Best Books

[Glenoreno]

We will be visiting Hawaii in May of this year and will be spending 4 days on Oahu and 9 days on Maui. We enjoy shore diving and snorkeling and I would like to know what books or guides to purchase and read before the trip. Also the best identification guides for fish and other creatures.

Thanks for your help,
Glen

 

[DiveMaven]

Maui Revealed is a good book for information, just don't take their recommendations for specific excursions or business as gospel. They seem to be rather biased IMO, and I've heard that the guy who wrote the book was compensated by some business for good recommendations. But the where to find things, what to see, etc. sections are very good, and having a bunch of restaurant names with locations is helpful as well.

The best fish ID books I've seen for Hawaii are the ones written by Hoover. I bought both the fish and critter books and find them to be user friendly and an excellent resource. Sorry I don't have the specific name...can anyone help?

 

[Lopaka]

"Sorry I don't have the specific name...can anyone help?"

Hawaii's Fishes : A Guide for Snorkelers, Divers, and Aquarists
Hawaii's Sea Creatures, a Guide to Hawaii's Marine Invertebrates
Both by John Hoover. Amazon has them.

 

[DiveMaven]

Those are the ones!! Thanks.

 

[TSandM]

The Diver's Guide to Maui is a great guide to the shore diving there, with good descriptions and maps.

Even better is to contact Scubaboard's kidspot and talk him into spending a day shore diving with you

 

[justleesa]

I've heard that the guy who wrote the book was compensated by some business for good recommendations.

Interesting! I think I remember that in the forward of the books he claims exactly the opposite...

No matter what, the books are good for topside activities on all Islands (I even bought the one for Oahu!) and I'll third that on the John Hoover books.

You might to check half.com, if they have the books

 

[DiveMaven]

You're right, it does say he wasn't compensated, but last time on Maui I was speaking with a couple of locals who were saying they got good reviews by providing the guy with free food...and knew of two other places that did the same thing. Perhaps the author doesn't see that as "compensation"....

 

[justleesa]

lol....it's all in the way you look at it

 

[Cacia]

Hands down the best Book is Mike Severns "Diving Hawaii".

He is an old timer Maui diver and his maps are excellent. We used his book and excellent descriptions for planning an interisland, 17 site dive site- trip a couple years ago and none of us had ever crossed the channel or dived any of the sites before.

Right now, the book is everywhere here for 7.99.

 

[Glenoreno]

Thanks for the book info. I'm sure that I will have more questions for you before my trip.

Glen