Getting Rescue Diver and/or Nitrox certified on Maui?

[ravisurdhar]

Hi all, I'll be traveling to Maui in January for two weeks with my girlfriend. She'll be getting her open water, and I figure I'll go take some classes at the same time. I was thinking Rescue Diver, since those classes seem to run about the same length of time as the open water classes. Maybe I can sneak a Nitrox class in there too? I was wondering if people had any recommendations for a place to get this done? Also, do you think it would be possible for us to do our open water dives on the same boat? Obviously the dives would be different, but it would be nice to spend the surface interval together.

Do you think any operators would be willing us to give us a "group discount," considering we're buying two (maybe three) classes, and maybe tacking on an extra day of just fun diving on top of that? That's quite a bit of $$$...though of course, it's smack in the middle of high season...

Thanks!

 

[DiveMaven]

We did our Rescue Certification on Maui with Teri at Maui Dreams, and I would recommend her and Maui Dreams highly. We had an excellent, high quality class, with lots of individualized instruction, and it was a lot of fun to boot. It would certainly be worth talking with them about discounts for diving since you're taking a class, however all of our training was done from shore, so I'm not sure if they do any boat dives for training now that they have a boat (they didn't have it when we did our training), but it's worth asking for sure.

We did our OW and AOW with Lahaina Divers and did all of our open water diving from the boat. Only the confined portions of our training in OW were from shore. That used to be standard, but I believe they now charge a bit more if you want to do your dives from the boat, but their big 46' Newtons make for a nice dive platform for training. I do know that Lahaina Divers gives you a 10% discount on any diving you do with them once you've trained with them, and that includes future trips as well. We found Lahaina Divers to do an excellent job for our training, very safety conscious and professional.

Although I don't have first hand experience, I know folks who have done training with B&B Scuba and they recommend them highly for training. I know for OW (and AOW) open water dives are from the boat, but you've have to ask about Rescue. Given the Rescue scenarios, I can't imagine doing them from a boat, but I'm not an instructor so don't really know. I do know that B&B is a bit less expensive than Lahaina Divers for training and they have excellent instructors.

If it were me, I'd go with B&B or Maui Dreams for training.

 

[Chocoholic]

Thanks for the info. I am considering doing Nitrox while on Maui in February. I have been diving with Dive & Sea Maui and Shaka Doug, I'm going to check with them.
BTW - I did Rescue for a week in Mexico and we did a whole bunch of it from a boat, (several days on shore and several days on the boat). How long is the Nitrox class usually? :cool2:

 

[DiveMaven]

Our Rescue class was only 3 days, so I'm not sure what a standard length is. Shaka Doug also does training, but he's a shore diving specialist, which is why I didn't mention him.

 

[ravisurdhar]

Although I don't have first hand experience, I know folks who have done training with B&B Scuba and they recommend them highly for training. I know for OW (and AOW) open water dives are from the boat, but you've have to ask about Rescue. Given the Rescue scenarios, I can't imagine doing them from a boat, but I'm not an instructor so don't really know. I do know that B&B is a bit less expensive than Lahaina Divers for training and they have excellent instructors.

If it were me, I'd go with B&B or Maui Dreams for training.

Maui Dreams doesn't look like they do boat dives for training, but B&B looks great! Their prices are fantastic too...$349 for OW, and $300 for rescue, and that includes gear, books, etc! And all their rescue dives are on the boat! Dunno if you can beat that...Lahaina Divers charges $589 for OW and $459 for rescue, not including gear or books!

 

[DiveMaven]

Ding, ding, ding....B&B is the winner!!

 

[ravisurdhar]

Oh, I just noticed they're in Kihei....bit of a hike from Lahaina, but the price difference easily makes up for it. Plus, you have a much shorter boat ride to Molokini that way.

 

[DiveMaven]

It is WELL worth the drive from Lahaina to Kihei! We used to do it all the time when we stayed in Kaanapali since not only is the ride to Molokini shorter, but there are also some fantastic S. Maui sites that all the ops down here go to. The drive is pretty quick in the morning with no traffic...gives you enough time to drink your coffee before checking in.

 

[parzdiver]

I'd recommend doing your Nitrox certification at home rather than spending the time studying in Hawaii. Most Nitrox courses don't require any dives, it is all classroom work. Academics followed by some tank testing and you are certified, typically a one night class.

For Rescue (PADI at least) you need to have your CPR/First Aid done as a prerequisite, so that is also something you might want to complete before heading on the trip.

Enjoy the trip!

 

[spicychili]

You might check out http://www.extendedhorizons.com they are in lahaina. Ow course is less than lahaina divers but more then b&b. Not sure if they offer the other course you are interested in

Have a good trip.