Honolua Bay?

[DiveMaven]

Okay, now that Al and Tim have convinced me with their posts to do a bunch of beach diving when we're in Maui, I have questions.

Obviously your latest report about diving Honolua Bay clearly shows that it's a really good shore dive site, and everything I've read before says the same thing. I've also read that it's not a short walk with your gear to get to the beach. Dragging heavy tanks isn't my idea of fun, so my question to you guys is how bad of a "hike" is it?

How do you normally take your gear in? Tank on your BC on your back, or carry the tanks by hand? Do you take one tank, dive, go back to the car and switch it, then dive again, or take both tanks down to the beach? :06:

Definitely need some specific guidance here from the experts!

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

It isn't a steep hike as there isn't much elevation change. But it's sorta rocky in places. I'd guess a couple of hundred yards.

If I'm diving once I gear up next to the road and walk from there into the water. If it's two tanks I put one tank on the BC and walk it down and then go back and gear up for the final hike. Usually we're the only ones diving there but yesterday there were several other divers. I'm lazy, if it weren't worth it I'd bag it. One of the highest rated shore dives here, La Perouse, hasn't been worth the short hike.

 

[Alfredo]

We dove there once with Al and Jill a couple years ago. Geared up at the top hiked down.

My daughter weights 95 lbs and has a bad knee. She geared up at the top and made the hike down. I think we had to help her back up to the top after the dive.

This was one of our favorite shore dives.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Hey Alan. Good to see you on here. When you coming again? Oh and do you really think she weighs as much as 95??????

 

[DiveMaven]

Thanks for the info guys, it really does sound like a place not to miss for diving this summer. Seems so weird that we can just leave tanks on the beach unattended while we dive, but I totally believe you guys and plan on doing it myself.

The reading I've been doing says that Honolua Bay is THE place to dive in the summer because there's no wave action and it's fairly shallow. Lots of marine life to enjoy and LONG bottom times....doesn't get much better than that! :07:

I'm assuming that we should plan on getting there early because of parking. What's considered "early" for shore diving in Maui? :06:

 

[Alfredo]

Hey Alan. Good to see you on here. When you coming again? Oh and do you really think she weighs as much as 95??????

Hi Al.... The 95 was a guess. I'm sure it was less than that then...still is!

We won't be there this year, but I'm really going to try for next year.
I'd like some of that cold 77 degree Maui water compaired to our nice warm Monterey temps. Ha!

 

[KrisB]

Thanks for the info guys, it really does sound like a place not to miss for diving this summer. Seems so weird that we can just leave tanks on the beach unattended while we dive, but I totally believe you guys and plan on doing it myself.

The reading I've been doing says that Honolua Bay is THE place to dive in the summer because there's no wave action and it's fairly shallow. Lots of marine life to enjoy and LONG bottom times....doesn't get much better than that! :07:

I'm assuming that we should plan on getting there early because of parking. What's considered "early" for shore diving in Maui? :06:

I think "early" in normal terms means "normal" in dive terms -- most of the good diving on Maui typically happens before 11am... so, I think that if you show up there at 7:30-8:30, you should have no problem with parking.

But, having never been to this particular site, that's an educated guess.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

We get to Honolua by 7am. When we go back up to the car around 9am the placed is packed. So you'd be begging for a parking place if you hang around the condo too much.

Alan it really does feel cool at 77. I'm diving a 3 mil. When we were diving here in May last time it was 80 degrees. After about 75 hours below the surface the core temperature seems to lower and end result is that I'm cold

 

[DiveMaven]

Thanks Al, I was thinking that when we beach dive we'll want to be up and out by 7-7:30 at the latest. Just love the idea of getting done mid-morning and having the rest of the day to do other things.

 

[Charlie99]

Thanks Al, I was thinking that when we beach dive we'll want to be up and out by 7-7:30 at the latest. Just love the idea of getting done mid-morning and having the rest of the day to do other things.

If you are going to be that early, you might as well push it ahead a bit further and do a DAWN dive. Going in a before sunrise and watching the day creatures come out is fun. With a lot of mainlanders, their body clocks are still running on mainland time for the first couple of days, making crack-of-dawn diving easy to do.