Halona Blowhole -- depth 60ft, viz 100ft, entry/exit right of the parking lot, down the cliff at "eternity beach". giant rock slabs left of the cove, 60-foot wall and wide open canyon to the right. awesome views! schools of large fish.
Lanai Lookout -- depth 70ft, viz 100ft, entry to the left of the parking lot, through the tunnel under the road, giant-stride off the left-side of the lava flats, then swim thru the large tunnel at 30ft deep. exit to the right of the parking lot, in the "J-cove" (warning: before entering, visually check the exit first, and only dive it if you're positive you can exit safely given the wave conditions... my rule of thumb is if the water is clear within the J-cove and the waves are not crashing on the boulders... it might be doable =) this dive by far, has the most scenic views, kinda like an underwater bryce-canyon, and is my favorite dive too! enormous school of pennant butterflies, eels, tako, and giant frogfish.
Hanauma Bay -- depth 60ft, viz 50-100ft, entry/exit in front of the second life-guard-tower.
if you go in the morning, plan on getting there early [before 9am]
[they'll close the parking lot if it gets full
and don't re-open it for a couple hours until a bunch of cars have left]
park you car and just lock your gear in it for now.
go to the ticket booth and pay your $5 admission.
[tourists only, residents of Hawaii are free =]
watch the "mandatory" 10 minute "don't touch the reef/fish" video.
[get the stamp on your hand after the movie]
walk down to the tram-shuttle loading area and buy an "all-day-tram-pass" for $2
[ensure to get the wrist-band]
also, purchase round-trip tickets for each tank you plan to use that day.
[it's $1 per tank, per trip... so $2 round-trip per tank]
[or... don't pay for the tram and just lug the stuff 150 yards
down AND up the 50% grade]
now, walk back to your car and gear up.
go back to the tram and ride it down.
walk past the showers, to the second life-guard-tower.
spot the orange-buoys ["basket-balls"] and enter the water.
swim to the "basket-balls" and find the gap in the rocks just past there.
surface swim past the inner reef break and pick-up the Trans-Pacific-Telephone-Cable
[you'll see two cables side-by-side on the bottom beginning at the rock-gap]
submerge around the mooring-buoy (for your dive flag?) or in about 15-20 feet of water.
follow the cable out until half-a-tank
[usually coincident with reaching 60 feet in depth]
in mid Mar, 'swam into a huge school of 2-3 foot jacks.
there's always plenty of turtles, eels, all of the colorful aquarium fish Hanauma is known for.
return following the cable back thru the reef-break.
if you have enough air, try to stay submerged until you're back at the orange-buoys
[sometimes there's a slight current and it's easier to crawl your way through that gap
rather than surface-swim]
shower-off, then get on the tram and ride it up.
at the top, buy a $10 cheese-burger from their captive-audience-cafe =P
repeat as necessary.
Portlock aka China Wall/Spitting Caves -- depth 40ft, viz 30-70ft, entry/exit to the rear of the cul-de-sac, at the rope toward the left of the lava flats. entry is a giant-stride. to exit, grab the rope, and wait for a swell high enough so you can just sit on the first "step" of the lava flow. [i've also used the alternate exit, approx 200 feet up the coast, just past "finger-rock"] lots of tako, monk-seals, eels, and shark caves.
Electric Beach aka Kahe Point -- depth 30ft, viz 30-100ft, entry/exit at the beach.
a shallow dive to 30 ft [40 ft if you try] so your bottom time can be over an hour.
tons of fish [including the scrawled-filefish (one of my favs right now)] plus large schools of snapper, soldiers, and porcupine fish,
numerous giant turtles [some really old ones 5-feet long] and the largest eagle-ray i've seen (6+foot wingspan and giant head)
multiple pods of dolphins. in Feb, we saw 3 pods [approx 24+] while we were underwater... and of course during the surface-interval they were all doing their sea-world show, jumpin' up out of the water performing spinners, etc.
and if you kick a bit [heading 300° from the 2nd set of pots] you can go see the white-tip reef sharks in the "the shark-cave". one morning we saw 2 of them circling around us (a 6 and 5-footer), needless to say, we melded with and became one with the reef =\
just dive it on saturdays or sundays when there's an OW class going on. some of the outfits actually post a "sentry" ["diver-joe-volunteer"] by the cars to baby-sit, while their divers are in the water.
Makaha Caverns -- depth 30ft, viz 30-70ft, entry/exit at the center of the beach cove (waves seldom break there). spot the orange-buoy (basket ball) then surface swim just past it and anchor your dive-flag (the life-guards always remind you, "it's a hawaii law to have a dive flag"). to the right of the buoy, starts a reef wall 20 feet high (so, sand to the left and coral to the right) then 100 feet past the orange-buoy is a large coral-head that sticks up from the reef, this is the tcs. i've seen 12 turtles on top of this tcs at the same time, with another dozen hangin' around it. follow the reef wall around to the right until you see the white boat-mooring-buoy. at that point, turn directly back toward shore, and you should run into the caverns. make your way back along the same reef-wall to the orange buoy and exit (note: if you decide to go direct from the caverns to the beach, you'll end up underneath the surfers and the surf... don't do that)
Haleiwa Trench aka Haleiwa Alii Beach Park -- depth 90ft, viz <30ft, entry/exit to the left of the rocks. surface swim seaward until you see the wall drop-off. face the wall on descent. check all the small caves for giant turtles, but keep watching your depth. the reef along the top-edge of the wall (at 20ft) has better viz and more life, large parrots, and other game fish, plus eagle-rays flying in formation.
Three Tables -- depth 40ft, viz 50-100ft, entry/exit on the left side of the beach, shooting the gap left of the biggest-table. lots of giant boulders and tons-o-fish. (my very first shore-dive =)
Fire House -- depth 40ft, viz 50-100ft, entry behind the fire-station, wading out a small rocky cove. explore left of shark's cove along a line toward waimea bay. numerous spacious caverns and schools of large fish. exit at three-tables.
Shark's Cove -- depth 40ft, viz 50-100ft, entry/exit on the left side of the cove where there's mostly sand. surface swim to the the mouth of the cove. if you head seaward it gets to a depth of 50 feet with many large pinnacles. to the right of the cove are lots of caverns, many directly under the rocky shoreline. numerous turtles, schools and schools of different fish, sting-rays, and monk-seals.
