Just returned from a fantastic dive trip to the Big Island. It's a quick 5-hour flight from California direct to Kona. Arrived around 9 am and dropped my gear off at Kona Dive Company (KDC), before getting settled in at the rental. I managed to get in 17 dives over the next eight days. The conditions were fantastic, calm and glassy, water temps were 79 degrees all week, and the visibility was very good.
I dove with KDC the whole trip, with charters on the Hale Kai as well as their faster/smaller boat the Imi Kai. Both vessels are great, but the long range on Imi Kai is especially fun and allowed for diving further south (Red Hill) and doing some long drift dives. Dive groups were never more than five people (sometimes as small as 2 or 3), and dive groups were well matched. The bottom time is generous, and dives were typically from 70-80 minutes. That is on nitrox, but I think there may be a 70 minute limit on the first dive if you are on air just to make sure they can stick to a 1 hour SI. Typical max depth was 70 feet with a few deeper profiles.
Critters: Turtles, green & hawksbill; devil, leaf, and juvenile decoy scorpionfish; octopus, lots and lots of frogfish (my favorite) including babies the size of chicken nuggets; eels (zebra, green, dragon, viper, snowflake, freckled snake, and tiger snake), mantis shrimp, coral gobies, harlequin shrimp, a pair of red striped pipefish and several different species of nudibranch.
Lots of fish including endemics: bicolor anthias, flame angels, scarface blenny, juvenile shortnose wrasse, psychedelic wrasse, schools of pyramid butterflies, playful porcupine fish, Hawaiin swimming crab, Hawaiian Boxfish, white tip reef sharks, plus all the usual suspects. It was a little early in the season to get tiger shark sighting, but we did spot one from the boat.
If you get to Kona, there are some beautiful sites. This trip the standouts sites were suck 'em up, golden arches, Kaloko Canyons, pyramid pinnacle, Flossies Fishhouse, and the Dome.
I can't reccomend the KDC crew highly enough. I am looking forward to getting back this fall. I attached some photos shot with a go pro, but they are nothing fancy.
I dove with KDC the whole trip, with charters on the Hale Kai as well as their faster/smaller boat the Imi Kai. Both vessels are great, but the long range on Imi Kai is especially fun and allowed for diving further south (Red Hill) and doing some long drift dives. Dive groups were never more than five people (sometimes as small as 2 or 3), and dive groups were well matched. The bottom time is generous, and dives were typically from 70-80 minutes. That is on nitrox, but I think there may be a 70 minute limit on the first dive if you are on air just to make sure they can stick to a 1 hour SI. Typical max depth was 70 feet with a few deeper profiles.
Critters: Turtles, green & hawksbill; devil, leaf, and juvenile decoy scorpionfish; octopus, lots and lots of frogfish (my favorite) including babies the size of chicken nuggets; eels (zebra, green, dragon, viper, snowflake, freckled snake, and tiger snake), mantis shrimp, coral gobies, harlequin shrimp, a pair of red striped pipefish and several different species of nudibranch.
Lots of fish including endemics: bicolor anthias, flame angels, scarface blenny, juvenile shortnose wrasse, psychedelic wrasse, schools of pyramid butterflies, playful porcupine fish, Hawaiin swimming crab, Hawaiian Boxfish, white tip reef sharks, plus all the usual suspects. It was a little early in the season to get tiger shark sighting, but we did spot one from the boat.
If you get to Kona, there are some beautiful sites. This trip the standouts sites were suck 'em up, golden arches, Kaloko Canyons, pyramid pinnacle, Flossies Fishhouse, and the Dome.
I can't reccomend the KDC crew highly enough. I am looking forward to getting back this fall. I attached some photos shot with a go pro, but they are nothing fancy.
Im spending 10 days in Kona in late August. What is your top recommendations reg dive sites? I did the manta night dive a few years back, and will probably do it again. I would love to optimise my chances of seeing tiger shark, any recommendations regarding dive site in this reg? I have heard the best time or this is September onward, so almost there...
