Twin Divers - Curacao

[marcia014]

I had found TwinDivers Curaçao http://www.twin-divers.com/eng/ by reading a review on Cruise Critic online.  I was SCUBA certified 25 years ago, and had not been diving in 6 years so I needed a refresher dive.  I was very impressed with the information I read online so I sent an email and contacted one of the owners, Mark Brown in December for the date my cruise ship would be in port at the end of February.  Mark responded by email and let me know he could arrange a refresher dive on the date I was in port, and I gave him the details.  I let Mark know what time the ship would be in port and he gave me prices for a single tank and a two tank dive.  I requested a two-tank dive if possible.
Upon arrival in Curaçao I realized that ship time was not the same as local time and we were one hour "late", so we didn't get into port until 2:30pm instead of 1:30pm.  I debarked the ship then realized that I left one of my dive bags back in the room, so I had to fight the stream of people and get back onboard, retrieve my bag, and get back off the ship!  Upon debarking the second time, I followed the flow of people until I sae the sign to go to the floating bridge and realized that I might have missed the place I was supposed to meet Mark.  I turned around and went outside the terminal area and quickly found Mark at the edge of the parking lot holding a sign with my name.  We got into his pickup truck and headed for his shop.
At the shop, which is a converted cargo container, Mark gave me a tank, regulator, and BCD and had me put everything together giving guidance as needed.  He then made sure I had dive shoes and a wetsuit and that my gear was in working order then we were ready to go.  We were meeting a "local" with a month-long rental to dive with, and Mark loaded up the back of his pickup.  We headed to a private beach in a residential area near Mambo Beach to dive and Mark started taking the gear to the beach.  After the first trip with gear, Mark returned with a Portugese man o' war that was on the beach.  Mark grabbed more gear to take to the beach and I followed along.  As he brought the final equipment to the beach, some people were pointing into the water and there was another Portugese man o' war in the water.  Mark waded out and captured the Portugese man o' war and disposed of it.  This was no longer a safe location to dive so we packed the truck back up and returned to the shop.  Mark said he was going to report the Portugese man o' war to the Curaçao Sea Aquarium which is monitoring local concerns in the water.
Back at the shop, we geared up and waded into the water where some local children were swimming.  There were bouys set up to differentiate the swimming and the diving areas, and we walked out to the deeper water.  Once there, I completed my skills demonstration by flooding and clearing my mask and removing and reinserting my regulator.  Mark adjusted the weights in my BCD and we started diving the reef that was right off the shore!
The reef was beautiful and teeming with life!  We saw many different kinds of coral, fish, christmas tree worms, 3 different kinds of eels (green moray, spotted, and sharptail), a flying gurnard, and even one lionfish in the coral.  It was so beautiful!  When we came up, the sun was already starting to set so we could only do the one dive today.  We talked about what we saw and Mark gave me some pointers for the future.  After we walked to the shore, removed all the gear, and showered off, we loaded it into Mark's truck for him to rinse at home.  Mark drove me back to the port and I paid him for the day.
Overall, this was a great experience and I felt very comfortable diving with Mark even though it had been so long.  I would highly recommend Mark Brown and Twin Divers Curaçao if you will be in the area and wanting to dive!

[SonuvaBeach]

On 3/8/2020 at 6:26 PM, marcia014 said:

I had found TwinDivers Curaçao http://www.twin-divers.com/eng/ by reading a review on Cruise Critic online.  I was SCUBA certified 25 years ago, and had not been diving in 6 years so I needed a refresher dive.  I was very impressed with the information I read online so I sent an email and contacted one of the owners, Mark Brown in December for the date my cruise ship would be in port at the end of February.  Mark responded by email and let me know he could arrange a refresher dive on the date I was in port, and I gave him the details.  I let Mark know what time the ship would be in port and he gave me prices for a single tank and a two tank dive.  I requested a two-tank dive if possible.
Upon arrival in Curaçao I realized that ship time was not the same as local time and we were one hour "late", so we didn't get into port until 2:30pm instead of 1:30pm.  I debarked the ship then realized that I left one of my dive bags back in the room, so I had to fight the stream of people and get back onboard, retrieve my bag, and get back off the ship!  Upon debarking the second time, I followed the flow of people until I sae the sign to go to the floating bridge and realized that I might have missed the place I was supposed to meet Mark.  I turned around and went outside the terminal area and quickly found Mark at the edge of the parking lot holding a sign with my name.  We got into his pickup truck and headed for his shop.
At the shop, which is a converted cargo container, Mark gave me a tank, regulator, and BCD and had me put everything together giving guidance as needed.  He then made sure I had dive shoes and a wetsuit and that my gear was in working order then we were ready to go.  We were meeting a "local" with a month-long rental to dive with, and Mark loaded up the back of his pickup.  We headed to a private beach in a residential area near Mambo Beach to dive and Mark started taking the gear to the beach.  After the first trip with gear, Mark returned with a Portugese man o' war that was on the beach.  Mark grabbed more gear to take to the beach and I followed along.  As he brought the final equipment to the beach, some people were pointing into the water and there was another Portugese man o' war in the water.  Mark waded out and captured the Portugese man o' war and disposed of it.  This was no longer a safe location to dive so we packed the truck back up and returned to the shop.  Mark said he was going to report the Portugese man o' war to the Curaçao Sea Aquarium which is monitoring local concerns in the water.
Back at the shop, we geared up and waded into the water where some local children were swimming.  There were bouys set up to differentiate the swimming and the diving areas, and we walked out to the deeper water.  Once there, I completed my skills demonstration by flooding and clearing my mask and removing and reinserting my regulator.  Mark adjusted the weights in my BCD and we started diving the reef that was right off the shore!
The reef was beautiful and teeming with life!  We saw many different kinds of coral, fish, christmas tree worms, 3 different kinds of eels (green moray, spotted, and sharptail), a flying gurnard, and even one lionfish in the coral.  It was so beautiful!  When we came up, the sun was already starting to set so we could only do the one dive today.  We talked about what we saw and Mark gave me some pointers for the future.  After we walked to the shore, removed all the gear, and showered off, we loaded it into Mark's truck for him to rinse at home.  Mark drove me back to the port and I paid him for the day.
Overall, this was a great experience and I felt very comfortable diving with Mark even though it had been so long.  I would highly recommend Mark Brown and Twin Divers Curaçao if you will be in the area and wanting to dive!

Mark Brown is a very good friend of mine and I have been diving with him for quite a few years. he is one of if not THE best diver I have ever dived with, and I have over 10,000  dives. You might want to check out my youtube videos on Curacao diving with Mark :https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXsg1Gls4m3nwZKVQuGpQOhiDQNtCpMf7