Looking for Kona Dive operation & hotel recommendations

[Pliny]

I did notice find that jacks is a 5star gold palm PADI facility, and most of the rest are not.

See this page: Dive Shop and Resort Levels

Padi is a marketing organization and their highest level is reserved for exclusive partners. Eg Kona Honu does SSI and NAUI certs so they are not 5 star.

Edit: looks like Jacks does those certs too. Odd. Jacks does instructor training too, maybe they are in some special category.

 

[Lemna]

We visited Kona in December - January and dove with Wannadive, because we wanted a small boat. Steve (friscuba), Bob and Cathy were excellent DMs and very friendly. I had the best Christmas eve ever on their manta ray dive: 14 mantas and got to stay down long after the other boats had left.

 

[cuddlefish]

See this page: Dive Shop and Resort Levels

Padi is a marketing organization and their highest level is reserved for exclusive partners. Eg Kona Honu does SSI and NAUI certs so they are not 5 star.

Edit: looks like Jacks does those certs too. Odd. Jacks does instructor training too, maybe they are in some special category.

A PADI 5 star center can do referrals from other organizations. For example, if a diver has done all of the class and pool through NAUI or SSI, they can bring a Universal Referral to finish their certification dives (assuming the shop does Universal Referrals). The original instructor who did the class is still the certifying instructor. A 5 star PADI center cannot offer a NAUI or SSI, (etc) full course (academics, pool, dives, the whole course).

 

[klp5]

We used Jack's Diving Locker over Christmas vacation. Our three kids did their open water certification with them and we dove from the same boat. We also booked a shore dive, another boat dive, and the manta dive with them. We were pleased with all of our experiences.
Jack's seemed to make the effort to keep the kids diving with their instructor when we did the post certification dives. They were very helpful when booking and seemed to make the effort to accommodate our needs.
We dove from 3 of their boats- The Kea Nui, the midsized boat, and Diver Two. They were always thorough in their safety briefing before the boat left the harbor.
The staff was friendly in the shop and on the boats. I do not think I saw a frown once. Many of the staff appear to have worked there for many years. Which in the islands, can be a bit of an anomaly.
The diving gear that we rented was all in excellent shape. They seem to make an effort to keep people from peeing in the wetsuits, which means the wetsuits are not stinky!All of the boats we were on, had a large fresh water buckedt to use for underwater camera equipment.
Check in is at the shop, in downtown Kailua-Kona, pretty easy to get to. They then had vans that you could ride in to get to the harbor. You also had the option of driving yourself to the harbor.
They also had a great system for not wasting paper cups on board- clothes line and sharpie marker. Many of the dive masters had cameras and they offered CDs for sale( somewhat expensive).

If you had a dive computer, you were allowed to dive your air, if not you used the tables. They did have dive computers for rent, I believe.The dive groups seemed to be 5-6. All of the boats we used had fresh water showers to rinse off at the end of the diving.
We were impressed with the whole set up and plan to return in the spring for our kids to do their Adv Open Water!

As for where to stay, Kailua Kona area is probably best bet. Most of the dive boats leave from close to there. There are also plenty of places to eat in town. Jackie Rey's Ohana grill is one of our favorites!
kristy

 

[SandyUT]

thank Kristy! I am getting pretty happy with King Kam... to stay. Nice report on Jacks!

Jacks sounds pretty solid. Sounds like most people enjoy the staff and boats. we are not fussy, just want fun, safe and some flexibility to dive our own dive if we can. sounds like they will do it all.

 

[gunslinger808]

A great value for divers - Review of Kona Seaside Hotel, Kailua-Kona, HI - TripAdvisor

They made a good first impression - Review of Big Island Divers, Kailua-Kona, HI - TripAdvisor

here are reviews I posted on TripAdvisor for Big Island Divers and Kona Seaside.

 

[Pliny]

If you had a dive computer, you were allowed to dive your air, if not you used the tables. They did have dive computers for rent, I believe.
kristy

You definitely want to be on a computer driven profile for most Kona sites. Every one of my logged Kona second tank dives would be into deco on tables but never close on a computer.

Kona Honu has computers in their rental reg consoles. Kohala Divers will rent you a computer. I'm planning to get my own though, since I want to get at the rest of the functions and data and not just use it as a smart bottom timer and depth gauge.

 

[BSOD]

For hotels, the Outrigger in Keauhou was pretty decent when I went a few months ago. It's a 5-10 minute drive South of town, which keeps you away from the hustle and bustle of cruise ship crowds (if that matters to you), but still close enough to town for easily accessible eating/etc. Nice ocean views, and decent snorkeling a block away. Costco has a good package price with them.

With multi-day discounts, JDL was the best fit for my trip. Their bigger boat can sometimes be a cattle boat, but when I did the "advanced" trip, we took a mid-sized boat with two groups of 4/5+guide. If you're renting, their BCs/Regs are in good condition, and of the integrated alternate air variety (i.e. no dangling octo). All the guides and captains were really friendly and helpful.

I wanted to do some dives with Wannadive, but being low-season, they didn't have enough customers to go out the days I wanted (which is understandable).

 

[SandyUT]

Looking for a bunch of the dive ops - I cant locate many of the websites???
Cant find:
aloha dive co
dive makai
dive tek

found Sandwich, jacks and big island.

 

[friscuba]

Looking for a bunch of the dive ops - I cant locate many of the websites???
Cant find:
aloha dive co
dive makai
dive tek

found Sandwich, jacks and big island.

Dive Tek closed in '08 or '09. Dive Makai closed last year. Aloha Dive Co? The owner's still around running charters for one of the resorts up north, logos have been removed from the boats so I'm not sure exactly what's up with them the last couple of years.