Best Dive Shops and Boats in Oahu

[Mark Derail]

Bump!

I may, *maybe*, be heading back to the Hawaiian islands after a great stay in Maui just this mid-October, in the week of Jan 23rd 2012.

Sorry Halemano, has to be Oahu, where my next computer programming course (5 days this time!!!) is being given.

Loved Maui - wished I had been able to get more shore dives done, the whole Southern part of Maui looked super-easy, very little wave activity compared to North & West sides. On Sat Oct 15 2011 I drove to Big Beach and snorkeled quite a bit there. On Sunday I tried off the hotel beach on North Kaanapali and it was quite a battle, and vis was very poor until I was farther out than the breakers.

Perhaps Oahu is the same? Are some of the dive-able wrecks under 60' WWII ships?

 

[scottitheduck]

Sadly, most of our wrecks lie deeper..... but not too deep. These are rough depths for where the steel meets the floor:

YO 257: 95 ft
Seatiger: 115 ft
Mahi: 90 ft
Baby Barge: 75 ft
Corsair: 105 to 107 feet

G

 

[santy2506]

There's a rumor that Kahala Kai had a whale sighting last week.

 

[geoff w]

Just got back from Oahu late Sunday; did 3 days of diving with Deep Ecology and can really recommend them. First day (Wed Oct 19) was a shore dive in Shark's Cove with Mark. No waves at all, even my wife went diving. Second day with Ray (Thu Oct 20) we went out on a dive boat on the west side from Waianae boat harbor and dove the Mahi wreck - great dive and lots of fun; saw a flock (school?) of eagle rays fly by as we started our ascent. We were entertained by a school of false killer whales (the largest dolphins) on the surface. Our last day of diving (Fri Oct 21) was out of Haleiwa harbor with Ray on a six pack along the north shore and again conditions were calm. All the diving exceeded our expectations!

From what we were told (and saw starting Saturday), bigger waves start hitting the north shore through the winter and most of the diving shifts to the south and west sides of Oahu. Deep Ecology moves their boat or goes out on another boat this time of year; they definitely found great spots for us to dive while we were there