Big island vs oahu diving

[miserkris]

A few years ago I did scuba diving in Big Island off the coast of kona and it was spectacular. I went with Jack's diving lockers.

This year I have the option of going to Oahu but I will also consider going to Big Island again if the diving is significantly more spectacular in Big Island..! my question is how is diving in Oahu...
Compared to kona? More life in kona?

I will most likely only do one day of diving in my 5-day vacation. I'll do my snorkeling the rest of the days.

Thx

 

[veryfastfourier]

Oahu is a different kind of diving, for sure - the South Shore of Oahu, near Honolulu/Waikiki, has a lot of easily accessible wrecks, much more so than the Big Island. The Seatiger (165' long at 100' depth), YO-257 (another 150'+ long at 100' depth), San Pedro (smaller and shallower than Seatiger or YO), Corsair (WWII crashed plane), Navy Tug (100' long at 60'), LCU (a Navy landing craft at 90'), and a host of smaller wrecks (Baby Barge, Airplanes, Kahala Barge, etc.) all on the south shore. There are more wrecks not on the south shore too (Mahi on west side, for example). If you like wreck diving, then Oahu is an easy place to get a bunch of great dives, all close to shore with boat rides varying from 5 min (to Seatiger) up to 20 min (for LCU) - most of them are much shorter than that.

There are some really nice reefy-cavern-swimthrough dives on Oahu as well (Sharks cove, Makaha caverns, Sea caves, Cockroach) that can compete with the Big Island as well if that is more your thing. Depending upon when you will be coming, a different selection of these sites will be available as the surf moves around to the south side in the summer.

If you are already going to be on Oahu, I wouldn't make the trip to Kona just to get better diving. Some of these sites on Oahu are truly fantastic, and if you've never dove on Oahu before, then every site will be new to you!

Reach out to your dive op well before hand and tell them what kind sites you are interested in doing - they should be able to organize something!

 

[tursiops]

Oahu does not hold a candle to Hawaii.
But for one day.....it's not worth the travel to the Big Island.
I'm not a fan of the wrecks that are south, but the west coast -- Makaha -- is quite nice.

 

[scubadada]

For a day, I would stay on Oahu. I went there 3 times on business and enjoyed the diving very much, 2006. 8. and 9, I enjoyed the Sea Tiger and the YO-257/San Pedro. Kewalo Pipe, Turtle Canyons, China Wall and Spitting Caves. I would skip the Corsair, deep dive on a small broken plane in the sand. The water is cooler than you would think, I was comfortable in a full 5 mm for hour dives.

The operator I used, AAA, was very good but is long gone. I've heard good things about Kaimana Divers, would probably give them a try if I returned.

 

[Rick Brant]

I've done many of the sites listed above on Oahu. The wrecks are OK but there is not a lot of sealife generally. I dive Kauai regularly and we have way more sealife here. As far as BI I have only snorkeled there, but it was a great experience with a lot of creatures. I'm not sure if Oahu is just way overfished or what.

 

[veryfastfourier]

As others have said, for reef and sea life density, Big Island and Kauai can be fantastic and certainly beat your average dive on Oahu.

If you only have one day for diving and you are already on Oahu (as stated in your OP), I would just stay on Oahu - there are plenty of sites, both wreck and reef, that will still be good dives. Stay away from the "beginner sites" like Angler's, Koko, Maunaloa, etc. as they are overfished and not very impressive. According to your signature, you have ~30 dives under your belt - at that level, I think there is plenty for you to enjoy on Oahu!

Makaha caverns on the west side can be fantastic, along with sharks cove on the north shore - both easy shore dives (surf allowing) that can have a high density of sealife (for HI). Electrics on the west side can also be good if you get there early enough - popular site for dolphins, turtles, and other snorkelers

If you like wrecks, Seatiger, YO, Mahi, and LCU are the ones I would recommend first and ask for a dive op to take you out to one of these.

 

[Rick Brant]

I did both Electric Beach (very early) and Shark's Cove two years ago and found them to be pretty disappointing. Some fish but not nearly what I would have expected. Marginal variety and volume. There are just not many fish in the sea on Oahu in my experience.

I agree though that someone who has never been diving on Oahu and only has a day should stay put. The wreck dives -- off a boat -- are very cool.

 

[miserkris]

Thx all...
I have like 60 dives in my belt!

I used to do my diving in Cozumel where you get more for the money...but in Hawaii things are expensive... can one of you suggest a good dive op who's also low cost? where quality meets the price?!
Need bc, reg rental too...
If affordable I might dive 2 days and snorkel along shore remaining days.

Also I'm not a big fan of diving very deep I would love to dive shallow and I like shipwrecks small or big because you don't have to swim far everything is in one spot...

Are there ops that only do shallow wrecks? That's exactly what I want!

Thanks..

 

[Simon B.]

What everybody else said previously.

Most dive ops will do shallow boat dives in the afternoons and deeper dives in the mornings, and most offer online booking to see availability. Shallow dives are reef dives usually. There aren't many shallow wrecks here though, most are 70 feet and down to 120 feet. Most wrecks are on the south and southwest shores. Not sure when you're looking to travel but the swells are seasonal and from the south in the May to September timeframe, and North/northwesterly swells the remainder.

Lots of good outfits here.

 

[miserkris]

Thx all... Sorry I forgot to mention I'm a heart attack survivor with a stent. That was more than a year ago. I'm stable now. Recently saw my doc...as follow-up.Echo, ekg normal.... but cardiologist plainly said we don't advise scuba for heart health...but that's in combination of bends risk. But what if I dive shallow and skip the deep dives?.... Pls advice thx