Heading to Hawai'i in 39 days and requesting info

[cozudiver]

My husband and I are going on a 7 day cruise of Hawai'i with my 3 siblings and their spouses. My father set up this family vacation before his death - so all of us are still wanting to go and enjoy ourselves.

The problem than my husband and I are having is the fact that we want to dive. And dive as often as possible. The cruise schedule is rather tight at times and the prices of the cruise excursions are 30% above what we can find by ourselves, however we're having a problem finding a dive shop that leaves late enough to fit into our schedule.

We've done most of our diving in Cozumel, so we're comfortable with currents and depth. We've also done some diving in Florida - shallow and low visibility. And of course a few local dives - also shallow and almost no visibility.

We'll be overnight at both Kauai and Maui, so we're hoping to find a shop to connect with that will save us some money rather than the excursion. We'd even be delighted to have someone who lives on the islands meet with us and take us shore diving.

Any night diving would also be welcomed. :07:

Nawiliwili, Kauai 7am Tues - 1pm Wed = 30 hours
Kahului, Mauai 8am Fri - 6pm Sat = 34 hours

So if you are aware of any operators for these 2 islands that are safety conscience, marine knowledgeable, and are willing to work around cruise ship times, we'd love to know about them. Cuz we want to DIVE and have a great time seeing some great underwater life.

DSAO

 

[Pillow]

Sea Sports was good a couple of years ago o Kauai. I was staying on shore so yo will have to check and see if they will service you off of the cruise. I think they have a shop on Maui also. while your on the internet give them a call and see what you can find out. I have called them a couple of times and they have always been very helpful.
Good luck.

 

[CALI68]

Extended Horizons on Maui. I think you meet them there (at The Sheraton) and then it's an easy beach dive but it's really cool!

 

[justleesa]

she should be back around any day now....
How did everything go?

 

[cozudiver]

Thanks to all who helped me with picking dive shops!
Didn't see anything bigger than the 3 white tip reef sharks and a HUGE turtle.
Fried/Flooded a strobe
Flooded my pressure guage.
And I came home with a head cold and ear infection.
Oh, I also came home with a pretty good tan.

Here's who we dove with:
Oahu - Oahu Divers, boat diving
Picked us up at the hotel and returned us after diving.
#1 RIPPING current on the YO
DM (Roger) did his best to show us the wreck, but did I mention that the current was ripping? There was a beautiful turtle also trying to stay out of the current.
#2 Visibility wasn't very good, and the DM (Eddy?) went too fast to get any second looks at anything.

Kauai - Bubbles Below, shore diving :dazzler1:
Picked us up at the POD and returned us. Beautiful drive! And good ice cream stop.
Faith was wonderful in informing us of ALL of the critters that we saw.
Just 3 of us, and we were really able to take time and appreciate all of the fishes.

Kona, Hawaii - Jack's Diving Locker, boat diving :dazzler1:
Picked us up at the POD and returned us after we finished shopping after the dives.
We were lucky enough to get on their 6-pack, the Dolphin.
Great lunch between dives. And they were able to quickly replace my pressure guage before we had to return to the POD

Maui - Shaka Divers, shore diving :dazzler1:
We truely loved diving with Doug. He's crazy and it's a great thing. He's serious about diving, and at the same time wants to have a great time doing it.
And this is obvious before you even get to the dive site. As you drive behind his Scuba Bus, you begin to laugh as bubbles begin to exhaust from the front of the bus. It sure gave us a good laugh, and would have been easy to find the bus again if we had gotten left behind at a traffic light.

Doug was able to point out several neat fish, including a frogfish on each dive. These were the first for Kevin and I to see. Oh, and a pair of beautiful Harlequinn Shrimp. Gosh, how does anyone find those things? And he also new where a HUGE turtle lived.

I wish we would have had more time to spend diving and chatting with Doug. But our schedule didn't allow for it. We had gotten so relaxed on our dives that once we began rinsing our gear we lost track of what time it was, and before we knew it we only had 50 minutes to make a 45 minute drive to Lahaina.
*** Doug, thanks for the directions to the pier in Lahaina, they were PERFECT. We got there in perfect time, just to find out that the trip was canceled because of boat problems. However, the ticket was wrong and we would have missed the boat by 15 minutes.

Maui - Ed Robinson (Mike Severns canceled with their boat in dry dock)
Great predive, letting us know what we should expect to see.
Messed up my ear on the first dive, so I only got one in.
Not fond of the larger boats. But they do have it organized better than any large boat that I've ever dove from. They sort of give you "assigned seats". Worked rather well.
Assortment of snacks.

Everyone treated us well. And the diving was as good as could be for the conditions.
We prefered the shore diving and small boats to the larger boats. Just more 1-on-1 contact.

Overall, we enjoyed the new diving experience. We missed the color of the soft corals, and the tube, vase, and barrel sponges that are in the Caribbean. I did love seeing schools of butterfly fishes, my first frogfish and nudies, and all of the other fishes in the Pacific.

 

[bluemagoo]

Nice to hear you had a generally good time. Come back soon. Bring more money. Keep our economy going. Geez, is that crass or what?

Sorry about your ear and gear blowouts. Was that "Oahu Divers" really Dive Oahu (Kewalo Basin boat harbor) or Oahu Dive Center (Kailua town on windward side)? I know there's a Roger Miller at Dive Oahu; he's cool 'cuz he's into vintage gear and sometimes breaks out the ole' double-hose.

 

[justleesa]

yes, they dove with that Roger

Glad to hear that you had a good time on your trip. How did the family part go?

 

[cozudiver]

Didn't see much of the family. Woo-Hoo. We were together only on Monday night on Kauai for the luau.
So it didn't turn out to be much of a "family" vacation. This would not have been the vacation of our choice, but it did get us to Hawaii. Not a bad thing.

 

[justleesa]

Well I guess it was just right then. I hope next time (will there be a next time?) I'm not working and we can go out for some fun

 

[cozudiver]

Well I guess it was just right then. I hope next time (will there be a next time?) I'm not working and we can go out for some fun

Maybe....If so, it will probably be Hawaii &/or Kauai so we can spend some topside time at the volcanos again - that was really cool. And we really enjoyed the diving in Kauai also. It was all good, just in their own ways.

I guess we're just spoiled rotten with the great diving in Cozumel.
3-1/2 hour flight, less than 1 hour to be unpacked and into the water.
Hard to beat the timing and the price.

At least now we'll know what to expect of Hawaii waters.
I still want to swim with the Mantas! The little one that I saw in Florida this summer was awesome, but what a tease...

We also were recently Dry Suit certified, so that purchase will be happening within the next 12 months. Diving the Pacific NW, California, and the NE are spots that I want to dive also. Plus we really need to get to Belarus and Germany to visit friends one of these years. Would love to dive the Red Sea and Lake Baikal. Heck, I just want to go everywhere!

a hui ho

Cheryl