Maui Dive Report

[FortWorthDiver]

Just returned from Maui to the wonderful land of Texas snow and cold - keep asking myself why I live in Hell ... but I digress.

Maui is AWESOME, if you have not been go now, just don’t expect the best diving in the world. I was somewhat disappointed, was honestly expecting a Pacific Grand Cayman and I got a Pacific Turks - not great diving, but good.

We dove Extended Horizons, and although the dive staff was extremely knowledgeable they are not someone I would dive with again. You meet the boat at the Lahina boat ramp at 6:30am, they do not have a regular dock - thus you wait for them to drop the boat before getting going - they also will not keep gear, which means you hump yer own for the week. The boat is way too small for 12 divers - which we had everyday, I would say 8 divers could be comfortable but that is it. The DM's are brilliant but some can become WAY to concerned with selling and taking pics while leading dives. We spent 10 minutes in 1st Cathedral while our DM took pics of everyone and everything, if you have never been to 1st Cathedral it is a very cool swimthru - 1 minute of precious air time, no more. A few times we had newbies losing buoyancy and hitting the top of the cathedral while the DM snapped away pics of stuff I still cannot see. The DMs not looking to sell pics lead awesome dives - but you never know who you are going to get. Then at the end of the day you get a nice speech about buying tshirts and tipping the staff - again things I have never seen from another dive op.

For Molokini we dove Mike Severns - much better time and an op that I would consider driving to from Kaanapoli every morning rather than diving Lahina. Big boat, great staff, and no sales. Molokini was awesome, but very crowded.

Must do dives: Molokini, Cliff House, First Cathedral, and Fish Rock.

Thanks again to everyone who posts on here, and I know some will disagree with me about EH - just my 2 cents.

 

[Wildcard]

Glad you enjoyed your visit. Many have false expectations of HI diving. It's the pacific not the carib... Try the Big Isle next time. Mo betta

 

[adjuster-jd]

I've never had a bad experience with Extended Horizons - they treated me like royalty last time I dove with them and pretty much let me get as much bottom time as I could. Pretty much everyone else on the boat was a relatively new diver. I was one of only two who had my own gear. While they did tell us they had shirts for sale, there was no hard sell on them. I did buy one because they were nice shirts. I've not been on the boat when DM's were taking photos (plus I have my own camera) so I have not experienced that.
As for tips, I don't recall a big production being made of that either. They mentioned something about a the tip jar, but no big pitch for tips. I never felt any pressure to tip or to purchase anything..

 

[KrisB]

Having had a better look at how DM's are compensated, I have no problem with a big pitch for tips. On some boats, that's all the pay they get (I don't know specifically about EH)... on others they can supplement it with photos as well.

As for spending 10 minutes in 1st Cathedrals. I guess to each his own... I went there with ERDA a couple years ago and spent 2 minutes in there. I wish I could have spent 20. Of course, that depends on your DM and your gear... if you have a light so you can look on the walls and ceiling, you can find some neat critters.

Finally, with regards to launching... I don't know what the problem is really with the boat ramp... personally I imagine it to be better, because I hope the cost savings (the harbour slips are very pricey) gets passed on to me at least somewhat. I guess my ambivalence also has to do with location -- Kihei's boat ramp is a much better departing point for Molokini than the nearest harbour (Maalaea).