BI Safe Shore Dives During Big Surf?

[Sintax604]

My wife and I are currently "shore diving the crap out of the big island." We've done 10 dives so far and plan to do 10 more. Unfortunately the high surf is hampering our effort. The only spots we've found so far that are reasonably easy to enter/exit are 2-step, Mahukona and the old wharf @ Captain Cook. We tried the old airport but just about got killed on the exit (no exaggeration).

We've checked out all the sites on shorediving.com and found them all to look rough. Anybody know of other spots that are a bit protected from the current swells?

Many thanks!

 

[Scuba_HI]

No but we fly in on Wednesday the 24th and are plaining on shore diving with some boat dives.

 

[friscuba]

2 Step and Mahukona are the most safe out of the bunch, even then if there's much west activity like we've had lately, that can get dicey.

As long as there's no south swell, you can get in off the King Kam beach down by the pier. It's more or less very protected from north swells. You'd need to drop off your gear on the wall by the turn around and have someone watch it. Head out off the beach and stay to the right of the float line by the heiau. Once you get to near the end of the line drop down and follow the reef to the right. It's a nice little 40-50 foot reef dive.

Hookena Beach can be somewhat protected from northwest swells if they're not too big, it faces mildly southwest. I'd recommend entering on the south side of the old pier, heading out at about 11 o'clock facing out from the beach (don't know the degrees) 'til you get to the shoulder, there will be lots of stuff in the sand by each little remote coral head or you can turn to the right and follow the shoulder, which becomes a pretty nice dropoff. Be careful on your air at this site, I usually turn back well before getting to the half way point, there may be a slight current pushing you to the north, you'll want to turn around to get back in front of the beach for your exit, the rocks to the north of the old pier aren't a good spot to try to exit. Look at the surf before you try this spot, I wouldn't bother if it's more than 12-18 inch stuff... lots of sand and you'll have bad viz on bigger days.

Manuka might be doable if there's no south or west swell and the north isn't too crazy. You'll want a 4WD vehicle for it, and it's a long slow rocky drive (call it 50-90 minutes depending on how you drive, been so ling since I drove in I can't remember how long it was, seemed like forever) to a tiny little beach with a pahoehoe flow that's as smooth as a boat ramp (slick too, you'll find out if the surf is up). That place is trippy, it's loaded with relatively recent lava formations... cracks, tubes, short swimthroughs, ledges. Lots of lobsters and other things. It's a long trip for nothing if it's not diveable though.

I hope this helps some. It's not been a real good month for shore diving this year.

 

[ChimChim75]

Haha... I was in the same boat as you a few months ago when my buddies and I arrived at the same time as a storm. There is a little protected entry at the old airport you can use actually. Near some big house to the left of the field as I remember. 2 Steps is your best bet, but was pretty hairy in high surf. You'll have to time your exit back onto the rocks. We had to rescue some snorkelers there when it was choppy. I don't recommend Crescent Beach under bad conditions. Exit was scary.

 

[JPENDERGRAST]

We hit place of refuge / two step when we were there. Waves were too significant everywhere else.

 

[Sintax604]

We did King Kam beach today and it was glorious. Totally protected and no problem at all with entry and exit. We're hoping to try it out as night dive next as it's THE easiest we've found so far. Too bad about the whole gear drop-off, move the car business though.

We've booked a 2 tank manta boat dive for tomorrow to try something different, then we're going to try our luck at the Sheraton again in hopes of finding the giant ball of fish and manta cleaning station that we've heard so much about.

Thanks for the tips, if you've got more, I'd love to hear them. Although while whale watching from the old airport this afternoon the waves looked really small... perhaps our luck is changing...

 

[aladytaylor]

What about good Shore Dives on Oahu???

 

[gearhound]

I would love to hear some updates from Kona. I'm there next week and am planning on taking someone through her open water dives from shore. Although she's game for anything, I would prefer something more tame to start out. Already got her a poodle jacket rather than the bp/w that I normally dive.

 

[gkndivebum]

These should probably be in a sticky somewhere - three useful web sites with swell information for Hawaii:

Pat Caldwell's Surf Forecast
NWS HNL Marine Graphics
NDBC Hawaiian Buoys

Pat Caldwell's surf forecast is Oahu-centric, but can be interpolated for Big Island conditions, particularly
if you look at the swell shadow lines graphics linked to on that page.

The National Weather Service marine graphics page gives a broad picture of swell information including
shadowing (select "state scale"). There will be local variation depending on local winds, bottom contour
and swell wrap.

Raw open-ocean data is available from the NDBC, and is useful to predict when a swell train might be
heading your way.

 

[S0ckm0nk3y]

I'll add Magic Seaweed to Gerard's list for swell height and period. Pause and click frame by frame.

-Eric

These should probably be in a sticky somewhere - three useful web sites with swell information for Hawaii:

Pat Caldwell's Surf Forecast
NWS HNL Marine Graphics
NDBC Hawaiian Buoys

Pat Caldwell's surf forecast is Oahu-centric, but can be interpolated for Big Island conditions, particularly
if you look at the swell shadow lines graphics linked to on that page.

The National Weather Service marine graphics page gives a broad picture of swell information including
shadowing (select "state scale"). There will be local variation depending on local winds, bottom contour
and swell wrap.

Raw open-ocean data is available from the NDBC, and is useful to predict when a swell train might be
heading your way.