Kona diving in september

[phantom41]

Have used Big Island Divers in May. Very professional and never more than 6 divers on a boat. Will rinse and store your gear and provide a hot water rinse between dives. Very accomodating with long time divemasters.

Did the manta night dive. Not sure why you would do a 2 tank dive. The dive is a sit on bottom dive shining lights up which attracts plankton and mantas that feed on them. There is a videographer who has some really powerful lights that really attracts the mantas. They get very close and if you have your head up you can get your mask jostled. Fun dive.

Blackater dive s 3 or so miles offshore in 40 to 60 feet of water and is a tethered drift dive. Get to see all sorts of bioluminesense when the lights are turned off. Need to have good BC control and not be claustrophobic.

Have fun.

 

[mkzwo]

Thanks for all the helpfull info until now. I highly appriciate it!

Anybody interested in doing some afternoon/evening shore dives with me in end of september?

Best regards

mkzwo

 

[Grover48]

We were in Kona in April and used Kona Honu Divers. Great outfit and great boat. It is valet diving. They set up your gear for you, change tanks during SI and take the gear back to their shop if you are diving with them the next day. They wash your gear on the way back to port even if you are not going out with them again. Large boat with plenty of shade available.

I did the pelagic or Black Water dive with Jacks Dive Locker. I was the only guy on the trip with three other women. Seems women like the dive more than men do. We saw many interesting creatures and NO SHARKS. Plan on buying the video because your lights and camera and experience level will not be as good as what they have available.

 

[fjpatrum]

I just got back from Kona where I did a shore dive with Jack's Diving Locker (only shop I found that would do a shore dive) and the manta dive with Kona Honu along with the dolphin swim. Both operations were good. If you want to get a shore dive just to get acclimated to big island waters, I highly recommend it. It's $55 and we got about an hour of down time out of it with some good sights. All the other people I talked to (and even Jack's) said they couldn't officially recommend it but if you want shore dives, rent a tank and go to Place of Refuge (aka 2 step) and "tag along" with others. Plenty of divers there to latch onto as a third or meet up as insta-buddies.

I don't know how many dives you've had but all the operations I checked with required at least 10 dives (I think in the last year) and a minimum of one other night dive (sometimes with that shop) if you want to book the black water. Other than that, I think it's a safe dive and I plan on doing it if I go back to the island.

As for the Manta Dive, I can't stress enough how truly awesome it was. We had a fairly large number of Mantas (17) and it was incredible. I'll definitely do that dive again if/when I go back to the big island. I don't know that I'd want to do it 4 or 5 times in a week, but I could easily do it 2 or 3 times. Not much in the way of diving (you just sit on the bottom), but one hell of an experience. I did the 2 tank dive and we saw a lot of good stuff (including Mantas) on the afternoon dive before the sun went down. Eels, great coral, lots of fish, and an octopus garden that I hoped would be occupied but it wasn't when we were there. If nothing else, book the Manta dive for a couple of days and you won't be disappointed. I agree you'll not likely be able to do a 1 tank after a 3 tank long day trip, though.

 

[Hamachi]

Any suggestions on convenient areas to stay for a diving trip? I am also planning for a week out there, but not sure where most hotels are in relation to the dive sites / boat docks.

 

[mkzwo]

I found Kona Seaside Hotel quite reasonably priced and conviniently located.

 

[Scuba_HI]

I found Kona Seaside Hotel quite reasonably priced and conviniently located.

we stay there all the time not much to talk about but it is clean, cheep, close to dive shops and diving, and right at the beginning of the strip. but then again all we do is sleep there the rest of the time is spent diving or walking to the shops.

 

[mkzwo]

Thats basically my plan and also my reason behind choosing them.