Comin' to Kona!

[wader]

Hi all.
My wife and I are planning a trip to Kona end of March. Intermediate divers. Our last dive was the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara over Thanksgiving. Had a blast, but dealt with some real swells.
Anyway, having never dived Kona, have a few questions...
~wetsuit. 3-5 mm? I stay warm while my wife gets cold easy.

~Manta dive. Must see I know. We are really excited and one of the main reasons we are coming. Looking at WannaDive for our dive, 2 tank. How much do tanks/weights cost to rent for shore diving?

~We are looking at staying at the Paniolo Greens at Waikoloa Village. I bit away from the water, but looks nice. Anyone have any info on this place? We are on a bit of a budget, but similar places and recommendations would be great!

~We have been to the Islands before, but never dived, only snorkeled. That was before my "rebirth" into the world of scuba. Spent 3 weeks island hopping.

~Is late March too late for whale watching? How about dolphins?

Thanks so much for any advice, or is that Mahalo?

 

[friscuba]

It's going to be interesting to see how warm the water is the March. I haven't been in the water in a few days, but it was 78/79 last weekend and it's usually around 73-75 in early January. We've got a bunch of swells back to back coming in that may drop the temp, but they've been saying this is a mild "el nino" (I don't know how to get the tilda over the "N") year. Most women are wanting a 5 or so during the late winter, early spring, right now a 3 or a 3 with a hood works for most people.

Most of the shops will have tanks in the 8-10 dollar range I suspect. Years ago weights were 4-6 bucks, I suspect it's up to 6-10 bucks a day now, lead's about double the price it was 7/8 years ago. Some of the shops do have weekly rates on rental gear, I'm not seeing a lot of prices on their web sites so you'll want to call around when you arrive. I see you're looking at me for the manta dive, I'm putting together a shop, this is it so far, on my days off from chartering and as money comes in, I may be set to help out with rental gear by then.

Paniolo Greens is up in Waikoloa Village, about 10 minutes above the resorts. It's a pretty good spot for visiting the resorts and if you want to do shore diving up in the Kohala area. It's fairly nice, expect it to be windy as the tradewinds blow through there most afternoons. It's a bit of a drive to get down to Kailua if you are thinking about spending your time down that direction, the Hilo side will be quicker to get to from there than down in the Kona area resorts. If you are thinking you're interested in spending your time further south, then check out VRBO is Vacation Rentals By Owner for rentals down in that area.

Some years the whales are in 'til early-mid April, March is usually the best time, with it thinning out late in the month. Dolphins are year round.

Have fun!

 

[S0ckm0nk3y]

Hi all.
My wife and I are planning a trip to Kona end of March. Intermediate divers. Our last dive was the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara over Thanksgiving. Had a blast, but dealt with some real swells.
Anyway, having never dived Kona, have a few questions...
~wetsuit. 3-5 mm? I stay warm while my wife gets cold easy.

The wetsuit question has been asked fairly often. I would do some searching around on this forum for an answer to that question.

~Manta dive. Must see I know. We are really excited and one of the main reasons we are coming. Looking at WannaDive for our dive, 2 tank. How much do tanks/weights cost to rent for shore diving?

To be perfectly honest the Manta dive is the whole reason for diving the Big Island. I haven't made my way down to Kona to dive with Wannadive but I hear nothing but great things about Steve and his level of service.

I think tanks are $10 or so to rent at (my LDS) Kohala Divers which is quite close to Paniolo Greens. Also right in the Queen's shops in the resort retail area of Waikaloa is Dive Blue Wilderness has tanks for $10 too. Both shops have a boat. Kohala's boat is larger but never very busy and their dive guides are quite good. Blue Wilderness has a large inflatable and like Wannadive only takes 6 people at a time. No matter what dive op you choose I think the dive sites up here north of Kona are far more interesting and less traveled than the usual ones down south.

~We are looking at staying at the Paniolo Greens at Waikoloa Village. I bit away from the water, but looks nice. Anyone have any info on this place? We are on a bit of a budget, but similar places and recommendations would be great!

I've heard Paniolo Greens is a reasonable place to stay. It is a short drive into the resort area for shopping, beach, and restaurants.

I would +1 VRBO's Kohala Coast section for both Waikaloa and Puako as good spots up here to rent a condo. Don't be afraid to haggle with the condo owners. They're all hungry to rent.

~Is late March too late for whale watching? How about dolphins?

It is full tilt boogie with the Whales in March. You can go right down to the beach and watch them. If you have binocs bring them but you can watch them play right from the shore.

There is a beach right in Waikaloa where you can watch them from. Anaeho'omalu Bay beach park (or just A Bay) is a sweet little spot in general.

The best reason to stay up north and not Kona is that we have the two best beaches on the island. There aren't very many sandy beaches on this island, much less ones that are easily accessible. First is Hapuna State Park which is a super popular place go go. The other is the beach at the Mauna Kea Hotel (this is my favorite quite beach with great snorkeling). Just go up to the gate and ask for a beach pass. By law they have to give the general public access to the resort's beach. Go early or the parking lot will fill up.

