tahoe1840
Registered
We returned from a trip to Hawaii where we were able to dive on 3 of the islands. I read this forum and notice that there are a few divers out there looking for a review and or comment on diving Hawaii so I thought I would post something for everyone.
We dove Maui, Oahu, and Kauai. On Maui we dove with Dive Master / Instructor Jay Kuhlman of Moana Pakipika Dive Company, 808-268-3904, Jay is an incredible Dive Master, Instructor and a personal friend we highly recommend his services. We did 2 shore dives with him and we must say that they were extremely enjoyable. On one of the dives we were very fortunate to see 2 Sea Turtles mating and a couple of White Tip Reef Sharks. Mind you these were shore dives to! Moana Pakipika does not offer rental gear they use Maui Dive shop in Kihei. The rental equipment we rented was in a little need of maintenance but otherwise worked well. The shop was fully equipped with a very nice inventory of gear. There is no way you could go wrong diving with DM Jay when on Maui!
Our next dive was off the island of Oahu. We decided to do a boat dive and picked Ocean Concepts Dive Company 808-422-5990, 808-677-7975 as our outfitter, Scuba Diving Oahu with Ocean Concepts Hawaii - Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii[/url]. They have extremely good rental equipment and were extremely safety conscious. This company is top notch. Although they are a little higher in price ($135.00 plus equipment rental) then other companies we looked into, their safety procedures, equipment, dive masters, and lunch made up for that little extra. They picked us up at our hotel on Waikiki in a nice van and transported us nearly an hour to there facility in Waianae. The gas savings alone made up for the little extra. We dove with Dive Masters / Instructors Carsten Kalkman and Jennifer. Ocean Concepts only use Instructors as their Dive Masters. Both Carston and Jennifer were extremely knowledgeable and helpful to us. We greatly appreciated their help and briefings prior and after the dives. We dove Black Rock 21 27.418N, 158 13.122W and Land of Oz 21 28.608N, 158 13.719W, although both places were not as outstanding as with Jay we had a lot of fun following Carsten and having him point out some cool things. The vis was very good up to 80 feet plus. The Vipor Moray was tops. Their shop near the Arizona Memorial is the best shop we went to in the 3 islands we visited. Their staff, especially Liz Westfall was incredible! She is so knowledgeable on dive equipment for ladies I had a difficult time prying my wife out of the store. If ever we return to Oahu we will definitely dive with Ocean Concepts.
Our last island was Kauai, we chose Bubbles Below, 808-332-7333 as our boat dive company, we did this based on a recommendation from the Kauai Revealed guide book and that they were the only dive company heading to Niihau on the day we could dive. Based on 2 other divers recommendations Niihau was the best place to dive in the Hawaiian chain. We were up for that! So here is where things get a little sticky, I talked with Linda the company owner to set up our dive. She is a delightful person, very nice and helpful, she went the extra yard for us and actually set up a second boat for us to do our dives. Her daughter Amber is a very knowledgeable and personable young lady too. This is a three tank dive by the way. We were joined by 2 other couples. The dive launched at 0615 AM. Bubbles below have two fast dive boats and the crossing to Niihau was fast and comfortable for an ocean trip. So whats so sticky? Well unfortunately their rental equipment is very used, old, tired and substandard to me. First the dive computer rented to me failed during the first dive it was also one of the first dive computers ever made, next the octo regulator free flowed on the second dive, and on the third my wifes SPG indicated 700 PSI at the end of the dive and on her assent to the safety stop her regulator started to free flow and she ran out of air at the surface. My BC never did work quite right either. The moral to this story is figure out how to haul your own equipment with you, dont depend on rental gear. We also felt like our dive master and boat captain didnt care to much for safety and put safety off on you the diver, after all, youre certified divers arent you? The boat captain wanted to argue his point with my wife over her running out of air to. It didnt matter to him that her SPG still showed 300 PSI on a supposed empty cylinder. Lunch and snacks were the best of all, plenty of food and water after each dive and the DM and captain were right there serving us and working hard. We dove 3 sites, Arches 22 00.409N, 160 05.949W, Pyramid Point 22 01.003N, 160 06.181W and Vertical Awareness 22 00.880N, 160 06.192W. All three had their moments and are highly recommended sites. We got to get up close and personal with a Hawaiian Monk Seal that was very fun to see. The Vertical Awareness site is a wall dive where one can hover over the abyss of 500 feet plus with a cloud of fish all around you, very fun. Vis was 100 feet plus. A Niihau dive is not to be missed if one is heading to Kauai. I would dive with Bubbles Below again but I would probably not rent equipment from them. Linda and Amber are great!
