009 Underwater Images Photo/Video Competition.  Last year at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Ft. Lauderdale, which is held every four years there was a big photo competition with large prizes for the best work from the last four years by scientists, fisheries people, marine park managers and others who are lucky to have unlimited photographic opportunities.  This competition was judged by noted photographers Paul Humann, Stephen Frink, and a staff photographer from National Geographic in six categories. Bill was honored with a second place in Reefs at Risk (also with a shot taken from Bonaire), a first in Marco (with an image from Bonaire), a first in Reef Inhabitants (also with an image from Bonaire), and the Best in Show (from Cayman Brac)! The Best in Show photo (and a story about the grouper in the picture) was featured in the Cayman newspapers the week before a vote in the parliament on banning all spearfishing for grouper in Caymanian waters, and the ban was enacted, partially as a result of that image and story.  Bill and Donna are certainly making good use of their photography to help conservation efforts. 

Bill and Donna have been visiting Bonaire since 2004.  Since that time, they ensure they visit for two weeks at least once a year, and sometimes twice, having their sons and daughters or friends accompany them.  Before their first visit, they’d heard that Bonaire was too good to be true--and Bill says they had to come and check it out themselves and found it to be true! 

Bill hails from San Diego, and Donna is from Louisiana.  They currently reside in Birmingham, Alabama where they work at their physical therapy clinic.  They’ve definitely given back to Bonaire, too, as they organized a fundraiser with a local dive shop in Birmingham to help fund the water quality monitor program executed by STINAPA, and they are currently working with STINAPA to produce an Underwater Image Bank for students of all ages, so as to help teach many of the local children about the treasures that inhabit the waters around Bonaire.  This image bank will be useful to students and teachers in biology, information sciences, tourism industry studies, art and more.

For more information about the National Geographic competition, click here.  Congratulations, Bill!  (Source:  National Geographic web site, Bonaire Insider Reporter)

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Bonaire’s Living Legend, Captain Don Stewart, Presents and Signs His Newest Book, “Reef Windows”

Captain Don Stewart will present his latest book, Reef Windows, at two book signings in the coming week.  He promises to take readers back to the exciting, early days of Bonaire diving, telling the tales of the true stories behind the naming of Bonaire’s dive sites.

The book will launch this Saturday, December 12, 2009 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM at Books & Toys, located at Kaya Grandi #36 in Kralendijk.  Don will be available for book-autographing at that time, but also at the Meet the Captain Night at Captain Don’s Habitat on Monday, December 14, 2009 from 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM.  The book will be available for purchase at most book stores and shops around Bonaire, and the book comes with Captain Don’s famous “red ribbon depth gauge” as a handy bookmark.  All are welcome to join Captain Don in celebrating the premiere of this latest book.  (Source:  Captain Don Stewart)

Friday, October 02, 2009

Severely Wounded Men From U.S. Special Forces are Honored on Bonaire

When we last reported on these special men and their families, visiting Bonaire from the United States, we found them as they were just completing their diving certifications.  The group has had a very busy schedule since that time, and they will continue to enjoy Bonaire until tomorrow, when they leave for home.

The men and their wives and girlfriends spend each morning honing their diving skills with boat dives to various sites on the main island and Klein Bonaire.  Afternoons are spent in a variety of different ways, all focusing upon the island’s special highlights.

Tuesday, after a lunch in Kralendijk at the Palacios family’s Buenos Aires Cafe, the men visited Jewel of Bonaire.  Although they each were provided with a substantial gift certificate, compliments of the store, the men did go a “little crazy” when shopping for gifts for family and friends back home.  That evening, they enjoyed the hospitality of the Palacios family once again at their signature restaurant, Patagonia, where the All-You-Can-Eat Grill Night was definitely a hit.

Wednesday evening brought a special treat--a reception at Bonaire’s Lt. Governor Glenn Thode’s home.  Lt. Governor Thode and his wife were gracious hosts, welcoming the men, their wives and girlfriends, as well as trip leaders, “Big Wave Dave,” Stu, and Marie.  Arriving with a motorcycle escort from Biker’s Bonaire, the group posed for a quick image with their Bonaire Tours & Vacations bus, and then entered the reception.  At this reception, the men were shocked and pleasantly surprised as they were called to the floor to accept their award certificates and silver medals from the Lt. Governor and his wife, as they were named Bonaire ambassadors.  And truly these men will fulfill their roles as ambassadors of our island.  Afterward, it was the men’s turn to thank all of the on-island sponsors who had donated so much to make this dream vacation a reality for them.  Big Wave Dave handed out award certificates to many of the event sponsors, while local television stations filmed the festivities.  The evening’s event was made possible by a donation from Caradonna Dive Adventures, Inc.  View images of the evening’s festivities on the Bonaire Insider Photo Gallery by clicking here.

