Beginner Maui Questions

[MauiScubaSteve]

It's sad . . . five years ago, when I first dove Molokini crater, it was like being in the bottom of God's kaleidoscope. Each year we have gone, there seem to be fewer fish and more dead coral, and now we no longer bother to go out there. The shore diving is just as good, and far less expensive. Oh, and BTW, it's not me getting jaded. There are studies of reef fish off Maui that show exactly what I am talking about.

I would appreciate links to the above mentioned studies. My quick web searches just now only comes up with one recent study that shows stable coral cover % at Molokini from '99 - '06. I find no study of Molokini fish numbers.

http://www.hi.sierraclub.org/maui/pdf/MauiReefDeclines.pdf

 

[muddiver]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind if we decide we want to do Molokini backside. We've dove "the wall" in the Bahamas and I thought it was cool, but not spectacular. I actually prefer shallow dives with lots of color and marine life. Depth is no badge of honor as far as I'm concerned. We'll have to see if we can dive the "tips of the cresent", we were very much in the middle of the cresent and if I remember right did about an 80' dive that was marginal at best. Not much marine life, got bored and played games.

When we did Lanai, we may have been very lucky. When we arrived at the cathedrals we could look down inside them from the boat, visability was excellent. I'll try to post a couple pics tonight but like my diving...they are very amatuer.

As for my "cave"s comment, that's why I put it in quotes, because they weren't really caves but more like caverns as you said.

Thanks and as you can see and I claim no different, I am clearly a novice, hence why I posted my experiences for the OP from a novice to beginner (their words) viewpoint.

Edit: Here's one pic from the cathedrals

I agree with the location of the majority of sea life on the atol. There would be more food passing by the ends of the cresent because that is where the current passes.

It is the only location that I have been to that has a garden eel colony. That is prety cool. :cool3:

Cathedrals is a cave, it has a roof that is higher than the small entry points and a diver with poor buoyancy skills and/or any feer of the dark, could, get into trouble in the void in the lava rock.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Cathedrals is a cave, it has a roof that is higher than the small entry points and a diver with poor buoyancy skills and/or any feer of the dark, could, get into trouble in the void in the lava rock.

Neither of the Cathedrals is a cave by cavern/cave diving definitions.

First Cathedral could be considered a cave dive if/when you exit through either of the two small exits that constitute a "restriction." But if you and the guide are looking at each other from 2 feet apart (facing each other) when you go through the restriction, an air share or snag situation would still be no biggie. If you enter and exit through the big opening it is most definitely a cavern by definition. At no time are you more than 80 feet from the surface and the numerous openings are visible at all times.

Second Cathedral has no "restrictions" and you are never more than 100 feet from the surface, so it never fails the cavern definition. Both have a max depth inside of 60' or less and would conform to PADI standards for cavern training sites (max depth 70'), probably not requiring guidelines.

"Shotgun restriction" at First Cathedral
Typical guide position is holding on to this side at left edge of opening.​

 

[barink]

We are going to give Lanai a go. I am working on my buddy (the boss) to possibly do another day of scuba and check out Molokini with B&B. Besides the good comments here, my friends insist we use them or face a swift kick in the a$$. Otherwise, it will be on the list for the next trip. Seems the take on Molokini is very mixed, regardless, we plan on diving it.

Going to start making calls today and will check out Hawaiian Rafting first. I figured if we used Lahaina divers I would ask for bigger tanks. We thought their boats would be better and that mid June would also be slower, thus less crowded boats.

Thanks for the Tiny Bubbles info. We are going to try doing a night dive with them for sure. Wife is very excited...

1. Molokini is better. Find a small boat and get up early to beat the cattle boat rush.

2. Lahaina diver's will treat you like a newbe and will hand you a 72 cubic foot cylinder as well (shorter dives). I have not been out with Hawaiian Rafting, so no comment.

3. Call Tiny Bubbles Scuba at the Kaanapali Beach Club. The night diving right off the beach is really good, and the reef off the KBC starts about 3' off the sand and goes out about 100' feet. Tiny Bubbles has a channel right off thier hut that access the out side of the reef. Tiny Bubbles Scuba - Maui Hawaii, Maui Scuba Diving, Maui Dive Instruction, Maui Dive Locations

For smaller boat trips I reccomend Mike Severns, and B&B Scuba in Lahaina.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

We are going to give Lanai a go. I am working on my buddy (the boss) to possibly do another day of scuba and check out Molokini with B&B.

You'll love them, we do. Do your best to book early as their boat does get filled. But if it's a last minute gig go for it as like every operation they do have people cancel on them.

 

[barink]

My wife is looking forward to a night dive the most. I think Tiny Bubbles will do the trick for us since we are in Kaanapali. However, I know Shaka Doug was also offering night diving. I am going to check with him while setting up our shore dives. I do remember reading about some parking lot issues he was having with the parks dept.

Lanai seems to be a good choice. I hope the visibility and critters are good mid June. I don’t think we will have any issues with the caverns if we go to the cathedrals. My understanding is that they are about 60-70 feet. We are comfortable with that also.

Yes, the tank size is an issue for us. If we use Lahaina Divers and they did not allow us to get bigger tanks we would probably pass on them. We seem to do pretty well on air, but still suck wind like most beginners. I like to blame my lack of buoyancy control and an itchy trigger finger.

