Kona Best Manta Dives ? Best Night Dives?

[owsistu]

Yes, all the operators go to the same spot for the Night Manta dive. So as mentioned already the choice is simply which operator you like, price and amenities. As for additional additional diving you may want to do, I would recommend Pacific Rim Divers. Patrice runs a very good operation and you get personal service that some of the big operators can't provide. That means seeing things you want to see. My dives are always 1 hour plus and I'm never put with divers of lesser experience. Some of the bigger operators cater too much to the tourist diver and not enough to the local diver or experienced diver. That means short dives, not much to see (nothing pointed out to you) and dive sites that are shallow/easy for the naivest divers.

 

[Maine Diver]

I love KDC. I have been out with they 2 years and every dive was great. They do not limit your bottom time. You sould do the 3 tank long range. It's a great day.

 

[Berto]

With one vote for Kona Honu, one for KDC, one for BID and one for Jack's, that didn't clear up anything.

+1 for Jacks Diving Locker! Dove with them two days ago. Great Crew! Great rental equipent.. Mostly Scubapro Knighthawks with im pretty sure it was a mk25 paired with a R295. The secondary regs were the integrated AIR on the BCD.

Had a blast!

Just my two cents. Not sure it helps..

 

[SandyUT]

We struggled with the dive shop choice as well. I gathered the big players we comparable and use larger boats.

Check out Pacific Rim and look up shop reviews in Hawaii the big island revealed. A great book!

lastly Patrice mentioned helicopter tours, look at blue Hawaii helicopter tours. Looks killer.

we are planning our first trip to Kona early next year. There is a lot of info out there and much to do. This was our challenge as we usually just dive as much as possible. This trip we are planning a couple days above water. Have fun planning and going!

 

[world_traveler]

We did it with Kona Diving Company - they were very professional and friendly, and it was wonderful.

 

[Yevgeny Nyden]

Jack's Diving Locker offers great quality service. Here is a review I posted earlier on TripAdvisor:

Up to date, I've had three 2-tank dives with this dive operator, and I'm sure I will continue diving with Jack's Diving Locker.

Pros
- fairly large dive operation for Kona with a big shop, plenty of staff, and excellent, fast and spacious boats;
- great service in the shop;
- knowledgeable staff; in particular, Keller is awesome - knows a lot about pretty much everything and has lots of interesting stories to tell;
- great dive site choices (well, of course the night Manta ray dive is to die for);
- crew paid good attention to the divers' own equipment, especially photo/video equipment;
- offer a free shuttle service from the shop to the boat dock;
- tasty veg and non-veg snack on board (I tried them all);

Cons (none really, but still ):
- maybe they could have paid just a bit more attention to the divers while on board;
- boat head (bathroom facility) was pretty stinky;

Feel free to watch this video with Keller Laros who is the founder of Manta Pacific Research Foundation and also works for Jack's Diving Locker:

[video=youtube;zAbE5yCu0C8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAbE5yCu0C8&feature=g-all-u[/video]