Just got back from the big island and had a great trip.
I did a shore dive with Jack's Diving Locker because I'm a new diver and wanted to make sure I was comfortable with my gear and with HI waters before doing a night manta dive. I booked for a Thursday morning (1000) and got there about 10 minutes before 10. I was told there may or may not be others on the dive when I booked, but there ended up being 3 other people. All vacation divers who apparently had a lot more experience than I. All good. Sven was our dive guide and he was clearly well versed with the area we were to be diving. He was a good guide and made everyone feel comfortable. The biggest issue I had was my waiting family and the "island time" that we seemed to be going with so I couldn't give them a good time when to meet me for pickup. Eventually I got a time for that and all was good.
The dive went well though Sven did end up pulling two of the divers for the surface swim to the drop point. When we went down the visibility was >100 ft, but for me 100ft is infinity so that was more than good enough. Bottom at that particular area is about 45 fsw, which was good for my first post-cert dive. I have to say I understand some people's dislike of insta-buddies after this first dive. It was more of a group dive and I basically treated it as a solo based on the pre-dive discussions I had with the other divers. I followed Sven and tried to essentially keep track of but stay away from the other divers. I still got run into several times and was very wary of a couple of the other divers. Jack's has a policy of doing boat dives as a "come up when you run out, not as a group" the shore dive didn't really discuss much in that regard. Sven did ask us to let him know when we were at 1/2 tank and then again at 1/3 tank so we could do a turn around as a group. I assume that would be slightly different on a boat but we all had roughly the same amount of gas so I'm not sure.
So overall, I'd recommend Jack's as they seemed to be a very well equipped shop (largest retail space I saw in the four shops I visited in Kona and one in Hilo) with professional divers working there to provide support. They are on the more expensive end of the shops I looked at, but for the shore dive were very reasonable. Considering the shop they have, their prices make sense. Sven, specifically, was a well spoken guide with a lot of information about the dive area and the island/Kona in general. He was engaging and interesting and overall a very good guide.
I also did a 2 tank manta dive with Kona Honu Dive shop. The boat is large and crowded, even in the "off season" of high summer. It was not uncomfortably crowded but it was definitely well booked. We had about 15 divers and 5 snorkelers on the boat plus 3 dive guides and the captain. That said, I enjoyed the boat and the crew a lot. I like a lot of interaction with different people and I'm a talker- this was a good boat for me.
All the guides and the captain (John C) were excellent about helping divers and this experience really was the "valet" experience. We arrived at the dock and gear was already set up for those renting equipment. For those of us bringing our own, they offered to set everything up for us or allowed us to do our own if we chose. The crew also swapped tanks during the SI and prepped food for us as well. Provided were cookies, water, and sandwiches. (For the dolphin snorkel fruit and cookies were provided.) After the dives were complete, the crew washed everyone's gear (rental or personal) and had it ready when we arrived at the dock. They were organized and thorough and clearly worked well as a team.
The guides we had were Bo, John, and Sandy(??). Bo was the guide for my group, comprised primarily of newbies. I was the newest diver in the group and Bo made sure to have some good conversations with me pre-dive about diving and life in general. During the dive, Bo was very good at pointing out things to see, and using his slate to give us names. Like the shore dive with Jack's this was more of a group dive than a buddy dive so I treated it basically as a solo. I kept track of the 5 other divers (4 plus guide) as best I could and tried to stay out of their way and keep them out of mine but didn't expect help from any of them in an emergency. As a whole this group of divers was far more conscientious about their surroundings than those on the shore dive though so the dive as a whole seemed better. One other diver and I were the first to burn through air, followed very quickly by a third other diver and then remaining two held out for a couple minutes to almost 10 minutes after I surfaced. Communication pre-dive and during the dive was very clear about how this would be dealt with and there were no surprises or confusion. I was very pleased with the outcome.
During the night dive the pre-dive communication was again very clear. All three groups would drop together and surface together. It was a timed dive (approximately 45 minutes) at 35 fsw so air wasn't likely to be much of an issue. Dive lights and glow sticks were provided for all divers and snorkelers so it wasn't particularly difficult to find your group if separated. (Different shops generally use different colored glow sticks.) I added a second layer of neoprene and had to adjust my weights. As a result I ended up lagging a bit behind my group and dropping alone because they couldn't see me signaling, either because of all the other lights or they weren't looking, I don't know. Once I got enough weight and settled to the bottom, though, I found Bo waiting for me and signaled okay and we set off for the show. Being a "non-dive" of a dive this was the last of the worries so everything else went quite smoothly.
Overall Kona Honu was a good operation and I highly recommend them. If you like valet diving and big comfortable boats, they're a good operation at a reasonable price.