There's a whale watch sail boat up here called Alala that might be worth checking out. They're pretty busy so book early.

Hope this helps,

-Eric

 

[wader]

I appreciate the feedback and especially the website. It will take me a bit to go over all those listings!
We are looking forward to diving with you. I will be doing some booking via your website in the next week or so. Can't wait for the Manta dive!

What are the odds of seeing whales and/or dolphins during a dive?

 

[friscuba]

To be perfectly honest the Manta dive is the whole reason for diving the Big Island.
-Eric

Now that I gotta disagree with. To me that says, if you don't want to do the manta dive you're better off diving one of the other islands.

The manta dive is a world class dive, but when it comes to Hawaiian diving, the Big Island's got a lot to offer. The diving I've done on the other islands (admittedly limited) has made me wonder why a person would dive there rather than Kona or Kohala. The little I've done on Oahu doesn't hold a candle to anything I've done on the Big Island, Maui not quite there (the ends of Molokini had nice shark action though), Lanai was pretty good I gotta admit, but it's quite a trek and I'm not sure it's got the number of different sites the Big Island offers.

How many other major Hawaiian islands have most of their dives routinely having 100+ foot viz, 130' deep water within a 5-10 minute dive of shore, lots of healthy finger coral reefs and such? The fish life's pretty good on this island too. Any one of the dives at Puako pretty much blows away anthing I've done on the other islands, and that's only a small portion of the diving the Big Island has to offer.

You hit a sort of hot button with me, now if you said the manta dive was the only reason to dive Hawaii, I could see that considering given the option between Palau, Fiji, Sulewesi and Hawaii, I'd pick the others every time for general diving... but picking between the various Hawaiian islands, I'd like to hear reasons (granted we have no wrecks) to choose the others over any diving Kona or Kohala offers.

I'm not mad, just curious. From time to time I've had people contact me saying they'd like to do the manta dive then go to another island for their daytime diving, and I'm trying to figure out why that is, when from what I can tell, the diving here is as good or better than elsewhere in Hawaii. Have you really found the diving on the other islands to be better?

 

[friscuba]

I appreciate the feedback and especially the website. It will take me a bit to go over all those listings!
We are looking forward to diving with you. I will be doing some booking via your website in the next week or so. Can't wait for the Manta dive!

What are the odds of seeing whales and/or dolphins during a dive?

On the overall scheme of things, odds of seeing whales or dolphins during a dive is pretty slim. We saw whales on a dive once or twice last year, we've been real lucky the last month and a half with dolphins (50 solid minutes of dolphin action on one dive Christmas week, "best dolphin dive ever" according to my employee that's been leading dives here since the late 70's), seeing them on several dives. The sightings tend to be on day dives, I'm thinking someone reported seeing a whale on the late afternoon dive some time back.

If you are shore diving off of Puako, I'd spend time hanging off the dropoff if you're hearing whales at the time. I get more reports of people seeing them there than just about anywhere here.

 

[Scuba_HI]

Now that I gotta disagree with. To me that says, if you don't want to do the manta dive you're better off diving one of the other islands.

The manta dive is a world class dive, but when it comes to Hawaiian diving, the Big Island's got a lot to offer. The diving I've done on the other islands (admittely limited) has made me wonder why a person would dive there rather than Kona or Kohala. The little I've done on Oahu doesn't hold a candle to anything I've done on the Big Island, Maui not quite there (the ends of Molokini had nice shark action though), Lanai was pretty good I gotta admit, but it's quite a trek and I'm not sure it's got the number of different sites the Big Island offers.

How many other major Hawaiian islands have most of their dives routinely having 100+ foot viz, 130' deep water within a 5-10 minute dive of shore, lots of healthy finger coral reefs and such? The fish life's pretty good on this island too. Any one of the dives at Puako pretty much blow away anthing I've done on the other islands, and that's only a small portion of the diving the Big Island has to offer.

You hit a sort of hot button with me, now if you said the manta dive was the only reason to dive Hawaii, I could see that considering given the option between Palau, Fiji, Sulewesi and Hawaii, I'd pick the others every time for general diving... but picking between the various Hawaiian islands, I'd like to hear reasons (granted we have no wrecks) to choose the others over any diving Kona or Kohala offers.

I'm not mad, just curious. From time to time I've had people contact me saying they'd like to do the manta dive then go to another island for their daytime diving, and I'm trying to figure out why that is, when from what I can tell, the diving here is as good or better than elsewhere in Hawaii. Have you really found the diving on the other islands to be better?

I would have to agree on that comment, at least for us Kona has been the one to beat here in Hawaii the reefs, shore diving, and lava tubes are all top notch. Just try to do a shore dive and have everything from nice reefs to 100'+ with no surface swim like here in Honolulu. I do think we have more turtles though, but was told that the big island doesn't have much algae growing on the reefs so no real food for them. We will still take reef over turtles but we can see them everyday here.

 

[S0ckm0nk3y]

To be perfectly honest the Manta dive is the whole reason for diving the Big Island.

