thumbsplitter
Contributor
Recently we spent four days diving with three different dive ops. in Kona/Kohala, so I thought I’d write a quick review for anyone trying to decide whom to dive with. None of the diving was particularly advanced (72 ft was the deepest dive we made), so it’s possible that our opinions of the dive ops would be very different if we had been looking for more advanced diving on this trip
.
By far, our favorite was Kohala Divers. They were more expensive than the other two shops, but I would dive with them again any day. They have a relatively small boat, but they do a surprisingly good job getting everyone into the water quickly. The crew was very pleasant, and did a great job pointing out interesting marine life for each of the sites. I should also mention that we found the dive sites in the Kohala area somewhat better than those near Kona. In fairness though, we only did four dives in Kohala and four in Kona, so it wasn’t a very large sample.
In Kona, we did an evening and the night manta dive with Kona Honu. Our dives with them were good and I would certainly dive with them again.
Surprisingly, our least favorite dive op was Jack’s Diving Locker, which is generally described as one of the best shops on the island. A lot of our disappointment with these dives was the fact that our dive guide was shooting video at the same time, and was very distracted. In fact, the tank became loose on one of the divers in our group and the dive guide never even noticed (I ended up fixing it for her). It also bothered us that the guide swam so quickly that we had to work to keep up, something that annoyed my mother-in-law who is a photographer and likes to go slow. The large size of the boat also meant that occasionally there were too many divers in one location. In fairness to Jack’s Diving Locker, I heard that they have recently expanded and may be going through some growing pains. It is also the case that having a different dive master for our group could have completely changed the experience. That having been said, I think that guides acting as videographers cannot do both jobs effectively, and Jack’s might want to reconsider their policy on this.
All and all, we had several nice days of easy diving. The marine life and topography was impressive, but of course, the value wasn’t as high as many of the places we’ve been in the Caribbean, especially if you factor in the flight from the East Coast!
--Thumbsplitter
.
By far, our favorite was Kohala Divers. They were more expensive than the other two shops, but I would dive with them again any day. They have a relatively small boat, but they do a surprisingly good job getting everyone into the water quickly. The crew was very pleasant, and did a great job pointing out interesting marine life for each of the sites. I should also mention that we found the dive sites in the Kohala area somewhat better than those near Kona. In fairness though, we only did four dives in Kohala and four in Kona, so it wasn’t a very large sample.
In Kona, we did an evening and the night manta dive with Kona Honu. Our dives with them were good and I would certainly dive with them again.
Surprisingly, our least favorite dive op was Jack’s Diving Locker, which is generally described as one of the best shops on the island. A lot of our disappointment with these dives was the fact that our dive guide was shooting video at the same time, and was very distracted. In fact, the tank became loose on one of the divers in our group and the dive guide never even noticed (I ended up fixing it for her). It also bothered us that the guide swam so quickly that we had to work to keep up, something that annoyed my mother-in-law who is a photographer and likes to go slow. The large size of the boat also meant that occasionally there were too many divers in one location. In fairness to Jack’s Diving Locker, I heard that they have recently expanded and may be going through some growing pains. It is also the case that having a different dive master for our group could have completely changed the experience. That having been said, I think that guides acting as videographers cannot do both jobs effectively, and Jack’s might want to reconsider their policy on this.
All and all, we had several nice days of easy diving. The marine life and topography was impressive, but of course, the value wasn’t as high as many of the places we’ve been in the Caribbean, especially if you factor in the flight from the East Coast!
--Thumbsplitter
Last edited:
