Manta Ray Night Dive - The Big Island

[montyburns130]

I'm going to be staying in Waikoloa on the Big Island in September. I'm going to have time to do one night dive and one half day morning dive. I'm looking for suggestions on which dive shop does the manta ray night dive, as well as which companies are good to dive with out of Waikoloa. Thanks in advance.

 

[friscuba]

The only company I'm aware of that dives out of Waikoloa is Ocean Sports, I don't hear a lot about them. Blue Wilderness has a small shop in the Queen's Shops up there and dives out of Puako and Kawaihae. Up in Kawaihae you have Kohala Divers.

The bulk of the diving on the Big Island is down near Kailua. The area south of the airport is mostly blocked from the tradewinds by a couple of volcanoes and the diving is pretty much all day long there. The manta dive you've likely heard of is down there. Most of the operators launch out of Honokohau Harbor, with a couple ops launching off the Kailua Pier and Keauhou Bay. From the Waikoloa resorts your best bet for the manta dive is to hook up with a company that launches out of Honokohau, it's about a 30 minute drive from the resorts.

 

[montyburns130]

Thanks. Very helpful. Anyone that you recommend out of Honokohau?

 

[Teamcasa]

I used Big Island Divers. They did a first rate job on the Manta dives for me.
Big Island Divers Diving Scuba Snorkel Kona Hawaii Manta Ray Black water pelagic magic dive

Jacks Diving Locker also get very high marks here as well.
Jack's Diving Locker : where "Our Friendly People make the Difference"

 

[friscuba]

Thanks. Very helpful. Anyone that you recommend out of Honokohau?

I'd recommend me first, then several others. Most of the Kona area operators do a pretty good job.

If you're looking for smaller groups (I take a max of 6 on the boat and my average group size is typically 3-4 these days) and longish (yesterday's dives were 90 and 92 minutes, on the longer side for what you typically see here, for example - our dives aren't always that long, but we don't limit divers who are great on air to arbitrary time limits on the morning 2 tankers) multi-level dives on the day trips, then my boat may be one you're interested in. We run the day trips every day and the night stuff on M,W,F.

 

[S0ckm0nk3y]

Mr Burns,

If you're staying in Waikoloa Blue Wilderness Dive Adventures (their website sucks) is pretty convenient. They've got a small RHIB they trailer around and provide fairly personalized service. Like Friscuba, BWDA's boat only holds six people. Good folks run the shop and their boat diver is way nice. I personally think the diving is better up here on the Kohala coast and Blue Wilderness will be able to take you to the less traveled dive moorings off Puako or north of Kawaihae.

And +1 for Friscuba's Wanna Dive out of my preference for smaller dive ops that provide personal service and flexibility in dive profiles.

-Eric

 

[jfcl01]

WannaDive if you can, Big Island is good if you can't get on with Steve/Wannadive