Less Expensive / Value Priced Dive Ops / Discounts / Guides

[John Trecker]

Hoping to spend some time diving in Hawaii, but am a bit concerned about comments I have seen around the high costs and expenses of diving there.
Thought helpful to start a chain with info on less expensive / value priced dive operations and guides especially for those who might be doing extended dive trip with more dives where price can make a difference. Trying not to describe as cheap or inexpensive as safety is always the most important thing. But hopefully there might be some quality value priced options. Or perhaps there are some with good discounts, packages, or other opportunities.
Trying to avoid cattle cars, but maybe there is a tradeoff for price / group size. Sometimes though a great guide / spotter can make it all worth it in case anyone has great recs / suggestions.
Experienced diver with 400+ dives but very limited in Hawaii.

 

[runsongas]

grab a buddy, a dive flag float, and rent some tanks to go shore diving. but otherwise, there really isn't a cheap way to dive hawaii if it involves getting on a dive boat as the pricing is not really different between dive OPs. they all have similar fixed costs they have to cover. you can get a bit of a discount if you sign up for like 10 dives or 5 trips at once.

 

[living4experiences]

I've been diving on Maui (before the fires in Lahaina, a few years ago) and the Big Island (last week). I am strictly a boat diver. The dive shops in Kona have raised their prices post-Covid about 30%-40% with a bunch of bull**t fees added on, i.e., fuel surcharges, online booking fee (3%) and harbor fees (7%, roughly, not a fixed fee). I've always dived with Jack's Diving Locker (JDL) and you get 10% off as a return customer for diving only (not retail purchases), so that's who I chose for this trip. They do not charge BS fees; just the dive cost, plus tax. In Kona, the average 2-tank a.m. dive is $195, plus tax. Rental gear and Nitrox is extra. The condition of the reef has deteriorated and is very over-dived and certainly doesn't warrant the ridiculous pricing. For these prices, I wanted epic diving, and it was far from that. I'll write a trip report soon.

I have always had a good experience with JDL and they offer concierge diving...my favorite! They set up your gear on the boat and break it down for you at the end of the trip. They rinse everything for you on board during the ride back to the shop. They have nice big boats with camera buckets, onboard hot showers, drinking water, and lunch included (sandwiches, fruit, cookies). There are two ladders for a giant stride entry, so two people can get in and out of the water at the same time. Safety is important, so their briefings are very thorough, both about the boat (life jackets, emergency procedures) and the dive sites. Their guide-to-diver ratio is no more than 1 to 6, and they stick to that. They also guarantee 80-minute dives as long as you have the air to last that long. Their staff and guides are very good. They do a fantastic manta night dive and the blackwater dive. I did each of those twice.

The downside to JDL is they fill up their bigger boat, the Kea Nui. (See attached picture) There was a student group on nearly every trip, and there were up to 14 divers a couple of days. Even their biggest boat felt crowded. The students had their own dive guide, but that added 6-7 extra bodies on the boat each day. JDL seems to be catering to the student population, which then translates to going to the easy (and over-dived) sites. Then when the students "graduate", they are now diving with the very experienced divers and have no idea what they're doing. The first diver to hit half a tank turns the dive back to the boat.

Some other random information about expenses in Kona. Gas is currently $5.09 per gallon, $4.59 at Costco. It's hard to eat out for less than $40 per person (if you don't add alcohol). Rental cars are plentiful and reasonably priced now that they've restocked the lots post-Covid. I used IHG points for the Holiday Inn Express & Suites. The cash price for 8 nights would have been $3300, very overpriced for this brand of hotel.

 

[Chavodel8en]

I found local buddies through facebook or Meetup (scuba diving groups) and went shore diving in Oahu - Electric Beach & Sharks Cove are good options, depending on time of year/conditions. Im sure there are other shore diving spots on the other islands.

Good dives, maybe not as impressive as off a boat, but worthwhile.

 

[NorCalDM]

Here are my 2 cents on diving Hawaii. We go about 2-3 times a year to the Big Island which is my personal favorite for diving. We do a mix of shore and boat diving. There is plenty of good shore diving and you can buy a tank card from Blue Wilderness in the market on Puako Road, this will make it about $4.50 a tank. Most of the dive boats out of Kona dive the same sites so it will get crowded. The shops we use in Kona are Kona Honu, Big Island Divers and Pacific Rim Divers all are less crowded then Jack's. Blue Wilderness has a RIB that launch's from the Puako boat ramp and usually only has 4-8 divers on board. They dive mostly the Puako area and typically they are the only boat at the dive site. Kahala Divers are the only dive boat that is based at the Kawaihae harbor. Kahala Divers is my favorite as they are usually the only boat that dives the Kahala coast and you will be the only divers at the sites. Their boat is less crowded as well. I would use VRBO and rent a condo which is way cheaper than the hotels. We stay in Waikoloa Village and the condos range from $122 a night on up to whatever you want to spent. My buddy rents his condo for $189 a night for two bedrooms and two bath on the golf course. With a condo you have a kitchen and there is a Costco near the airport to stock up and then you don't have to eat out if you don't want to.

 

[LFMarm]

When in Maui, I only do shore diving on my own which is quite cheap and gets you to the best dive sites excluding Molokini and Molokai.

 

[bperc]

When in Maui, I only do shore diving on my own which is quite cheap and gets you to the best dive sites excluding Molokini and Molokai.

Have you been recently and if so, where do you get tanks and weights? I'm having a really hard time finding them for my trip in September. I'm staying in Kaanapali.

 

[LFMarm]

My go-to shops are Extended Horizons and Maui Dreams Dive.