Kauai diving

[D_O_H]

I'll throw in another recommendation for diving with Bubbles Below and diving wherever they take you. If the water's calm and you have the time go to niihau. Otherwise, the sites near where they launch are all fine. As some other posters mentioned, you often get a little marine biology lesson prior to your dive where they'll talk about the critters you've seen or are likely to see and explain some of their behavior.

 

[aascubagirl]

I have to agree w/D O H, Linda from Bubbles is awesome and she does a great job of training her staff. I've worked with some of her instructors and it seems I always learn something new when talking with her or her dive team.

For phenomenal Kauai shore diving (don't let the dive cynics fool you), give Aquatic Adventures in Poipu a call. I am proud to work there and can tell you that our excellent and friendly customer service, small and personalized group sizes, top of the line rental gear and outstanding reputation amongst our customers is a large part of why we are the exclusive scuba lesson provider for many of Kauai's most prestigious and exclusive hotels and resorts. For some fantastic boat diving, either I or my co-workers have dove with Fathom Five and/or Bubbles Below on numerous occasions, always with rave reviews. Hope all the info this thread has generated helps you :O)

 

[REFLECTIONPOOL]

Another vote for Aquatic Adventures. The history of posts here seems to explain things pretty darn well. You are sure to have a good time with them. Oh, and you'll be doing yourself a favor by ignoring childish posts speaking poorly of Koloa Landing. I suggest paying close attention to reports of divers who have visited and had good experiences with dive shops and divemasters. The HONEST truth is that hidden motives exist with some of the posts by local dive shop owners. They aren't looking out for your best interest by discounting a GREAT shore dive. There is a great bunch of guys and gals down at the landing who I bet would show any visitor an unreal time and a vacation highlight by diving with them there.

Good luck. You'll find a great class of local divemasters on the island as I have for a long time. Feel free to send me a PM if I can help with any suggestions for you.

 

[Oside Jimc]

I amazes me when someone with a whopping 6 posts come on to slam (even if in an offhand way) an established well known operator.
I spent 11 days on Kauai last October and loved my diving with Aquatic Adventures, maybe I am biased since I love shore diving here in SoCal, but I found all the sites they took me to just outstanding, Koloa, PKs, Tunnels (PHENOMINAL!) were all great dives. The shot in my Avitar was taken at Koloa, the best part was diving with Shawn, he was so adept at finding the critters that would have been missed without his local knowledge.

AA is a top notch outfit, safe, friendly, and knowledgable.

I did do a day of boat diving with Fathom 5, they were OK, a typical destination dive op, professional, but even with their boat it seemed obvious they weren't too keen about burning fuel, our last dive was a totally lackluster site just outside the harbor, in spite of the boat it was far inferior to Koloa (and I also saw the Seasport boat on the hook with their divers doing Koloa, that REALLY seemed like a rip to me).

 

[DMJulie]

Dove KOLOA LANDING yesterday and it was great. All the muck from the big storm before Christmas is working its way out. I had 4 certs and they loved it. They dove 3 different dives sites this last week with us and they loved Koloa Landing the best.

3 Dragon eels, HUGE turtle, Leaf scorpion fish, hawaiian lionfish (endemic), morish idol, titan scorpion (endemic), baby frog fish, freakled snake eel (endemic), hawaiian domino damselfish (endemic)....need I saw more. (NOT BORING)


Happy Diving

 

[Scubaman7596]

I amazes me when someone with a whopping 6 posts come on to slam (even if in an offhand way) an established well known operator.
I spent 11 days on Kauai last October and loved my diving

Oh, and you'll be doing yourself a favor by ignoring childish posts speaking poorly of Koloa Landing. The HONEST truth is that hidden motives exist with some of the posts by local dive shop owners. They aren't looking out for your best interest by discounting a GREAT shore dive. There is a great bunch of guys and gals down at the landing who I bet would show any visitor an unreal time and a vacation highlight by diving with them there.

Good luck. You'll find a great class of local divemasters on the island as I have for a long time. Feel free to send me a PM if I can help with any suggestions for you.

Who Slammed an operator??? There are 8 shore dive only companies, Did I slam all of them. And every Operation here dives at koloa landing a couple of my friends only dive there PK's and Tunnels. You seem to be a bit emotional and taken what i stated personally ( even in an off hand kinda way)

My point was not to slam anybody, but to point out the FACT that Koloa landing has changed. Any one saying anything different is A), B), or C) I have dove there for many, many years, and quite honestly I love the spot and cant wait for it to clean up even more and my company has led tours there thru out the nastiness when it was safe, We/I where and are HONEST with people though.
Not to sure about hidden motives there, perhaps it is your perception.

It usually is a critter rich environment.But it has changed the Last 2 sustained rains destroyed it. unfortunately i am doing alot of boat diving now so i can "see/ smell / taste" ( literally) the difference. Can You?? and to be honest with you it was gross diving there at one point. Oh BTW the rains came after your visit in OCT. So you have no Idea what I / you am talking about. What you saw then is not what you see now


It amazes ME how someone who has a "whopping few dives" here on the island comes on to speak so accusingly about something they have very little insight on.

will Koloa Landing get better of course it will as long as it doesn't rain like that for the rest of the winter and by spring all of the trash and muck will be gone and it can start healing again. This rain healing cycle has been happening for the past few years too. it is changing the place
if you read my post from an unemotional, unpersonalized point of view, you will see that in there. If not i just pointed it out to you.

