Big island 7/3-7/7 and Oahu 7/7-7/13 new diver suggestions for AOW

[bennenrkc]

For the Kona portion of my trip, I have been doing alot of reading regarding Altitude changes and the length of the surface interval before we tour the volcano. According to what I think is a fairly aggressive (for us) dive plan for our 6 dives in Kona, and the NOAA tables, we should be good to tour the Volcano to 6000 ft after 10 hours. I have read a lot of people saying that you should wait a full day between the diving and the Volcano and that we should use the 18 hour fly limit published by DAN. Am I being overly aggressive with my planning especially since it will likly be 13-14 hours before the Volcano portion?I am not all the way through my nitrox course, so be easy on me, I will be looking for the anwser in my course, however, my understanding if we dive Nitrox the whole time we should be in a lower pressure group which should also reduce the amount of Nitrogen we have to "off-gass" and therefore shorten the time a little. My Family is also going to be doing their open water referral dives while we are there and since they will be alot shallower than we will (we need to do the deep dive portion of the AOW) they should be even more protected.

While I would like to thank all of scubaboards members for the wealth of information here, I am not going to create a post just for that, so thanks all of you for the information given in this thread and elsewhere. The links to different sources and general knowledge really help me fill the gaps left by the open water course, and frankly I enjoy the learning/math/science portion of scuba alot. So again thanks.

My computer will only give me the standard no fly times and not specific to the dive profiles that we used.

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

For the Kona portion of my trip, I have been doing alot of reading regarding Altitude changes and the length of the surface interval before we tour the volcano. According to what I think is a fairly aggressive (for us) dive plan for our 6 dives in Kona, and the NOAA tables, we should be good to tour the Volcano to 6000 ft after 10 hours. I have read a lot of people saying that you should wait a full day between the diving and the Volcano and that we should use the 18 hour fly limit published by DAN. Am I being overly aggressive with my planning especially since it will likly be 13-14 hours before the Volcano portion?I am not all the way through my nitrox course, so be easy on me, I will be looking for the anwser in my course, however, my understanding if we dive Nitrox the whole time we should be in a lower pressure group which should also reduce the amount of Nitrogen we have to "off-gass" and therefore shorten the time a little. My Family is also going to be doing their open water referral dives while we are there and since they will be alot shallower than we will (we need to do the deep dive portion of the AOW) they should be even more protected.

While I would like to thank all of scubaboards members for the wealth of information here, I am not going to create a post just for that, so thanks all of you for the information given in this thread and elsewhere. The links to different sources and general knowledge really help me fill the gaps left by the open water course, and frankly I enjoy the learning/math/science portion of scuba alot. So again thanks.

My computer will only give me the standard no fly times and not specific to the dive profiles that we used.

It's always best to err on the side of caution. Plan so you have the 18 hrs in between.

 

[Barrod]

Hey man - just letting you know I did the Manta dive and the black water dive without AOW. I did my OW cert on May 5th. Then I did a 2 tank dive with Kaimana divers on Oahu. Then I did an AM 2 tank with Big Island Divers. That same evening I did garden eel cove and the manta dive and had a great time!

Dive number fifteen was a few days later with Flipper at Big Island Divers. Jumping into 10,000 feet of water in the middle of the night on a tether and watching the sci fi jellyfish roll by.

I recommend that for your trip to Hawaii - which I just got back from - you enjoy the HELL OUT OF IT!!! And please forget about AOW and just enjoy the experience!

Next, you really, really, really should skip volcanoes - and look up this town - KALAPANA! There is a little bar right at the end of the road and a lava flow with keep-off signs. Go there and follow the steam to the only viewable lava on the island.

I repeat, there is very little lava on VNP - just the glow from the calderra.

Also, there is no better trip the Mauna Kea Summit Adventures. That was the highlight of our trip!

I Highly recommend big island divers. They are a great company, Kevin and Corrine are awesome instructor/DM's and Flipper was the scariest on the blackwater and really set the stage for a hair raising blackwater dive!

 

[bennenrkc]

On the fourth we have a two tank morning dive, and I am wondering if my wife and I can add two shore dives that afternoon.

I am wondering about two steps as a place to try and dive on our own. Is that an easy shore dive or are there better shore dives close to kona that two relatively new divers can do?

Thanks again for the help.


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[J105Puff]

Just did the manta dive with Jacks 24 June. I would check with the dive shopyou are planning to dive with if AOW is required for the Manta dive, it is a shallow dive I have a depth of 35 feet for 30 minutes then we changed locations an I have a depth of 20 feet for another 30 minutes. I would schedule a boat dive with the operator you plan on doing the Manta dive with. Jacks has a good group of people and has maps for the shore dives, they can tell you what site to go to or avoid. We did a beach dive at Hounaunau (place of Refuge) entry is easy off the step or you can go in at a boat ramp and swim out. We also did mile marker 4 entry was a little more difficult due to the rocks. I would ask for suggestions on shore diving Puako has a few shore dives, the old airport has some sites also.
I would check around for a condo vice a hotle to sleep 7 people.

.


If you are at Waikoloa it is going to be 20-30 minutes to the boat harbor.