Looking for new Kona shore dive spots

[spoolin01]

I'm headed to Kona for a couple weeks the second half of March. I've been there many times and know all the readily identifiable Kona shore dive spots. I'm hoping to find a few suggestions for the more out of the way or less-known spots. I understand if you don't want to broadcast these to the world, so a PM would fix that. I'm willing to share the few spots I've found that I never see described here or on the web. I doubt they'd be news to any locals or long-time divers there, but you never know. I'll be staying just south of Kailua but am interested in anything from the north to south tips of the island on the west side.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Have you done any diving in Puako or Mahukona yet? I'm guessing you may have, but if not:

Puako "Village End" and Mahukona (from the old pier) are both good shore dives; in both areas you could make several dives over several days and not see everything.

I'm sure others will chime in; it may be helpful if you let us know where you've already dove so we don't list places you've already seen.

Have fun on your trip!

 

[friscuba]

It would be nice to hear what you consider to be "all the readily identifiable Kona shore dive spots", mainly to give an idea to responders what you've already done. Ooops, just noticed Leadturn addressed this at the end of the previous post.

Give us an idea of what you've done and if I know of other spots I'll be happy to mention them.

Aloha,

Steve

 

[spoolin01]

I'm mostly looking for access sites I may not have been able to find on my own. I've done Mahukona, Puako, Black Sand Beach, Keahole Pt, Honokohau Harbor southside, Old Airport, Kailua Bay, a couple places between Kailua Bay and White Sands, 4-mile, 4.5 mile, Kahaluu inside/outside both directions, Outrigger Keauhou, Keauhou boat harbor, in front of the old Kona Surf, end of Alii, Kealekekua ramp, Ke'e, Honaunau (Two-step), Hookena. That's about as far south as I've found access. I've tried a couple places between the airport and A-Bay but only found one decent one, due to the shallows and sand. I haven't tried much north of Mahukona.

There are a couple of places I've heard of but not found/tried yet. One being Casa Caves. Anyone recommend that spot?

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

I'm not familiar with Casa Caves, hopefully one of the Kona divers will read this post and be able to help.

It looks like you have hit many (most?) of the "usual suspects" as far as shore dives on that side that I know of.

The other places I know of (a different spot in Mahukona, and a spot nearer the new airport) are more difficult water entries, require 4 WD to access plus some hiking, AND for the Mahukona spot a climb down a short cliff.... AND I have not done them in 20 years and would have a hard time finding them myself (if access still exists).

Sorry I could not be of help. Hopefully the Kona folks can give you some more sugestions.

 

[friscuba]

Sounds like you've hit most of them. I've done Kapa'a north of Mahukona, it's mostly patch reef and goes out a long ways, good shelling. Kona Paradise is good diving if it's calm. Manuka is really cool, it's geologically young, lots of lava structure and less coral, but it's a long slow drive out there and 4wd helps a lot. Miloli'i is nice, I haven't dove there in years though so I don't know if it's a good idea to have someone watch your car these days.

 

[Gdog]

Was there last week, went to Miloli'i to check out the diving. Pretty rough looking as far as leaving your vehicle, although the local climbing out of the water from a dive said the diving was fantastic. Wife didnt trust leaving vehicle unattended, so we opted to drive back to 2 step again.

 

[spoolin01]

Thanks, I'll look into these new names. I'd not heard anyone recommend Miloli'i before but if I get down that far I may try it. I usually try to get around to the Kapoho pools, and have wondered about sites on the south side. Other than snorkeling at South Point, I've not tried any yet. I can probably only say I've thoroughly explored about half of the locations I listed above, so there will be plenty to keep us entertained as is.

Has anyone tried the area just off the walled compound at the Honaunau park? In other words, just to the south of the south point of the bay at Two-Step? I've approached from inside the bay but never gotten that far around the point, and the conditions have to be right for a shore entry there. I was thinking about getting around there by kayak. I like the South Kona area, but of course shoreside access is pretty limited.

 

[friscuba]

Miloli'i is similar to Keei and Puako, at least the part I dove.

At Honaunau, go to the back of the main parking lot and there's a road to the picnic area. Outside and slightly north of the main heiau wall there's a spot known as "the crack" that people used to get in and out of, it's just a big crack in the lava that partially protects the entry. I haven't dove it. I did dive off the picnic area years ago, it's different than off two step in that it gets deep faster and doesn't have as much nice reef stretching out in front of it. I still enjoyed it though.

If you're trying the kayak thing, I might suggest you head on down to Keei and going out around the point to the south and getting out front of the old YMCA camp, I've heard it's pretty good out there for swim-throughs and such.

 

[gkndivebum]

[...] One being Casa Caves. Anyone recommend that spot?

Casa Caves (cavern) is named after the Casa De Emdeko condominium complex which is just to the south of the dive site. The site itself is actually closer to the Royal Sea Cliff condo complex.

The dive itself features a shallow cavern to the north of the mooring and some reasonably nice coral cover and ridges to explore. It ranges from about 20 FSW, finally petering out into a sandy bottom quite a ways west of the dive site at about 90 FSW. It's usually done as a boat dive, quite often as a first dive on 2 tank "manta" charters if the operator is heading south to the Kona Surf, er, Sheraton dive site.

It's an interesting dive to do every now and then; it's been my impression that the visibility there is a bit lower than many other places along the Kona coast and is best in the morning. Sometimes there are young sharks hanging out along the E-W ridge to the south of the mooring.

I understand that it's possible to do this from shore; I think the entry is via the Royal Sea Cliff condos beach access. I've never gotten around to looking for it.