My wife and I have been on Maui for the last month, I have pulled off 21 dives in that time so thought I would pass on my report.
First I would not call Maui destination diving, meaning you come here to vacation and then do a dive, you don't come here for a dive vacation. With one exception and that is molokai'i hammerhead shark diving...I will get into that later.
I lived on Maui and work as a diver from 1980 - 1989 and did some great diving, my goal this trip was to revisit some of those dive sites from basic to advance.
I started with a trip to Molokini crater, in the 80's I dove it every day for about five years and never got tired of it. Today I would call it a well beaten pathway everything seems minimum and worn. There were few fish and the coral has been trampled. The vis was awesome, over 150 feet.
I did two dives there at different times
1st the crater outer reef, I went with Scuba Shack. They were good at their job of taking divers diving, but it was obvious that they hated tourist, they had been doing this job way to long and not only was any question answered like pressing play on a tape recorder, even the complaint about having to answer the question had become part of the answer. the dive guide says that if we want to see stuff then make sure we follow him, well he drops to the bottom and starts his own little macro photo session of what little stuff there is, he never went further than about 50 feet from the boat anchor and never stopped taking pictures of the little critters. When we got back on the boat and if you asked to see what he was so busy taking pictures of he just walked away from you with no response. If you want a taxi ride without the fun or excitement that goes along with sharing your experiences and interacting with the people taking you out then go here otherwise there are some other great choices. The dive itself, we never went further than 50 feet from the mooring anchor, there was not much there.
The second trip out was at reefs end with a drift around the back side. Went with the same people cause they were the only ones doing the back side at that time. I was prepared for the taxi ride and jumped in basically doing my own dive, this is a good drift dive, in the 80's there where always 5 or 6 sharks that hung around there, we didn't see any, you could see forever and the coral etc was in a little better condition, but all the fish are gone
I decided my days of diving Molokini are over I would leave it to the 1000's of snorkelers and discover diving divers to go and bounce off the bottom there destroying whats left.
Next trip was with Ed Robinson....one word about the operation...FANTASTIC!!
When I got on the boat I saw this nice little old lady helping everyone, when she said she was our dive guide I was surprised, after our first dive together I thought I was diving with Jacques Cousteau's mother the one who taught Jacques how to dive. she knew everything about everything that we saw, maybe a cross between Wikipedia and Jacques would be better, she spent the whole dive pointing out stuff we would have never seen this woman has an eagle eye and spots stuff a mile away takes us there to check it out and then has something else to go see. I did a three dive charter with them that day, the winds where really bad and the water was rough so we had limited options as to where we could dive. My goal was to dive South Maui. We first hit this tank that sits out in the middle of nowhere it is a short dive, I would have chosen to do it as our last dive since you can see it all with about a 1000psi but the weather trapped us in a bit. Later we went a bit past La Puruse this is where we saw tones of marine life and had the great opportunity to dive with Jacques mother and see stuff others would miss. vis was over 100 feet maybe over 150 feet, and tons of marine life. Our third dive was also somewhere along south Maui in the La Puruse area, it too was incredible...as far as Maui diving goes.
all in all I would highly recommend Ed Robinson with one added suggestion don't rent there wet suits, there rental gear is a little dated and there wet suits should have been tossed overboard five years ago...these guys are set up for people who bring their own gear. But as long as youre ok with gear thats been used hard but still works well then no prob. I also had a friend who dove with Mike Severns and had the same sort of reviews. I did not dive with them but did hear great things about them too
Next I wanted to go to an old favorite dive site Five graves. I didnt remember how to get there or where to go underwater once I was there so I hired a guy who does shore dives. Shaka Dive..His name is Doug. You meet him and he is driving an old school bus and then follows him to the dive site. I am not sure how to comment on Shaka hes been diving the same shore dive sites on South Maui for 13 years, he know the sites inside and out, and will take you right to the resident eel, or turtle or whatever, I want to go to the caves and he was happy to take me there even when I passed by one he called me over and pointed it out. He knew where the frog fish was going to be, which I had never seen one so big it was the cool fish of the trip well except for the schooling hammer heads on another dive, but thats later. We had two kids about 10 years old and he was fantastic with them, if you want to just drop your kids off and leaving them to go diving, Shaka is the guy to do it with. On the down side, the whole thing is slow slow slow, tow beach dive was going to involve almost six hours. Upon hearing this I opted to do just the one dive. His gear well every piece of gear had a problem maybe even a major problem it was stuff that was being used on Maui in the 80s as rental gear ever since with no maintenance. I got in the water and found my BCD would not hold air he did offer to switch with his gear but I figured it looked to be the same condition so what was the point. The diving was only 40 feet to the bottom so I went like the good old days without a BCD kind of like using the old Hawaiian back pack. The diving was pretty good, lots of turtles, lots of reef fish, a dive guide who knew the reef, the history of the dive site, was a lot of fun, great with kids and cheap. I would recommend the dive site and Shaka diver for shore dives with the following caveats. Bring your own gear and plan to spend the whole day to do two dives.
After that I rented gear from Maui Dive shop, they have great gear at a good price, 34.00 per day gets you everything including one tank of air, which you get a free refill every day. They are happy to explain where the good shore dives are. They are in it for the sales thought; the people working in the shop are salesmen more than divers. They will work hard to send you on one of their boats, which might not be a bad thing; I didnt go I just wanted the gear.
My goal was to do some of the great dives that few know about on the north shore, Hobbit Land, Blow Hole, Honolua Bay, Nipili Bay etc. but the wind was blowing at 50 miles per hour, the seas where 15 feet and the waves where breaking in the 20 foot range .so I went surfing instead, Honolua was going off but thats a different story. I missed out on the North shore diving on this trip. I did do more beach diving in South Kihei, which I think might be the best diving left on Maui. With the exception of Black Rock in Kaanapali, but it is so jammed with people, but it is also still jammed with fish too. Not as many but for the west side still pretty good. There are other good west side dives that we did not do on this trip; shark pit is a favorite, Olowalu point, and a few others.
Next was Lahaina Divers to MolokaiI, the operation is a great, they are organized efficient professional and good host, they are friendly informative, accommodating and knowledgeable. The trip to MolokaiI is an adventure all in itself, the Pailolo channel is one of the roughest in the world according to the boat captain. There was 30 40 mile an hour winds with 15 foot seas for about 25 minutes when we crossed, then the wind calms right down but the swell, seas stay pretty much the same, it id=s rough on the surface, underwater it is like a swimming pool. There is 150 + visibility and tons of marine life, we dove a reef call fish rain because when you are down about 80 feet the reef fish are just raining down on you. There is current though, if anyones been to Blue corner in Palau, pretty much the same situation. But this dive is a drift dive so you feel nothing unless you hold onto the one ledge there, which we did , the current ripped my mask off and I could barely hold my reg in my mouth, we would hold on until everyone gathered together then let go and get shot out in the open ocean where the bottom is about 140 feet the water is so blue and then you see them, maybe a fifty to a hundred hammerhead sharks schooling above and below you, you ride the current around and then swim back to that ledge and do it again in giant circles. On one dive we jumped in the water just as about a hundred spinner dolphins swam right through our group of six divers, with a whale breaching about 100 feet away,
This dive is definitely an advanced dive just to get back in the boat, of course getting out of the boat was easy just put your gear on stand up and let go of the boat and you will be thrown overboard by the rough water, once in the water the dives are between 120 feet and 40 feet depending on where the sharks are. You need a computer, great buoyancy control, and you need to monitor your deco statues. There are no babysitting dive masters here this being said there were a few people on the boat that this dive was over their head and they did die or anything, generally they only did one dive though. Oh and did I mention that all the way there and back which is about 40 minutes there where at least 3 or 4 people sea sick and puking which just left more food for the rest of use, or surface interval was on the boat in the 15 foot seas with wave splashing over the boat and people were either eating lunch or puking over the side. Back to the dives, open ocean diving we dove at this little island about the size of a hotel room as far as floor space it took up, to our east was Maui about 9 miles away, to our west was MolokaiI about a 3 miles away, north Russia, really far away, and south Australia even further, the swells and currents where coming all the way from Russia unobstructed until they hit this island and the sharks just hang out here, they say they are not eating, but I think that is so we actually jump in the water with them. This is the one spot that I would call a destination dive that might equal the Galapagos for the sharks. The down side is, Lahaina divers only go there once a week
Well this is enough for now, I have more details if your planning a trip
First I would not call Maui destination diving, meaning you come here to vacation and then do a dive, you don't come here for a dive vacation. With one exception and that is molokai'i hammerhead shark diving...I will get into that later.
I lived on Maui and work as a diver from 1980 - 1989 and did some great diving, my goal this trip was to revisit some of those dive sites from basic to advance.
I started with a trip to Molokini crater, in the 80's I dove it every day for about five years and never got tired of it. Today I would call it a well beaten pathway everything seems minimum and worn. There were few fish and the coral has been trampled. The vis was awesome, over 150 feet.
I did two dives there at different times
1st the crater outer reef, I went with Scuba Shack. They were good at their job of taking divers diving, but it was obvious that they hated tourist, they had been doing this job way to long and not only was any question answered like pressing play on a tape recorder, even the complaint about having to answer the question had become part of the answer. the dive guide says that if we want to see stuff then make sure we follow him, well he drops to the bottom and starts his own little macro photo session of what little stuff there is, he never went further than about 50 feet from the boat anchor and never stopped taking pictures of the little critters. When we got back on the boat and if you asked to see what he was so busy taking pictures of he just walked away from you with no response. If you want a taxi ride without the fun or excitement that goes along with sharing your experiences and interacting with the people taking you out then go here otherwise there are some other great choices. The dive itself, we never went further than 50 feet from the mooring anchor, there was not much there.
The second trip out was at reefs end with a drift around the back side. Went with the same people cause they were the only ones doing the back side at that time. I was prepared for the taxi ride and jumped in basically doing my own dive, this is a good drift dive, in the 80's there where always 5 or 6 sharks that hung around there, we didn't see any, you could see forever and the coral etc was in a little better condition, but all the fish are gone
I decided my days of diving Molokini are over I would leave it to the 1000's of snorkelers and discover diving divers to go and bounce off the bottom there destroying whats left.
Next trip was with Ed Robinson....one word about the operation...FANTASTIC!!
When I got on the boat I saw this nice little old lady helping everyone, when she said she was our dive guide I was surprised, after our first dive together I thought I was diving with Jacques Cousteau's mother the one who taught Jacques how to dive. she knew everything about everything that we saw, maybe a cross between Wikipedia and Jacques would be better, she spent the whole dive pointing out stuff we would have never seen this woman has an eagle eye and spots stuff a mile away takes us there to check it out and then has something else to go see. I did a three dive charter with them that day, the winds where really bad and the water was rough so we had limited options as to where we could dive. My goal was to dive South Maui. We first hit this tank that sits out in the middle of nowhere it is a short dive, I would have chosen to do it as our last dive since you can see it all with about a 1000psi but the weather trapped us in a bit. Later we went a bit past La Puruse this is where we saw tones of marine life and had the great opportunity to dive with Jacques mother and see stuff others would miss. vis was over 100 feet maybe over 150 feet, and tons of marine life. Our third dive was also somewhere along south Maui in the La Puruse area, it too was incredible...as far as Maui diving goes.
all in all I would highly recommend Ed Robinson with one added suggestion don't rent there wet suits, there rental gear is a little dated and there wet suits should have been tossed overboard five years ago...these guys are set up for people who bring their own gear. But as long as youre ok with gear thats been used hard but still works well then no prob. I also had a friend who dove with Mike Severns and had the same sort of reviews. I did not dive with them but did hear great things about them too
Next I wanted to go to an old favorite dive site Five graves. I didnt remember how to get there or where to go underwater once I was there so I hired a guy who does shore dives. Shaka Dive..His name is Doug. You meet him and he is driving an old school bus and then follows him to the dive site. I am not sure how to comment on Shaka hes been diving the same shore dive sites on South Maui for 13 years, he know the sites inside and out, and will take you right to the resident eel, or turtle or whatever, I want to go to the caves and he was happy to take me there even when I passed by one he called me over and pointed it out. He knew where the frog fish was going to be, which I had never seen one so big it was the cool fish of the trip well except for the schooling hammer heads on another dive, but thats later. We had two kids about 10 years old and he was fantastic with them, if you want to just drop your kids off and leaving them to go diving, Shaka is the guy to do it with. On the down side, the whole thing is slow slow slow, tow beach dive was going to involve almost six hours. Upon hearing this I opted to do just the one dive. His gear well every piece of gear had a problem maybe even a major problem it was stuff that was being used on Maui in the 80s as rental gear ever since with no maintenance. I got in the water and found my BCD would not hold air he did offer to switch with his gear but I figured it looked to be the same condition so what was the point. The diving was only 40 feet to the bottom so I went like the good old days without a BCD kind of like using the old Hawaiian back pack. The diving was pretty good, lots of turtles, lots of reef fish, a dive guide who knew the reef, the history of the dive site, was a lot of fun, great with kids and cheap. I would recommend the dive site and Shaka diver for shore dives with the following caveats. Bring your own gear and plan to spend the whole day to do two dives.
After that I rented gear from Maui Dive shop, they have great gear at a good price, 34.00 per day gets you everything including one tank of air, which you get a free refill every day. They are happy to explain where the good shore dives are. They are in it for the sales thought; the people working in the shop are salesmen more than divers. They will work hard to send you on one of their boats, which might not be a bad thing; I didnt go I just wanted the gear.
My goal was to do some of the great dives that few know about on the north shore, Hobbit Land, Blow Hole, Honolua Bay, Nipili Bay etc. but the wind was blowing at 50 miles per hour, the seas where 15 feet and the waves where breaking in the 20 foot range .so I went surfing instead, Honolua was going off but thats a different story. I missed out on the North shore diving on this trip. I did do more beach diving in South Kihei, which I think might be the best diving left on Maui. With the exception of Black Rock in Kaanapali, but it is so jammed with people, but it is also still jammed with fish too. Not as many but for the west side still pretty good. There are other good west side dives that we did not do on this trip; shark pit is a favorite, Olowalu point, and a few others.
Next was Lahaina Divers to MolokaiI, the operation is a great, they are organized efficient professional and good host, they are friendly informative, accommodating and knowledgeable. The trip to MolokaiI is an adventure all in itself, the Pailolo channel is one of the roughest in the world according to the boat captain. There was 30 40 mile an hour winds with 15 foot seas for about 25 minutes when we crossed, then the wind calms right down but the swell, seas stay pretty much the same, it id=s rough on the surface, underwater it is like a swimming pool. There is 150 + visibility and tons of marine life, we dove a reef call fish rain because when you are down about 80 feet the reef fish are just raining down on you. There is current though, if anyones been to Blue corner in Palau, pretty much the same situation. But this dive is a drift dive so you feel nothing unless you hold onto the one ledge there, which we did , the current ripped my mask off and I could barely hold my reg in my mouth, we would hold on until everyone gathered together then let go and get shot out in the open ocean where the bottom is about 140 feet the water is so blue and then you see them, maybe a fifty to a hundred hammerhead sharks schooling above and below you, you ride the current around and then swim back to that ledge and do it again in giant circles. On one dive we jumped in the water just as about a hundred spinner dolphins swam right through our group of six divers, with a whale breaching about 100 feet away,
This dive is definitely an advanced dive just to get back in the boat, of course getting out of the boat was easy just put your gear on stand up and let go of the boat and you will be thrown overboard by the rough water, once in the water the dives are between 120 feet and 40 feet depending on where the sharks are. You need a computer, great buoyancy control, and you need to monitor your deco statues. There are no babysitting dive masters here this being said there were a few people on the boat that this dive was over their head and they did die or anything, generally they only did one dive though. Oh and did I mention that all the way there and back which is about 40 minutes there where at least 3 or 4 people sea sick and puking which just left more food for the rest of use, or surface interval was on the boat in the 15 foot seas with wave splashing over the boat and people were either eating lunch or puking over the side. Back to the dives, open ocean diving we dove at this little island about the size of a hotel room as far as floor space it took up, to our east was Maui about 9 miles away, to our west was MolokaiI about a 3 miles away, north Russia, really far away, and south Australia even further, the swells and currents where coming all the way from Russia unobstructed until they hit this island and the sharks just hang out here, they say they are not eating, but I think that is so we actually jump in the water with them. This is the one spot that I would call a destination dive that might equal the Galapagos for the sharks. The down side is, Lahaina divers only go there once a week
Well this is enough for now, I have more details if your planning a trip
