Hawaii diving and snorkelling: Maui vs. Big Island

[leo]

Looking for some opinions on Big Island vs. Maui.

I've been visiting Maui regularly for a number of years, and spending a day doing a tank or two from shore, and snorkeling at two or three other beaches is my idea of a perfect day! I recently visited O'ahu, and learned that the shore options are not really comparable to Maui (even summer on the north side). But, what about the Big Island?

If I'm looking to snorkel all day, and also do a single tank shore dive some days, would I find the Big Island as good as Maui? Here's some detail to help me obtain some info:

- I'm already familiar with other variables (commercialized and tourist issues, crowds, bars and restaurants, costs)
- Let's ignore consideration of the topside activities (volcanos, tours, golf, etc.)
- Let's say I'm a decently experienced diver/snorkeller (over 200-300 dives)
- I would have to stay at the Hyatt on either island
- The trip would be in December or January.

Please share your opinions. Thanks!

 

[diverdiane]

Go to the Big Island and do a night dive with the Mantas!

 

[chuck e]

Looking for some opinions on Big Island vs. Maui.

I've been visiting Maui regularly for a number of years, and spending a day doing a tank or two from shore, and snorkeling at two or three other beaches is my idea of a perfect day! I recently visited O'ahu, and learned that the shore options are not really comparable to Maui (even summer on the north side). But, what about the Big Island?

If I'm looking to snorkel all day, and also do a single tank shore dive some days, would I find the Big Island as good as Maui? Here's some detail to help me obtain some info:
QUOTE]

Go to ShoreDiving.com - Your Shore Diving and Snorkeling Web Community!

 

[leo]

I'm looking for more than an answer as what a day or two might provide, more an answer about which place is better for multiple-weeks... a month... purchasing a place. Obviously, any place can provide one great or one sub-par experience on any given day...

Shorediving.com is one resource (and one I use a lot) but it gave some pretty good scores for some O'ahu shore spots that I would have rated much lower. ...Could have been a bad day for me, or could have been a steller day for the other poster... thus my looking for another information source here.

Thanks!

 

[friscuba]

"I would have to stay at the Hyatt on either island" basically eliminates the Big Island. I'm not sure if any of the resorts have Hyatt tie ins if you've got some kind of special deal with Hyatt.

Few of the divers on this board have much experience on both islands, I'm thinking Wildcard was about the only one and he's stated stated times over the years he preferred the Big Island if I recall correctly. The best way to actually get a reasonable comparison is to spend some time over in Kona now that you've done plenty of diving on Maui.

My Maui experience is limited, but I'm quite familiar with Kona. Here's a few things about Kona...

Great viz most of the time - less sand and more rock means for good viz, you can even walk along the seawall on a day with 2-4 foot surf and identify fish species through the face of the waves. No brown water here, even when it rains (OK, I've seen brown water off constructio sites combined with a "100 year" rain on two occasions in the almost 9 years I've been here). A bad day and you'll still have 30-60 foot of viz in most shallow spots, just go deeper to get the great viz.

Speaking of deeper.. Most of the shore dive sites in Kona have deep water available. The shallowest dive sites I can think of you can still hit 50-60 feet, I can only think of one that maxes out at 30 or so, many of them have 130+ depths within a 3-5 minute leisurely underwater swim.

There's relatively little algae here in Kona. The turtles also seem to be a bit smaller. I wonder if the two are connected? Anyway, the few shallow sites I've been to in Maui had lots of sand with the 4-8 inch tall calcareous algae weedy looking stuff, we don't see that in Kona, primarily we just see reef unless you choose to dive over sand, then it's just clean sand.

Kona has pretty good diving anywhere you can get in the water that isn't beach. I'm thinking Maui has better access though. The Place of Refuge in South Kona is about as good as it gets in the state for both snorkeling and diving from shore, there are other very nice spots as well.

One of these days I'd like to get to Maui and just shoredive for a week or two at a time to be able to make a more direct comparison, but it's not in the cards just yet.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

- I would have to stay at the Hyatt on either island

Hyatt on the web seems to agree with friscuba, only three Hyatt's in Hawaii and none on Hawaii.

Seems you could have answered your own Q with one google or yahoo search. :no

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I recently visited O'ahu, and learned that the shore options are not really comparable to Maui (even summer on the north side).

[HIJACK]Your so right, I'm soooo Jones-ing this year without a North Shore Oahu fix! Other than Makena Caverns (my name for 5-caves/turtle town), Maui has very limited deep and/or swim through/cavern options from shore. I seriously miss shore diving Shark's Cove, Firehouse, Three Tables, even Car Wash, as well as Electric Beach and Makaha Caverns out West.

What I miss most is my (ex)home dive site, Helm's Canyon (again, my name)! Blind luck and fate put me on a hip beachfront property in Mokuleia for 4 years. The really really long surface swim means very very few divers, and makes it very very edgy. The 30-40' deep reef fingertips drop sheer walls to 90' at the very ends, spooky/eerie/chikin'skin!
ALERT
All my YahooPhotos finally showed up on Flickr today! I'm celebrating by linking a few old sets. IMHO, there are plenty of days in the summer when the North Shore is as good as it gets in the whole State (well, except Ni'ihau).

Helm's Canyon

Three Tables

Car Wash

Sharks Cove; Tight Spots/Overheads, Day Animals, Night Animals[/HIJACK]
You may now return to the regularly scheduled programing.

leo, did you happen to dive with an experienced North Shore guide?

 

[leo]

Wow, your're right, no Hyatt on Big Island -- I thought there was one, I wonder if there was and they sold it... or I'm just confused with Sheraton.

Thanks Steve, that's some good info in your response.