Dive Boats on Big Island

[Flamebug818]

Flamebug:
There are a kazillion ops here now in Kona. Most are actually pretty good.
If you can narrow it down with some info it might help.
How experienced are you? Do you want \ need a guide or refresher?
Are you extremely social (like people) or do you prefer small groups.
There are some operators that cater to small groups (6 or less) and some to larger groups. Some are into scooters, aka DPV's, and so forth. Tell us a bit more what you want, and also where you are staying, how long, to help us narrow down the list.

I am staying the hilton waikoloa village, i am a naui master diver, i am 17, i have about 65 dives, i am staying for about seven days, and i like people, but the most people i have ever dived on a charter boat is about 30. Thanks for all of your guys help.

 

[Boiler_81]

I dove with http://www.divemakai.com/ last year. They were great.

 

[donnyb]

Flamebug:
There is another thread currently running you should check out if you haven't already.

It mentions Red Sail Sports, a dive & sorkel operator out of the Hilton Waikoloa there. Obviously very convenient, and have not heard bad things about them. They would be diving sites along the south Kohala coast.

If you have access to a car you can drive down to Honokahou Harbor, about 25 mins drive south from Waikoloa. Thats where most Kona dive shops would meet the customers each morning for diving. They usually rendezvous at about 8:30am or so. Some of the dive operators have already been mentioned above. Some have larger boats with 20+ divers and some are small 6 pack boats. Depends on your preference. The big boats would break up the divers into groups of about 6 with a guide anyway. Kona dive operators work the sites north & south of the harbor mouth, some of the dive sites are literally just outside the harbor. They are all close to shore because it drops off quickly to beyond recreational limits.

Do some google searches and check out the recommendations on this site to get some idea of the operators. They are more similar than different, despite the advertising claims. If you have wheels I would probably say dive with the Kona operators, but if not, I've done a whole lotta diving myself in Kohala and its fine. Certainly less crowded.

 

[cuddlefish]

...and by the way, they do not put an unsafe number of passengers in their van. A full van is not somewhere you want to be for a long haul...but five minutes to the pier is not a long haul. I am sure whoever dropped a tank on someone's foot is extremely sorry. All effort is made to make sure than heavy dive gear does not bump into or fall on to divers. As all the dive operators here know, it's quite a challenge on a moving boat and we all do a pretty good job.

 

[Wildcard]

Dont forget to check out Konaquatika. New boat, new rental gear and doing trips others are not including rectec. Jim runs a top notch operation.

 

[SeaWendy]

...and by the way, they do not put an unsafe number of passengers in their van. A full van is not somewhere you want to be for a long haul...but five minutes to the pier is not a long haul. I am sure whoever dropped a tank on someone's foot is extremely sorry. All effort is made to make sure than heavy dive gear does not bump into or fall on to divers. As all the dive operators here know, it's quite a challenge on a moving boat and we all do a pretty good job.

I'm JJ's wife and I agree that we had a bad trip with Jack's. Granted the van trip from the shop to the pier was short, but the van was overloaded with one guy perched on the wheelwell of the van so that his head hit the ceiling on every bump. There was no seat for him. Also, the guy driving the van almost left three peoples' gear at the shop, even though it was under the sign that said, "Put gear for boat #1 here," until I yelled at him from the back of the van where I was squished with four other people in the far back seat. Are there supposed to be five people in one seat in your vans at Jack's?

The divemaster dropped the tank on the back of his heel because he didn't see my husband standing behind him when he swung his tank around. We had both been trying to stay out of the way and keep the area clear, but we couldn't move any farther forward because all the other divers were crammed in there like sardines--hardly any room to move.

 

[cuddlefish]

I am so sorry this happened. Please check your personal messages.