Anyone have any good or bad experiences?
- Thread starter kmcneer
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DiveMaven
Contributor
Only "complaint" I've ever heard about them is that their dive briefing is more like a marine biology lesson! 
Other than that, they are highly recommended and you likely won't go wrong booking with them.
Other than that, they are highly recommended and you likely won't go wrong booking with them.
caymaniac
Contributor
I recently dove with them and didn't find the dive briefing like a biology lesson at all, more like a normal briefing and I've had my share of them. They did a good job as we dove "Reef's End" and the something Pinnacles" and then the WWII landing barge. This was on the 3 dives in one day that we dove with Mike Severns. My complaint would be the choice of the last two dive sites where the visibility was really low, in what I would call the 30 ft. range. This could have some factors: these were the second and third dives of the day so they were looking for some more shallow sites, they didn't want to use fuel to drive to a farther away dive site. However, it's not their fault the visibility was down, possibly those dive sites normally are really clear, but one can't help thinking this is the best they can do? I give this responsibility to the dive boat driver, also a whale breached off Molokini and I would have loved to get alot closer to take photos on the surface, I thought they could get up to 100 yds as we stayed about 300 yds away, the second dive was great even though the viz was down we saw a Manta Ray, an Eagle Ray and three white tips that were about ten ft. or less from us. Would I book with them again...yes.
ScubaSeanMaui
Contributor
I wouldn't say going through the photo book page by page explaining the critters and some relationships is a typical dive briefing. Usually a dive briefing explains about the dive site not the critters. If you don't know anything about the hawaii species you will learn something... If you know a lot already you may be bored... They are a good boat and I would think you'd have a good time! Try to go when Pauline is on the boat. I wouldn't go with them if Pauline isn't on the boat; she really makes the dives fun and is a really cool lady!
I hear they dive the Tank and Landing Craft when the vis is going to be very low anywhere else. It sounds like other than doing 2-3 dives at Molokini you may have been out of luck for conditions!
Sean
I hear they dive the Tank and Landing Craft when the vis is going to be very low anywhere else. It sounds like other than doing 2-3 dives at Molokini you may have been out of luck for conditions!
Sean
I have always had great experiences with them and I refer students to them or Ed Robinson's all the time.
From the diving I've done with them, they are certainly more interested in giving great experiences than conserving fuel. I suspect that anywhere further away (within reason) would have been worse, except for Molokini.
The captain probably had other things on his mind -- usually a whale is not alone, so he could have been expecting some closer. As well, approaching a whale *at all* is getting on dangerous territory, especially for an operator that prides themselves in being about ecology.
I've also been told by the boat captains of various vessels that distances can be difficult for a lot of people to judge at sea -- what looks like 300 yds might only be 75, or vice versa. Perhaps the captain is part of this group, and is choosing to play it safe?
Their other crew is exceptional as well, so I certainly wouldn't make this a booking requirement -- though Pauline will give you the critter briefing of a lifetime!
Oh, and yeah... a big hearty recommendation for them. As mentioned by Divemaven, the only *potential* complaint is the longer-than-average critter briefings... only really an issue if you don't care about the fish, or you're starting to feel queasy.
Charlie99
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They are my favorite dive op.
During the 3-4 winter months I spend in Maui, I usually don't bother to book dive trips until the afternoon before. Mike Severns is always the first one I call. If they don't have space, I'll call Ed Robinson's. If no luck there, then I'll gladly book a spot on Dive and Sea Maui, or on B&B Scuba. I'm happy going out on any of those 4 dive ops (or Extended Horizons if I feel like driving over to Lahaina). Only if all of the above dive ops are booked full will I think about whether I really want to go diving before I move onto the "B list" diveops.
Like other 12 passenger boats on Maui, they divide the divers into two groups based upon experience and have a DM with each group of 6. Mike Severns has more of a marine biology focus and typically do both a "critter" briefing and a dive briefing. The Captain and mate often go diving during our surface interval, and the SIs are usually 1 hour to 1:20. Partly because of the dives made by the crew during our SI, and also because of their sidescan sonar, Mike Severns has several divesites that others don't go to.
caymaniac
Contributor
Well, I guess I could complain about the extra long time we spent on the third dive in the water column, the dive was pretty much finished and we spent at least 15 min. at 10 to 15 ft. of water just drifting along not in site of anything at the end of the dive. This could be called a safe procedure or it could be called a waste of time as we had plenty of time left on our computers. The landing craft as well as the sea grass and a couple of rocks had been completely explored by our group of 6 divers. The viz was terrible, the dive was too long for what was available to see, follow the dive guide as this was a drift dive. I'm not one to complain usaully, as at least I was on a dive and in the ocean and on Hawaii, but the cost was expensive and I paid how much to spend time burning off nitro that I didn't need to ... ?
The dive at Molokini was great, clear water, good fish life, sharks, frog fish, tropicals, now that dive was worth while, as was the second, eagle ray, manta ray, 3 whitetips sharks, frogfish ... that was worth it. The first two dives outweighed the crap third dive.
I've spent my whole life near Lake Mich. and do know how far 100 to 300 yds. are on the water.
The dive at Molokini was great, clear water, good fish life, sharks, frog fish, tropicals, now that dive was worth while, as was the second, eagle ray, manta ray, 3 whitetips sharks, frogfish ... that was worth it. The first two dives outweighed the crap third dive.
I've spent my whole life near Lake Mich. and do know how far 100 to 300 yds. are on the water.
Did I even suggest *you* weren't sure? I think I said that perhaps the captain wasn't positive and instead of risking a (up to) $25,000 penalty and bad press.
There are also numerous rules about how you can approach them. If you're facing them head-on, you're not supposed to be under power, unless you're attempting to change course so as to not be in their way.
Suffice it to say -- that whole situation is better off if the boat captains take the better-safe-than-sorry attitude. Perhaps we'd see fewer whale strikes if the captains of large whale-watching companies were to take this mentality.
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