A number of months ago, I was offered the opportunity to spend a week with friends in their timeshare condo and do a week of diving together. Accommodations would be free in their 2 bedroom/2 bath location. I pitched in for the rental car for the week and we all took care of our diving costs and negotiated some reduced rates for multiple days of diving.
I flew from Portland, Oregon on a $345 roundtrip with United that included a short layover in San Francisco coming and going. Checked bags were free since I paid for the fare with my United Explorer credit card. With the time change, I got into Kona before 2pm on Sunday the 12th and had the afternoon and evening to unpack, unwind, have a nice dinner and get the gear ready for the week of diving.
Condo was 5 minutes south of downtown Kona and all of the associated shops and restaurants and about 20-25 minutes to the marina. Breakfast and most dinners, we ate in the condo and most lunches were spent grabbing something at one of the local restaurants after morning dives.
We did our diving, for the most part, with Manta Ray Dives and were pleased with their service. Since we were doing multiple days, we negotiated the cost down to $100 per 2 tank boat dive. We were also a group of 4 people. Some days we did 2 dives, others 3 dives and others 4 dives. Cost for the Manta Ray night dive was at the normal going rate. Homepage
We also did 1 pelagic night dive with Jack's Diving Locker. I am glad we did it, nothing like being tethered over 3,000 ft of utter darkness, 3 miles off the coast for 75 minutes watching exotic plankton come up out of the deep and right into your face. That being said, it is not a dive I will likely repeat. Between the cost and the very late night, it is not something I would do again. I'd rather spend the money on additional reef dives.
Our last day of diving, we did our 2 morning dives with Manta Ray and then drove up to Kohala for a twilight and night dive to close things out. Those 2 dives were with Kohala Divers. The night dive was exceptional, but again, the cost, the late night and the additional drive time would not see me heading back up to Kohala, should I return to dive in Hawaii. I'd probably just stick with the diving through Manta Ray.
Manta Ray has a 36 foot Newton dive boat that was comfortable enough for the number of divers we had on the boat. Anywhere from just our little group to a maximum of 10. When we had 8-10 people, they put another DM in the water and spilt the group up to keep things more manageable. Tank fills were always in the 3200 psi range and we used 80cf aluminum tanks for the week. There was a marine head on board, but it was not real private. Giant stride entry and sturdy ladder for coming back onto the boat. Distance to dive sites from the marina ranged from 5 minutes to 45 minutes. Fresh fruits, chips, snacks, soda and water were plentiful for surface intervals. 1 hour dive times, sometimes stretched out to 70-75 minutes.
Water temp was a consistent 81-82 degrees and pretty good sea surface conditions all week. Air temps were pretty warm all week. High 80's to mid 90's. Exception was our off gassing day before flying home. We went up to Waimea to have lunch and look around and the weather was much cooler. Apparently there are as many as 11 different micro-climates on the Big Island.
It was nice to be out of the Caribbean and diving around some different fish species and nudibranch. Highlight for me was the Manta Ray night dive. We were the only boat that was out that night and we had a full hour with 3 mantas that just spent the entire time doing fly-by's. Really special and we only had 7 divers, including the DM. Another highlight was diving with a pod of spinner dolphins.
Overall, I enjoyed the diving a lot, although I did find it somewhat repetitive and not terribly diverse. For those who have never been, the reefs are all pretty volcanic and not real colorful; but that just made the colorful fish look that much brighter by contrast.
Here are a few pictures:
I flew from Portland, Oregon on a $345 roundtrip with United that included a short layover in San Francisco coming and going. Checked bags were free since I paid for the fare with my United Explorer credit card. With the time change, I got into Kona before 2pm on Sunday the 12th and had the afternoon and evening to unpack, unwind, have a nice dinner and get the gear ready for the week of diving.
Condo was 5 minutes south of downtown Kona and all of the associated shops and restaurants and about 20-25 minutes to the marina. Breakfast and most dinners, we ate in the condo and most lunches were spent grabbing something at one of the local restaurants after morning dives.
We did our diving, for the most part, with Manta Ray Dives and were pleased with their service. Since we were doing multiple days, we negotiated the cost down to $100 per 2 tank boat dive. We were also a group of 4 people. Some days we did 2 dives, others 3 dives and others 4 dives. Cost for the Manta Ray night dive was at the normal going rate. Homepage
We also did 1 pelagic night dive with Jack's Diving Locker. I am glad we did it, nothing like being tethered over 3,000 ft of utter darkness, 3 miles off the coast for 75 minutes watching exotic plankton come up out of the deep and right into your face. That being said, it is not a dive I will likely repeat. Between the cost and the very late night, it is not something I would do again. I'd rather spend the money on additional reef dives.
Our last day of diving, we did our 2 morning dives with Manta Ray and then drove up to Kohala for a twilight and night dive to close things out. Those 2 dives were with Kohala Divers. The night dive was exceptional, but again, the cost, the late night and the additional drive time would not see me heading back up to Kohala, should I return to dive in Hawaii. I'd probably just stick with the diving through Manta Ray.
Manta Ray has a 36 foot Newton dive boat that was comfortable enough for the number of divers we had on the boat. Anywhere from just our little group to a maximum of 10. When we had 8-10 people, they put another DM in the water and spilt the group up to keep things more manageable. Tank fills were always in the 3200 psi range and we used 80cf aluminum tanks for the week. There was a marine head on board, but it was not real private. Giant stride entry and sturdy ladder for coming back onto the boat. Distance to dive sites from the marina ranged from 5 minutes to 45 minutes. Fresh fruits, chips, snacks, soda and water were plentiful for surface intervals. 1 hour dive times, sometimes stretched out to 70-75 minutes.
Water temp was a consistent 81-82 degrees and pretty good sea surface conditions all week. Air temps were pretty warm all week. High 80's to mid 90's. Exception was our off gassing day before flying home. We went up to Waimea to have lunch and look around and the weather was much cooler. Apparently there are as many as 11 different micro-climates on the Big Island.
It was nice to be out of the Caribbean and diving around some different fish species and nudibranch. Highlight for me was the Manta Ray night dive. We were the only boat that was out that night and we had a full hour with 3 mantas that just spent the entire time doing fly-by's. Really special and we only had 7 divers, including the DM. Another highlight was diving with a pod of spinner dolphins.
Overall, I enjoyed the diving a lot, although I did find it somewhat repetitive and not terribly diverse. For those who have never been, the reefs are all pretty volcanic and not real colorful; but that just made the colorful fish look that much brighter by contrast.
Here are a few pictures:
