Bart and Bob started working together in 1996 at Buddy Dive Resort. Buddy Dive was going through a phase of rapid expansion and served thus a real time, real life learning facility. They ended up being each others replacement there as dive operations manager, before starting up Wannadive. The owners and staff of Buddy Dive remain precious friends.
Bart and Bob were colleagues then, as well as friends, and neighbours, when they heard that there was a dive school for sale. Buying a dive school was the only way to obtain a permit, because of a moratorium on dive licenses on Bonaire. The dive school was named Patrick Divers owned by……Patrick , and the shop was located in the garden of his mother. Negotiations started in April 2000.
Realizing that Patrick would sell at a hugely inflated price, Bart and Bob quickly started negotiations with resorts that did not have a dive operation attached to them, so as to ensure a better strategic location than the back yard of Patricks’ mum. Without those locations the purchase would have been financial suicide. Soooo, no locations, no deal, no dive shop for Bart and Bob.
Not exactly known to be shy Bart and Bob turned to Eden Beach Resort, as well as Hamlet Oasis Resort and started to bluff. “You don’t have a dive shop, we do, let us work together”. Oh and did we mention that we did not have a penny to scratch our backs with.
So now Bart and Bob were negotiating on three fronts as well as working at booming Buddy Dive, a would be competitor, and had to resign with a two month notice, to be able to start working in their own dive shop, which they did not yet own! During that summer as all of this was going on, both Bart and Bob appealed to their families, begging for financial back up. For obvious reasons they were somewhat ‘sceptic’ to provide such backing to two beach bums with a passion for diving. Tension over all of this rose steadily and to this day both Bart and Bob have no idea how it got together, but it all did!
In the last week of September and first of October, we did arrange for the money, we did sign agreements with both resorts, we did resign from Buddy Dive early enough to be able to start right away, and we did buy Patricks’ Divers, which was nothing more than a piece of paper that said that we were allowed to operate a dive shop, 12 tanks out of hydro, a nice blend of weights, in a varying bend state and a shop inventory in which the most valuable asset was a set of post cards, for an absolutely insane amount of money. Who cared? We were on our way!
And we managed! Nobody took us serious, still don’t, and so everybody happily helped us. Even our competitors sent us their overflow and we got busy! During courses Bart borrowed Bob’s gear for the student and vice versa. And so we bought our inventory as soon as we had a penny to spare, a BC here, a regulator there, we even had the tanks tested! For our boat dives we used the parasail boat, that a friend of ours operated, and slowly travel agents started to sell our services abroad.
Almost a year later our first real test to see if we had matured to a real dive operation, came in the form of our first large group; Action Scuba from the Washington DC area. And we got lucky again! For such a large group we did not have enough tanks but miraculously a competitor wished to sell a bunch of his older tanks! We even got our first compressor to run! It was a huge success. The group still comes back every year and most have become wonderful friends.
Wannadive Bonaire has seen a steady and healthy growth throughout the more than 10 years of its existence. Obviously with the unavoidable ups and downs, both in business and in private, sometimes bringing us down maybe, but never out! And never for long!
A new highlight was the purchase of our own small 16 room hotel in 2004, the Wannadive Hut! A funky affair, with simple accommodations, a small restaurant and a bar. Bart and Bob held office here and the beach bums were now hoteliers as well. And again they were lucky! In 2005 the Dutch airline KLM decided to make Bonaire its stop over on their way to Quito and Lima. These were destinations of young European back packers and all of a sudden cheap funky accommodations were sought! Double tada! Because they were also eager to dive, and obviously, we were eager to teach them. Eat them, sleep them, wine them, and dive them! The Hut was doing great!
In the mean time the dive operation expanded and changed face now and again. Wannadive moved their location at Hamlet Oasis to City Café in the centre of town right in front of what was then the most famous night dive in the Caribbean; Town Pier. Another location was opened at Windsock Beach Resort south of the airport. We bought our superfast superfun dive boat. Wannadive became a success! Who would have thought?
In 2011 Wannadive went through the latest phase of change. Bart and Bob decided that being hoteliers AND dive bums did not mix as good as hoped and had to decide: at which would we be better should we want to choose? That choice was easy! Diving of course! And so we decided to sell the Hut. But who would buy such a funky affair now enriched with a touch of Bart and Bob’s madness? To our surprise it did not take more than a couple of weeks when our neighbour bought the Hut! But only under one condition…. Wannadive must remain the dive service provider. YESSIR!!
As all of this was unfolding we had to close our City Location. Due to international rules we were no longer allowed to dive the Town Pier and changed traffic flow made our shop barely reachable. But again Bart and Bob got lucky! As if it had to be Sorobon Beach Resort on the East Coast of Bonaire wanted to have a dive facility on their property. “If we were interested maybe”? Again YESSIR. And that is what brings us to the present. Currently serving our guests out of four locations to the best of our ability, with as much fun as ever, we can barely believe it’s been more than 10 years already!
Please allow us, Bart and Bob, to take the opportunity to thank everybody who were and are part of this incredible ride! THANK YOU! Because this history would have been utterly impossible without the exceptional people who chose to share this ride with us, helped us, stuck with us, and believed in us. Our families who back us, our crew who sweat with us, our friends who stick with us, our colleagues and partners who work with us, and our guests who choose us, and ALL of you who laugh with us. You guys are awesome!! To be continued……………….
