Place of Refuge is one of my favorite sites, very cool topography.
two step is wonderful for a night dive! Gentle, easy entry and exit yet lots to see and deep enough with plenty of changes in topography and sea life.
Jack's does a pretty good job customizing on their Advanced dive trips. They took us out on an unforgettable deeper dive, a surge dive into lava tubes and some amazing dives where the whales were singing.
I also snorkeled with an Oceanic Whitetip on a surface interval and we even had a baby whale nursing a mama whale almost tip our boat over! Best videotape I ever bought as the DM ( who I believe actually owns the shop or part-owns it) was filming everything, including the shark, baby/mama whale and whale songs (audio). He was probably the best DM I've ever seen, spotting stuff everywhere. I dove with him the whole week since my ex husband was an air hog and the DM and I could sip air, staying down for a lot longer.
The manta dive is really easy at about 35 feet but a must-do dive, if they are doing it. Sometimes it's canceled do to a no-show of mantas.
The last time and I went to Kona, we only dived from shore and had a fantastic time diving our butts off.
We stay in a condo-by owner so that we can have a full kitchen. Saves a lot on eating out and we can pack a lunch/snacks for going farther out for our shore diving. I always bring a foldable, nylon cooler on dive trips. We do the same to places like Bonaire. It's really nice to pack cut fruit, boiled eggs, cheese/crackers and cold drinks for surface intervals. Plus, we can eat quick meals like breakfast at the condo, enjoying scrambled eggs, oatmeal, cereal or potatoes/fried eggs, just like at home for a fraction of restaurant costs and then enjoy maybe one nice meal out if we feel like it, or just spend the entire day and evening diving until we're exhausted and come home to cold beer and take-out pizza.
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Check out Kona Dive Companys websit. I did the 5 dive package with them last summer. I ended up doing a 2-tank morning/2-tank manta dive on one day, a 2-tank morning/1tank night dive another day, and finished it up with a 3-tank long range heading north on another. We shore dive every day in between. I loved the crew and the shop, and it was easy to pick up tanks for shore diving, and you could pick them up, and drop them off at the boat if planned in advance. EASY!!! As for shore diving, we enjoyed Place of Refuge, Black Pebble Beach, and a place just south of the captain cook monument. Kerry the owner and primary Divemaster is a Fish finding nut, and knows what shes talking about. Out of all the shops ive dove with (9 total), they are by far my favorite.
Are they a newer, small shop/boat? Just a young couple, DM'd in New Zealand for awhile? I think I did a two tank trip with them once and really, really liked them. They showed up at the marina with their boat, pulling it with their truck, just a website and advertisement in the local papers. They may be a little larger now, this was about 8-10 years ago and I think they had just opened up at the time.