Today, Friday, is their final full day on island, and this morning, the group is enjoying a sunny day and an island tour, so they can also see what Bonaire offers for topside attractions.  This afternoon, they will go four-wheeling, compliments of Bonaire Quad Tours, and see other parts of the island.  Tonight, they’ll eat like kings at the home of Jack Chalk, general manager of Captain Don’s Habitat, while Jack serves up the famous Texas-styled BBQ for which he is so famous, sponsored by the Jack Chalk Family and Adams Unlimited.

It is due to the tight-knit Bonaire and diving communities that the island can provide such an event to honor these men; it would not be possible without the donations of funds and services by so many who support this cause.  The Bonaire Insider would like to thank the following sponsors, as well as all those who made donations anonymously, for their kind actions:  9Line, Adams Unlimited, Aeris, Alan Gross and Jane Townsend, Bikers Bonaire, Bonaire KFC, Bonaire Talk, Bonaire Quad Tours, Bonaire Tours & Vacations, Budget Car Rental, Buenos Aires Café, Captain Don’s Habitat, Caradonna Dive Adventures, Inc., Care Coalition, Caribbean Travel & Life/Sport Diver/Destination Weddings & Honeymoons/Islands Magazines, Chammyz, DEMA/Be a Diver, Dive Training Magazine, Floris & Nannie, Henderson, Jack Chalk, Jewel Of Bonaire, N.E.K. Advanced Securities Group, NetTech, Oceanic, PADI, Patagonia Restaurant, Princeton Tec, Rum Runners, Scuba Do Rags, Tourism Corporation Bonaire, and XS Scuba.

We will soon say te aworo (Papiamentu for “so long") to these fine men and their families and only add that we hope to see them back on Bonaire again soon.  Even as these folks leave the island, Bonaire’s community still takes care of them!  BonaireTalk.com has even provided their airport departure fees gratis! (Source:  Bonaire Insider Reporter)

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Next CIEE Lecture Presents Bruce Bowker Speaking on Diving Buoyancy Skills

The CIEE Research Station Bonaire is pleased to invite interested participants to a presentation on Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 7:00 PM.  Bruce Bowker of the Carib Inn will speak on “Advanced Buoyancy.”

Bruce has over twenty years of experience and knowledge gained from owning a small resort and diving facility, and he was one of the original proponents of the Bonaire Buoyancy Clinics that were held some years ago for any diver interested in advancing their buoyancy skills.  These clinics provided a basis for many of the continuing education classes now offered by official training agencies to divers to improve buoyancy.

Anyone who has an interest in improving their own skills is invited to the free lecture.  It will be held at the CIEE lecture hall at Kaya Gobernador N. Debrot #26.  There’s no need to bring anything other than yourself! (Source:  CIEE Bonaire)

Monday, September 28, 2009

The Wounded Warriors Receive Their Diving Certifications

As was announced in a prior posting, the island of Bonaire is hosting severely injured members of the U.S. military, while they complete their final open-water dives.

The men, their significant others, and instructors arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning on the Continental Airlines flight from Houston.  Although a bit travel-weary, everyone jumped right into action with their first two open-water training dives.  That evening, everyone still had enough energy to enjoy a pizza party, compliments of Caribbean Travel & Life/Destination Weddings & Honeymoons/Islands/Sport Diver Magazines.

The Bonaire Insider caught up with these fine men on Sunday afternoon while they were lunching at Rum Runners Restaurant located at Captain Don’s Habitat, their host hotel for accommodations and diving, as they were preparing to make their fourth and final dive to complete the PADI Open Water Diver course and HSA certification.  Wives and significant others of three of the men are accompanying them, and the guys and gals were enthusiastic and eager to hit the water.  All we saw were smiling faces both going in and coming out after the dive.  These men, highly trained members of Special Forces groups, took to their dive training like ducks to water.  The buoyancy and skills they exhibited with just basic training illustrate the high degree of accomplishment to which these men are accustomed.  Sunday evening everyone piled in the bus and transferred to Paradise Moon Bar & Restaurant for dinner, provided by Oceanic and AERIS.