I hope this helps a little for anyone heading out to Hawaii. We had a ball on all of our dives!!
We dove Maui, Oahu, and Kauai. On Maui we dove with Dive Master / Instructor Jay Kuhlman of Moana Pakipika Dive Company, 808-268-3904, Jay is an incredible Dive Master, Instructor and a personal friend we highly recommend his services. We did 2 shore dives with him and we must say that they were extremely enjoyable. On one of the dives we were very fortunate to see 2 Sea Turtles mating and a couple of White Tip Reef Sharks. Mind you these were shore dives to! Moana Pakipika does not offer rental gear they use Maui Dive shop in Kihei. The rental equipment we rented was in a little need of maintenance but otherwise worked well. The shop was fully equipped with a very nice inventory of gear. There is no way you could go wrong diving with DM Jay when on Maui!
Our next dive was off the island of Oahu. We decided to do a boat dive and picked Ocean Concepts Dive Company 808-422-5990, 808-677-7975 as our outfitter, Scuba Diving Oahu with Ocean Concepts Hawaii - Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii[/url]. They have extremely good rental equipment and were extremely safety conscious. This company is top notch. Although they are a little higher in price ($135.00 plus equipment rental) then other companies we looked into, their safety procedures, equipment, dive masters, and lunch made up for that little extra. They picked us up at our hotel on Waikiki in a nice van and transported us nearly an hour to there facility in Waianae. The gas savings alone made up for the little extra. We dove with Dive Masters / Instructors Carsten Kalkman and Jennifer. Ocean Concepts only use Instructors as their Dive Masters. Both Carston and Jennifer were extremely knowledgeable and helpful to us. We greatly appreciated their help and briefings prior and after the dives. We dove Black Rock 21 27.418N, 158 13.122W and Land of Oz 21 28.608N, 158 13.719W, although both places were not as outstanding as with Jay we had a lot of fun following Carsten and having him point out some cool things. The vis was very good up to 80 feet plus. The Vipor Moray was tops. Their shop near the Arizona Memorial is the best shop we went to in the 3 islands we visited. Their staff, especially Liz Westfall was incredible! She is so knowledgeable on dive equipment for ladies I had a difficult time prying my wife out of the store. If ever we return to Oahu we will definitely dive with Ocean Concepts.
Our last island was Kauai, we chose Bubbles Below, 808-332-7333 as our boat dive company, we did this based on a recommendation from the Kauai Revealed guide book and that they were the only dive company heading to Niihau on the day we could dive. Based on 2 other divers recommendations Niihau was the best place to dive in the Hawaiian chain. We were up for that! So here is where things get a little sticky, I talked with Linda the company owner to set up our dive. She is a delightful person, very nice and helpful, she went the extra yard for us and actually set up a second boat for us to do our dives. Her daughter Amber is a very knowledgeable and personable young lady too. This is a three tank dive by the way. We were joined by 2 other couples. The dive launched at 0615 AM. Bubbles below have two fast dive boats and the crossing to Niihau was fast and comfortable for an ocean trip. So whats so sticky? Well unfortunately their rental equipment is very used, old, tired and substandard to me. First the dive computer rented to me failed during the first dive it was also one of the first dive computers ever made, next the octo regulator free flowed on the second dive, and on the third my wifes SPG indicated 700 PSI at the end of the dive and on her assent to the safety stop her regulator started to free flow and she ran out of air at the surface. My BC never did work quite right either. The moral to this story is figure out how to haul your own equipment with you, dont depend on rental gear. We also felt like our dive master and boat captain didnt care to much for safety and put safety off on you the diver, after all, youre certified divers arent you? The boat captain wanted to argue his point with my wife over her running out of air to. It didnt matter to him that her SPG still showed 300 PSI on a supposed empty cylinder. Lunch and snacks were the best of all, plenty of food and water after each dive and the DM and captain were right there serving us and working hard. We dove 3 sites, Arches 22 00.409N, 160 05.949W, Pyramid Point 22 01.003N, 160 06.181W and Vertical Awareness 22 00.880N, 160 06.192W. All three had their moments and are highly recommended sites. We got to get up close and personal with a Hawaiian Monk Seal that was very fun to see. The Vertical Awareness site is a wall dive where one can hover over the abyss of 500 feet plus with a cloud of fish all around you, very fun. Vis was 100 feet plus. A Niihau dive is not to be missed if one is heading to Kauai. I would dive with Bubbles Below again but I would probably not rent equipment from them. Linda and Amber are great!
I hope this helps a little for anyone heading out to Hawaii. We had a ball on all of our dives!!