I do agree with you however that a good DM or OWSI makes the dive, and there are many of those here

 

[Gina/TeamKas]

Had to jump in on this one I don't post a lot of threads because I am soo busy working and diving. Here is my opinion on Koloa Landing (shore dive) Vs Boat diving on Kauai

1. I have lived on Kauai for 9 years and been diving for 7 of those years I love Koloa Landing, it's where I got certified and I have dove there over 250 times if not more. The truth is I dove there last week saw some stuff small kine (as the locals would say) a turtle, a dragon moray but unfortunately I also saw a tire and some majorly broken coral :0( and lots of muck on the bottom, came out with sticks in my hair LOL. The storms in December were bad most operators were out of work for 12 or more days so when divers say they landing has changed, they are being honest it really has. Did I have a good dive yeah it was fun but I love to dive so I have fun no matter where I dive. But I live here if I was on vacation and had to watch my budget (as most of us do) and wanted a dive that would knocks my socks off to be honest that would not have been it.

On the other hand 2 days later I went out on a boat dive. I am a person who is honest and truthful so I will tell you I work at a dive shop Kauai Aquatics Scuba/Kauai Scuba Center. I know some people on scuba board hide there identity so they can agree with their bosses or wives or coworkers on posts to get people to dive with them or go visit there shops. I won't do it. You know my name you know where I work and what I look like. No secrets here. Either way I was able to go out and do some boat diving, that was quite honestly the best diving I have ever done in my life. Had two amazing dives the ocean was clear as a pool (90+ vis yikes) I saw a school of pyramid butterfly fish, 7 white tip reef sharks, 2 adorable turtles, I could go on and on but I'll save you. It was like diving in a dream.

As far as childish posts I agree, I'm getting bored of hearing about bullies and the so-called rumor spreading, and sadly the unfortunate diving/snorkeling accidents that keep happening on my beautiful island.

For those visiting this island don't be turned off by people jumping up and down for you to come visit there shop, times are hard for all of us so many are getting creative on how to get business. As a former concierge I would say do your research visit a couple of shops, Google safety/accident information on the internet and be aware of false claims on websites. Also be aware of companies that bash other operators integrity is even rarer than some of the fish in our water. A good operation will let it's safety record, customer comments and repeat happy divers speak for itself.

I will admit I have noticed a lot of operators now making daily appearances on Scubaboard (Even though some of them are not saying what company they own or where they work shame on you!) to drum up business. If you read all the Kauai posts you will notice a pattern here. So I will be doing my best to make daily visits to let all scuba board members know that I would love to take them diving as well and to welcome them to Kauai and invite them to visit my shop too! and to offer my knowledge of not only diving on Kauai but island information as well. (I was a professional concierge for 6 years before diving stole my heart)

In my opinion Kauai is full of amazing dive operators, and every dive will be different. Maybe do a boat and a shore dive then come on here and give your opinions. Whatever you do just keep coming to Kauai and have a great time while your here god bless. :0)

 

[llqwyd]

Boy, we sure did get a lot of rain...and conditions at Koloa were bad for a couple of weeks. However, we have spent a lot of time and effort to make sure that Koloa gets back to normal. (check out our blog to see conditions http://www.aascuba.blogspot.com)

Thankfully, the visibility has been great the last couple of weeks. Nature also has a way of taking care of things. As a matter of fact, since the storm, we have seen a ton of new aquatic life appear at the landing.

One of the things that makes Koloa a tough site (run-off from the Waikomo stream) is also the same thing that makes it so great. You won't find a site (boat or otherwise) that will deliver the goods as consistently as Koloa (IMHO).

PS. I think we got all the tires out -

 

[aascubagirl]

I 'm planning a trip to Kauai this year. Anyone have recommendation on when to go? I am thinking of either May, June, September, or october. When is the warmest and best visibility with very calm water?
Any recommendation on dive shops?
Which are the good dives sites to see for beginner level divers?

Aloha again, Fishlover!

I think you have probably got more than enough information to help you in planning your dive trip this year. I just wanted to let you know that Koloa Landing in Kauai is still the same, amazing shore dive it has always been. Perfect for beginners and just as great for divers who simply want to have a nice, mellow dive chock full of fantastic aquatic life, the vast majority of which is endemic to Hawaii. Although we did have some very bad storms in December, I dove the site myself several times in the past week and found viz to be around 60+ feet and TONS of great stuff to see. Whether or not you dive with us, I sincerely hope you get a chance to check it out during your trip. If you do, I doubt you will be disappointed.

If you do make it over during any of the months you mentioned, Tunnels Beach and Niihau are also likely options and you'll find plenty of posts on here about those sites as well. I think TeamCasa even has some short video links

Happy diving to you and stay safe!

 

[PuMpUi]

I think I'm gonna barf.