This morning, Monday, dawned with rain, as a thunderstorm passed over Bonaire.  However, the group didn’t let the rain put a damper on their activities, as they made off for a boat dive at 11:00 AM.  Tonight they will enjoy a cocktail party at the resort, prior to a BBQ dinner compliments of BonaireTalk.com.  We’ll check back with these folks on Wednesday, as they meet Bonaire’s Lt. Governor Thode.

Enjoying Bonaire’s hospitality are Erik Burmeister, Justin Eldridge, Mario Barragan, Luis and Katherine Morales, Juan Carlos Valentine Rivera and Amy Eileen Thorton, and Christopher Lee Tonsmeire and Elise Margaret Christopher.  View images as they prepare for their final certification dive on the Bonaire Insider Photo Gallery by clicking here. (Source:  Bonaire Insider Reporter)

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Ned and Anna DeLoach Are on Bonaire and Available for Book Signings

The popular marine educators and authors, Ned and Anna DeLoach, arrived back on Bonaire this past weekend, and they will be hosting a full schedule of activities at Buddy Dive Resort during September, as they have for the past five years.

During this one-month event, Ned and Anna host seminars and slide shows on fish behavior, coral and fish identification, as well as guided dive trips. One activity which is open to everyone are the book-signing events.  Those wishing to meet Ned and Anna can do so during the Happy Hour and Manager’s Rum Punch Party on each Friday evening in September from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM.  For those who do not yet own their own copies of the popular “Reef Series,” including Reef Identification (Fish, Creatures, or Coral) and Reef Fish Behavior, they are available for sale in the dive shop at Buddy Dive Resort. (Source:  Buddy Dive Resort)

Saturday, August 22, 2009

A Day in the Life of Dr. Sylvia Earle, Champion of the Oceans, on Bonaire

Dr. Sylvia Earle visited Bonaire this past week to help commemorate the island’s Celebrate Our Planet week and also receive Bonaire’s first Lifetime Achievement Award.  The Bonaire Insider chronicled one day of this amazing woman’s visit.  Images of the day are available on the Bonaire Insider Photo Gallery by clicking here. 

The Lifetime Achievement Award is certainly deserving, as this is one gutsy lady.  Throughout her career, she has forged many “firsts” in the field of oceanography, but here’s just a few:  Dr. Earle set the women’s depth record of 1250 feet (381 meters) in an open-ocean JIM suit dive, and she also holds the women’s record for a solo dive in a deep submersible (3280 feet, 1000 meters). She was Chief Scientist for NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), while even today, Dr. Earle continues as a consultant to The National Geographic Society.  Her most recent accomplishment was to work with the folks at Google to post the world’s oceans on Google Earth (version 5).

I had the good fortune to spend a day with her during her visit.  Dr. Earle is a petite woman with a modest demeanor, but she’s one powerhouse of a woman when speaking.  Her goal is to get the word out that everyone simply must begin taking better care of the world’s oceans.  Her mantra, “without the blue {oceans}, there is no green {land}” should sound a resounding warning bell for not only divers, but everyone, as the health of the planet’s oceans will directly impact every human being on earth.  We all must be more aware of what we are putting into the oceans, as well as what we are taking out.  She wishes to see less pressure on fish stocks throughout the world and advocates eating less seafood to give fish stocks time to replenish themselves.  In many cases, ten pounds, and sometimes up to 100 pounds, of by-catch (the killing of non-desired species for desired species), are wasted and killed for every pound of food produced.  In recent decades, the demand for seafood has exponentially exploded, and the seas simply cannot withstand the demand and impact anymore.

We began our day by making a dive to Captain Don’s Reef at Klein Bonaire.  Dr. Earle is an excellent diver, making no impact at all on the reef.  She spotted a total of six turtles on this dive, along with a plethora of other marine life--moray eels, grouper, snapper, flounder, hamlets, as well as other invertebrate species (corals, sponges, and mollusks), which are commonly sighted on Bonaire. 

After the dive, there was time for a quick lunch, and then Dr. Earle presented an impromptu seminar about her global mission--to educate the public about the importance of keeping the world’s oceans healthy.  We then viewed her “wish” speech, from earlier this year when Dr. Earle was named a recipient of a TED Prize.  For those not familiar with TED, it’s a small nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design, but since then, its scope has become ever more broad.  The organization chooses three recipients each year and does its utmost to grant them each one wish.  Dr. Earle’s wish is:  “I wish you would use all means at your disposal--films! expeditions! the web! more!--to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.” (View her speech by clicking here, and then click on Watch the Talk.)