Oh, I'd HIGHLY recommend a night dive! You might want to see about a guide, if you have never done a night dive before, just because navigation can be a little challenging. A lot of the reefs run parallel to shore, so it could be easy to get confused about where your exit point is, depending on the site. But there is a lot of life in the water at night that's quite different from the daytime. I love night dives, and keep trying to get my husband back into the nighttime water on Maui to do another one there!

I think Lanai is fine for novice divers, although the pinnacles do offer the opportunity to get somewhat deep -- all you have to do is tell the guide what your depth limits are, and you don't have to go any further down than you want to.

Check the tank size and dive time limits with the operators you contact. As new divers, I don't think you want to be diving 72 cubic foot tanks, if you can avoid it.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Lanai is fun and I'm sure you'll like it. Honestly if you're going to do the cathedrals I'd check to see which op leaves earliest and go with them. We were comped a trip by the MDS once and went to the cathedrals. They put us into 3 groups with the most experienced divers going in first and the least going in last. The last group never entered because the divers in group 2 stirred up the bottom so much the vis dropped to nearly zero. So a small boat with an early departure is important.

 

[barink]

Are experience with MDS was very good, but that had much more to do with the instructor than the shop. We had to book late and they were recommended by SSI. Anyway, we got lucky and it was just the 3 of us, perfect weather, great critters at Airport and Canoe beach and lots of bottom time.

Lanai should be fun. Sounds like Hawaiian rafting boats may be a better ride. I have been on those military type rigid inflatables before. They rock and are actually quite smooth when on top (think bug teeth smile). How deep did you go on your Lanai dives? About how much bottom time?

Thanks for the detailed information!

We were there last May and are going again this Novemeber. When we dove, we went with Maui Dive Shop (got a great deal), it was fine as it was off season and numbers were really low. That said...I will never dive Molokini again unless it's the backside which you won't be able to do. It was no comparison to Lanai where we did Knob Hill and Cathedrals 1 or 2, I don't remember which one it is but it has the "chandelier". Anyways, we were/are all novice divers with a couple of our divers being very beginner. We did swim throughs, explored the "caves", watched all the spinner dolphins on the way out...definitely the highlight of our trip and I'd HIGHLY recommend it! Everyone on our dive felt very comfortable and had a great time. That said, we were lucky on the trip out and there, it was very calm. The trip back...not so much. Soooo, one of our divers was not feeling so well, she recovered but had we been on a small boat, she'd have been miserable. I mention this because as novice/beginner divers people often feel nautious or not 100% after diving, a rough ride back in a small boat may not be very pleasurable. However, if you're both truely very comfortable in the water and don't have any issues, a smaller boat would be a fun trip back. I too am very comfortable in the water but even so my first few deeper dives (80' or so) made me kind of nautious after. Just food for thought.

A lot of people knock MDS, our experience was 50/50. Molokini, site was mediocre at best and dive master was as well. Lanai, dive site was awesome and our dive masters were really fun.

Now, Tiny Bubbles...we dove with them 3 times when we were there. Tim is an awesome dive master. As a matter of fact I'm going to be having him certify my son and his friend in November. We did 2 day dives and 1 night dive with him last May. For the night dive 3 of our divers were a bit anxious, Tim does a great job of communicating and making everyone feel at ease...I'd highly recommend him. I believe he has a special...3 dives (day, scooter, night) all for $199 and includes everything. Highly recommended especially given you're staying at Kaanapali.

 

[barink]

Good idea on schedule. We tend to stay on our Mountain Time schedule and like getting up early in Maui anyways. I am going to give a call to Hawaiian rafting, LD and Extended Horizons today for the Lanai boat dive from Lahaina. Any other recommendations from that side? B&B is a lock for anything out of Kihei for us. I believe that they also leave the earliest in addition to being a great operation.

Lanai is fun and I'm sure you'll like it. Honestly if you're going to do the cathedrals I'd check to see which op leaves earliest and go with them. We were comped a trip by the MDS once and went to the cathedrals. They put us into 3 groups with the most experienced divers going in first and the least going in last. The last group never entered because the divers in group 2 stirred up the bottom so much the vis dropped to nearly zero. So a small boat with an early departure is important.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

I went with Hawaiian Rafting and in all honesty we weren't thrilled with them as the captain they used on that day had the cowboy mentality and it was a pretty rough ride with him very interested in getting back quick.

The time we went with the MDS our bottom time was pretty close to an hour on the first dive since we were the first in the water. On the second dive it also was about an hour as the DM on that one just hung out while the group split up and did their own thing. I don't recall the exact depth but it was shallow on the second dive with maybe 80 feet on the first dive but that depth was outside of the cathedrals.

You're going to have a blast over there. We are very anxious to return ourselves.

As far as the MDS goes it is a slick operation with a lot of employees who aren't even divers working for them. I've seen them employ some very good instructors but the good ones don't usually last too long. I'm not a fan of their charter service and we only use B&B for Molokini dives. But the MDS has been in business for a very long time now which says something in itself right?

If you get a chance to dive with Shaka Doug go for it. The shore diving down by Kihei is worth the drive. It's not a long drive anyway