Now that I gotta disagree with. To me that says, if you don't want to do the manta dive you're better off diving one of the other islands.

Yipes! In retrospect that came out all wrong. I couldn't imagine ever suggesting that anyone come to the Big Island for Mantas and then head to another island for non manta diving. Hopefully people that have read my other posts know that I'm pro mantas and pro Big Island... and certainly try to pour as much Kohala Coast Kool-Aid down people's throats as possible.

It didn't make it out of my head and into my post but I was trying to say that if you're going to plan a dive vacation to the state of Hawaii you should come to to Hawaii Island. And if you do come to dive here you have a moral imperative to go see mantas.

:focus:

-Eric

 

[Lopaka]

Yipes! In retrospect that came out all wrong.

Damn, I'll say that came out wrong. Steve pretty much nailed my thoughts, glad you were misspoken...........

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

The manta dive is a world class dive, but when it comes to Hawaiian diving, the Big Island's got a lot to offer. The diving I've done on the other islands (admittedly limited) has made me wonder why a person would dive there rather than Kona or Kohala. The little I've done on Oahu doesn't hold a candle to anything I've done on the Big Island, Maui not quite there (the ends of Molokini had nice shark action though), Lanai was pretty good I gotta admit, but it's quite a trek and I'm not sure it's got the number of different sites the Big Island offers.

How many other major Hawaiian islands have most of their dives routinely having 100+ foot viz, 130' deep water within a 5-10 minute dive of shore, lots of healthy finger coral reefs and such? The fish life's pretty good on this island too. Any one of the dives at Puako pretty much blows away anthing I've done on the other islands, and that's only a small portion of the diving the Big Island has to offer.

You hit a sort of hot button with me, now if you said the manta dive was the only reason to dive Hawaii, I could see that considering given the option between Palau, Fiji, Sulewesi and Hawaii, I'd pick the others every time for general diving... but picking between the various Hawaiian islands, I'd like to hear reasons (granted we have no wrecks) to choose the others over any diving Kona or Kohala offers.

I'm not mad, just curious. From time to time I've had people contact me saying they'd like to do the manta dive then go to another island for their daytime diving, and I'm trying to figure out why that is, when from what I can tell, the diving here is as good or better than elsewhere in Hawaii. Have you really found the diving on the other islands to be better?

I have lived on Kauai, Maui, Oahu and then Maui again. Most of my diving while living on Kauai was breath hold, but I did become a certified diver there. I have dived Hawaii a couple weekends as a holo holo visitor. The Oahu and second Maui (ongoing) include working as instructor/guide quite a bit, including the Oahu Wrecks, Molokini and Lanai runs. And of course I study the Hawaii O'hana religously.

Each Island is different, although there are a lot of similarities; there are divers that prefer each Island over the others. I hope to get to Ni'ihau soon as from what I've see in pictures and video, as well as what I've heard from people who have done it, Ni'ihau is hands down the best diving in Hawaii, for experienced advanced divers who don't mind really long probably bumpy boat trips.

The cavern diving that is shore accessible off the North Shore of both Kauai and Oahu is my so far favorite Summer diving in the whole State; Tunnels and Pupukea are many must dives on my list. When I make my early September dive holo holo plans every year, Kauai and Oahu are the only contenders, with Oahu usually winning because I'm a poor dive instructor and Oahu is cheaper to visit. Wreck divers are obviously going to need to visit Oahu, but Winter is the better season. Lanai has over 30 really good dive sites, but it is rare for the customers / conditions / logistics to allow more than the top easier to reach 15. Even so, as far as boat diving is concerned it would be hard to better the quality / variety of boat diving off Lanai; The Cathedrals are must dives on my list, but it is a long possibly bumpy boat ride.

Molokini is over marketed, over used and over rated, but Molokini is still 5 or 6 must dives on my list and I will be kayaking out there for a dive trip in less than two weeks. As far as year round shore diving goes, it is hard to believe there is more easy, consisteint, good, variable shore diving year round than Maui has to offer, and if you factor in the 3 or 4 great hard to access sites and the entire North Shore that I have no idea about, along with the calm, protected and Winter whale soup of the Maui Nui basin, it is not surprising many prefer Maui over the Big Island.

Last but certainly not least; Hawaii, the youngest Island has; the clearest water (kind of tied with Ni'ihau and Molokini), the arguably healthiest reefs (possibly similar tie now including Lanai), close boat diving in nearly as protected waters as Maui, less sand to muck up conditions when swells are big, the night manta dive, the black&blue water dives if you are into that, probably dolphins that are less shy around divers, the only liveaboard in the State and an active volcano a few hours drive from the diving (I'm sure there is more).

My only true desires with regards to going back to Hawaii for diving are the 3-tank Au Au Crater trip and some serious cavern dives, again based on my experiences and readings. The Manta Night dive is a must dive on pretty much anybodies list and my one try was great but I'm not sure I will make extra effort to do it again and I was bummed no Au Au Crater trips went while I was there. Looking at Jack's and BID's web sites neither even mention Au Au anymore?

Everyone is different, and I look forward to the more learned Big Island divers telling us their must dives.