Dr. Earle congratulated Bonaire for its past and present efforts in ocean conservation, but urged even yet stronger efforts.  She said that Bonaire has the capacity to be the benchmark for the Caribbean, as well as other regions, in leading the way to healthier reefs.  Even though Bonaire’s reefs are in better condition than many other areas in the region, there are signs of stress.  However, Dr. Earle strongly feels that there is still time to make changes that would allow full recovery.

The day closed with the participants of the morning dive reviewing images with Dr. Earle.  She pointed out signs of healthy areas on the reef, as well as those which are showing stress.  Afterwards, Dr. Earle met champion freediver, Karol Meyer.

Thanks go to Sara Matera and Serge de Groot from Divi Flamingo Beach Resort for hosting the morning dive, and to Jack Chalk at Captain Don’s Habitat for being the property sponsor for Dr. Earle and for providing conferencing facilities for her seminar. (Source:  Bonaire Insider reporter, photo gallery images by Dr. Sylvia Earle and Susan Davis)

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Karol Meyer Does It Again--New Records Set, Day After Day

Karol has had a busy week here on Bonaire, where she is continuing to break records right and left on each successive attempt.  Since her first attempt last Saturday when she dove to 84 meters (about 275 feet), Karol has since made two other attempts, each one breaking her own record. 

On her second attempt, Karol hit 87 meters (about 285 feet) and on her third attempt, she hit 93 meters (about 305 feet).  With this dive, Karol currently holds the world third place record in the discipline of variable weight freediving.

Karol tells the Bonaire Insider, “I’m certainly opening the door to even greater depths now, but we must wait first wait for the best conditions.” She and her coach, Patrick Musimu, do fear that Hurricane Bill, although far, far away from Bonaire, could alter sea conditions.  However, Karol is hoping to do another attempt on Saturday, when she hopes to reach 100 meters (about 328 feet) at Klein Bonaire.

Over the next few days, Karol will be conducting a freediving seminar, along with four days of freediving clinics, at Buddy Dive Resort, the host property for the event. Those interested in participating can contact the resort for more information.  To wrap up her time on Bonaire, Karol will do a talk show about Freediving Bonaire on August 26th, 2009 at the Pool Bar at Buddy Dive. (Source:  Karol Meyer)

Monday, August 10, 2009

Mr. Bonaire 2009 Was Crowned on August 8, 2009

Each year the bodybuilding tournament which crowns Mr. Bonaire is a popular event, providing standing-room only if one arrives too late.  Images of this year’s competition can be found on the Bonaire Insider Photo Gallery by clicking here.

Trophies are awarded in each of four divisions by weight or age (Juniors, Masters, under 85 kilograms, and over 85 kilograms), while medals are awarded for second or third place.  Additionally, there are trophies for Best Overall and Most Popular.  This year’s winners are:

—Adimir Wanga, First place Junior Division, Second place Under 85 Kilos
—Grensley Pieter, Second place Junior Division, Third place Above 85 Kilos
—Cherry Pekeri, First place Under 85 Kilos
—Ruben Sanchez, First place Masters Division, Third place Under 85 Kilos
—Jose Saleh, Second place Above 85 Kilos, Second place Masters Division
—Arien Cado, First Place Above 85 Kilos, and Overall Winner
—Wendell Pieter, Third place Masters Division

Many of these winners will now continue on to the Antillean finals, held in Sint Maarten in September.  We wish all the Bonaire competitors good luck!  (Source:  Bonaire Insider reporter)

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Bonaire Visitor, Tonya Eaton, Named Honorary Ambassador

Recently, frequent Bonaire visitor, Tonya Eaton, received the honorary title of “Bonaire Ambassador” by the Tourist Corporation Bonaire, who bestowed upon Tonya a silver medal and certificate of appreciation.

Tonya lives in New York, U.S.A., but states that, “When I am on Bonaire, I feel at home.  I am part of the Bonairean family.  She has completed sixteen years of consecutive visits to the island, but nevertheless, was surprised and thrilled when she learned that her loyalty to Bonaire had been recognized.

Ralph Stewart, more commonly known as “Moogie”, a well-known singer on Bonaire who plays regularly at Captain Don’s Habitat, had the honor of informing Tonya of her award, and placing the medal around her neck. Bigalda de Marchena, a very good friend of Tonya’s from Bonaire, was also present at the ceremony. (Source:  TCB-Bonaire)