Help me convince my wife to dive Kona

[BuckBuck]

I'm hoping to get some of the experienced Kona divers to help me convince my wife to take a few boat dives this coming March.

We haven't dove in Hawaii for about 9 years. We do an annual vacation there, and our last dive experience wasn't great (not much marine life, beat up reefs, unhappy dive company employees) which led to our deciding to pursue other options on our subsequent vacations.

We've been to Grand Cayman for the past two summers, and her enthusiasm for diving has returned. She particularly enjoys the colourful reefs and abundant (in spots) fish, not to mention the swim-throughs and walls. We will be back in Kona for two weeks in March, during which time she will be spending a good portion of each day working. In order to get her into the water, she needs to be convinced that the dives will be worth giving up the limited free time she has. So, my request: can I get some confirmation from the dive community that there are indeed beautiful reefs, places with lots of fish, great visibility and loads of colour?

The more respnses the better. I'd like to be able to present her with a strong argument for getting her back in the water in Hawaii.

Thanks.

 

[Maine Diver]

I did 16 dives in Kona in December with Kona Diving Company. While the reef is different than Caymans, it is still be beautiful. There is plenty of swims throughs, I found the fish and critter life plentiful, and the viz is great. I took at least 200 pictures a day. We saw turtles, sharks, mantas, schools of fish, octopus, eels, lobsters, shrip, nudibrachs, and one very special dive where we dove with a large pod of dolphins, now that was a real treat! The manta ray night dive will blow you away. We had about 15 on our dive. Not one of the dives was a disapointment or even just ho-hum, they were all fantastic. I would return in a heartbeat.

 

[Pliny]

I'll keep it short

Reef is not beat up, just some areas of rubble in the sites between Honokohau and KOA. Recent lava flows and all. Dive Puako or points north for near 100% coverage.

Every time back guides seem nicer. First trip (in 03) not so much but that was with a resort op, not an independent op.

 

[scubamarketing]

First, as an instructor, I never like to try to force someone into a dive they're not interested in. My luck always has it that if I do, the dive goes poorly and I get a "see, I told ya so!"

That being said, I was there about a year ago and just had friends move back from there last week. The corals are different than the Caribbean, so no, they're not as colorful. Seems like more hard coral than soft, which tends to be prettier. Tons of turtles, cool formations and a wide variety of marine life. Huge schools of fish? Not as much as I saw in Coz, but more than about 5 years ago.

If you want her to be impressed, do one of the manta night dives, they rarely disappoint.

 

[friscuba]

There's plenty of decent hard coral reef in Kona. Unfortunatley you won't find large sponges, much soft coral or sea fans and such in Hawaii. You mentioned unhappy dive company employees, your guides can go a long way in making or breaking your dive experience. Any chance you logged your dive locations on that trip 9 years ago? It might be helpful to find what you were disappointed in. You said "in Hawaii", which makes me wonder if it might not have been the Kona area at all... each island has a different amount of reef life. If it was Kona, site choices can make a difference in the amount of life as well.

Hawaii diving has it's own charm and can be very good. At very least get in a two tank manta trip, the night dive is tough to beat anywhere in the world and Garden Eel Cove has one of the nicest hard coral reefs around.

 

[Doubler]

I dove in Oahu for 6 years and it goes without saying that Hawaii is not the Caymans. Each has his own tastes and IMO Hawaii is bland compared to the Caymans. I was on the Kona Aggressor in August and on a 1 to 10 scale I give Kona diving a 4. (I give Caymans a 7 and Fiji a 10.) They do have some species that are only found in Hawaii that are cool but you are lucky if you can find them. That being said I could do the Manta Night dive every night for the rest of my life and be happy, happy. It is freaking Awesome. No kidding if you can't get her in the water for anything else this dive is most definitely worth it, every night.

 

[nw_diver]

Start with a shore dive in Puako. You can rent tanks from Blue Wilderness in Waikoloa on the way up and he can give you directions to the sight and where to walk in. If she doesn't like it then you didn't spend very much money and she can go sit at the beach the rest of the trip.

If you haven't done the Manta dive it's a definate must do. Also I highly recommend a black water dive. We did ours with Jack's and it was amazing.

 

[dgreenh]

I was disappointed in the diving out of Kona. It wasn't bad diving but it different from what I was used to seeing. We saw large schools of fish and wild Dolphin pods. There just didn't seem to be a lot of color where at the places that we went. Other dive sites might give different results.

As others have said... The night Manta dive made the whole trip worth while. Amazing and Awesome, what a show!

 

[Lopaka]

No real comparison between Kona and the Caymans. Have been diving Hawaii for many years, and always loved the abundant creatures, sometimes clouds of them. Having started diving in Southern California kelp, the colorful fish were a delight. The hard coral was new and beautiful too.

Just to say we did it, wife and I did the very long flight to Little Cayman. Ok, the soft coral and sponges were nice and colorful, but where were the critters?

I was underwhelmed by the Caymans. Yes the soft stuff is colorful, but after you have seen a few, they are all the same, kind of like Disneyland. I dove 2-3 times a day for a week in what has been pumped up to be a pinnacle of diving. Only saw a very few unique critters. Mostly rather empty of anything.

Have been in clouds of Tang, Butterfly, and Surgeons in Kona, never came close to anything like that in Little Cayman. After a week there, saw one (1) spotted drum. Not much of anything else, but the colorful coral of course, and a few groupers. Kona is about fish/nudis/turtles/sharks/morays, and big stuff, not colorful coral. I'll take the critters any day, never know what you will see. Once you have seen a few colorful spong, you have seen them all...........

 

[textilet]

I just got back from a few weeks in Kona. We dove everyday and loved it. The reefs there do tend to be a bit monochromatic, but they're alive. There are beautiful creatures everywhere, you just have to put in the time to look for them. The reef doesn't jump up and smack you in the face with color and fish like it does in the Caribbean. If youre not in the mood to look too hard maybe just do the manta dive- it is unmistakeably cool. We got fills, etc. from Kona dive company and did the manta dive with them and they were fantastic. Here's a short video of some stuff we saw--the manta night dive is at the end. http://www.vimeo.com/18901752. that and the night diving in general were great.