I did a shore dive with Jack's Diving Locker because I'm a new diver and wanted to make sure I was comfortable with my gear and with HI waters before doing a night manta dive. I booked for a Thursday morning (1000) and got there about 10 minutes before 10. I was told there may or may not be others on the dive when I booked, but there ended up being 3 other people. All vacation divers who apparently had a lot more experience than I. All good. Sven was our dive guide and he was clearly well versed with the area we were to be diving. He was a good guide and made everyone feel comfortable. The biggest issue I had was my waiting family and the "island time" that we seemed to be going with so I couldn't give them a good time when to meet me for pickup. Eventually I got a time for that and all was good.
The dive went well though Sven did end up pulling two of the divers for the surface swim to the drop point. When we went down the visibility was >100 ft, but for me 100ft is infinity so that was more than good enough. Bottom at that particular area is about 45 fsw, which was good for my first post-cert dive. I have to say I understand some people's dislike of insta-buddies after this first dive. It was more of a group dive and I basically treated it as a solo based on the pre-dive discussions I had with the other divers. I followed Sven and tried to essentially keep track of but stay away from the other divers. I still got run into several times and was very wary of a couple of the other divers. Jack's has a policy of doing boat dives as a "come up when you run out, not as a group" the shore dive didn't really discuss much in that regard. Sven did ask us to let him know when we were at 1/2 tank and then again at 1/3 tank so we could do a turn around as a group. I assume that would be slightly different on a boat but we all had roughly the same amount of gas so I'm not sure.
So overall, I'd recommend Jack's as they seemed to be a very well equipped shop (largest retail space I saw in the four shops I visited in Kona and one in Hilo) with professional divers working there to provide support. They are on the more expensive end of the shops I looked at, but for the shore dive were very reasonable. Considering the shop they have, their prices make sense. Sven, specifically, was a well spoken guide with a lot of information about the dive area and the island/Kona in general. He was engaging and interesting and overall a very good guide.
I also did a 2 tank manta dive with Kona Honu Dive shop. The boat is large and crowded, even in the "off season" of high summer. It was not uncomfortably crowded but it was definitely well booked. We had about 15 divers and 5 snorkelers on the boat plus 3 dive guides and the captain. That said, I enjoyed the boat and the crew a lot. I like a lot of interaction with different people and I'm a talker- this was a good boat for me.
All the guides and the captain (John C) were excellent about helping divers and this experience really was the "valet" experience. We arrived at the dock and gear was already set up for those renting equipment. For those of us bringing our own, they offered to set everything up for us or allowed us to do our own if we chose. The crew also swapped tanks during the SI and prepped food for us as well. Provided were cookies, water, and sandwiches. (For the dolphin snorkel fruit and cookies were provided.) After the dives were complete, the crew washed everyone's gear (rental or personal) and had it ready when we arrived at the dock. They were organized and thorough and clearly worked well as a team.
The guides we had were Bo, John, and Sandy(??). Bo was the guide for my group, comprised primarily of newbies. I was the newest diver in the group and Bo made sure to have some good conversations with me pre-dive about diving and life in general. During the dive, Bo was very good at pointing out things to see, and using his slate to give us names. Like the shore dive with Jack's this was more of a group dive than a buddy dive so I treated it basically as a solo. I kept track of the 5 other divers (4 plus guide) as best I could and tried to stay out of their way and keep them out of mine but didn't expect help from any of them in an emergency. As a whole this group of divers was far more conscientious about their surroundings than those on the shore dive though so the dive as a whole seemed better. One other diver and I were the first to burn through air, followed very quickly by a third other diver and then remaining two held out for a couple minutes to almost 10 minutes after I surfaced. Communication pre-dive and during the dive was very clear about how this would be dealt with and there were no surprises or confusion. I was very pleased with the outcome.
During the night dive the pre-dive communication was again very clear. All three groups would drop together and surface together. It was a timed dive (approximately 45 minutes) at 35 fsw so air wasn't likely to be much of an issue. Dive lights and glow sticks were provided for all divers and snorkelers so it wasn't particularly difficult to find your group if separated. (Different shops generally use different colored glow sticks.) I added a second layer of neoprene and had to adjust my weights. As a result I ended up lagging a bit behind my group and dropping alone because they couldn't see me signaling, either because of all the other lights or they weren't looking, I don't know. Once I got enough weight and settled to the bottom, though, I found Bo waiting for me and signaled okay and we set off for the show. Being a "non-dive" of a dive this was the last of the worries so everything else went quite smoothly.
Overall Kona Honu was a good operation and I highly recommend them. If you like valet diving and big comfortable boats, they're a good operation at a reasonable price.
