Maui Dive Shops?

[MikeNY]

My wife and I are going to Maui in August - staying in Kapalua. Can anyone recommend a dive shop in the area? Also, my wife will be doing her first dives after recently getting her open water certification. She's a little nervous, so I want to make sure we hook up with a good dive boat that will accomodate her lack of experience. I have made arrangements with Lahaina Divers to go to Turtle Reef and Lanai, but I found them on the internet and don't know much about them.

Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[oversea]

i just dove with them 2 days ago, they are very good. Have them take you to the collapsed pier, its awesome.

 

[MikeNY]

Thanks for the info. Lahaina Divers schedule looks pretty rigid. They only seem to go certain places on certain days. Is the collapsed pier an appropriate dive for an inexperienced diver? This will be my wife's first real dive after getting certified. Is Turtle Reef worthwhile or a waste of time?

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Since you are up at the west end I would think that your wife would enjoy diving the mala wharf in Lahaina. It's shallow and teeming with life.

But I also urge you to take her to Honolua bay. It's a refuge that is fantastic. On our last trip I took a young diver out that had just gotten certified. She was nervous. We went out on the left side of the bay and I believe the deepest we got was 37 feet, but the majority of the dive is maybe 25 -30 feet. When we exited the water she gave me a hug and told me it was the most fantastic experience of her life.

There are some swimthoughs, lots of turtles and eels and sometimes dolphins come in to visit. Listen for those clicks.

Black Rock is another easy dive in the area which has lots of life and the site that all the instructors use is Airport beach which has a nice reef at a 45 degree angle from the entry. Very easy safe beach to dive.

Usually Lanai isn't so great this time of the year. If the vis isn't good at Lanai don't sign up for the trip. You'd be better off doing a trip to the Molokini crater, or especially the backwall. Even though is new she can dive the backwall. Be honest with the crew and they'll assign her an experienced dive leader that will guide her through every step. That girl I told you about? The next day she dove the backwall with
B & B Scuba from Kihei and told them it was the best experience of her life. How soon they forget

I think your wife would do great there too. But if Lanai is a must for you, go for it.

 

[oversea]

The collapsed pier is mala wharf as mentioned earlier and is the turtle bay area. Vis is great. Your wife will be fine, they have excellent instructors on board. Wait till you see it, its amazing. The only problem is that there is a river that feeds in front of it apparently controlled by lochs or something so at certain times there is a current and a kick up of silt, but don't miss it, its great.
We saw spotted eagle rays, octopus, turtles(my favorite) moray eels, reef sharks, etc. Its a whole other world there and its not deep, 40' to the sand. Lahaina divers has two very nice boats with on board air. Enjoy

 

[Gilligan]

Aloha Mike,
You got some good info from the other posts as respects Maui's West Side. I live on Maui in Kihei (South Side) and have been diving it for about 10 years. I am biased as I believe Maui's best scuba diving is on the South Side and that includes Molokini Crater offshore. If you take boats to Molokini from the Lahaina area you will have a long boat ride. If you make the drive to the Kihei Boat Harbor from Lahaina you will have about a 40 minute drive and a 15 minute boat ride to Molokini and other South Side dive sites. As mentioned above B&B is a good dive oprator. Just be aware that they are the earliest boat out in the morning. So if you are driving from Lahaina be an early riser. And yes, Maui does have a morning and evening rush hour. Two other very good South Maui dive operators are Mike Severn's Diving and Ed Robinson's Diving Adventures, both out of the Kihei Boat Harbor. All boats out of that harbor are trailer launched boats.
I caution you on taking larger (cattle) boats from Ma'alaea Harbor as many mix snorkelers and divers and sometimes Intro Divers. If they don't bring a seperate Instructor for the Intro Divers then they will be part of your second dive as there will be only the one dive guide. I think that is a ripoff. Scuba Diving and Snorkeling do not mix well here. The snorkel sites are in shallow water close to shore (except Molokini) and the dive sites are not. So neither get the best locations
Honolua Bay will require a walk down from the road above with all your gear on as there is a locked gate at the top but nevertheless a good dive. There are lots of shore dives on Maui and a great cheap booklet on them is available at;
http://www.mauicave.com/divemaui/index.html
I have some info on my site about Molokini;
http://kayakdiver.com

 

[813Diver]

Lahaina Divers' new boat is absolutely awesome. Big, fast, and roomy. She'll be happy with them as they cater mainly to more inexperienced divers. I found the crew to be really friendly. There will probably be some people there doing intro to scuba, however they have their own instructor and are seperate from the certified divers. I would NOT suggest taking them to Molokini though. The boat ride gets ROUGH! If you want to do Molokini, go from Kihei with Severns, Robinson, or one of those operators. Avoid the Maui Dive Shop. You said you have two charters lined up, Lanai and Turtle Reef. Lanai will be great (hopefully you'll get to go to the Cathedrals), but I'd skip the Turtle Reef charter and go to Molokini instead. It's a much better dive site. I'd suggest diving the back wall, but that might not be a good idea for a new diver unless she would feel comfortable diving along a 300ft. wall backing up to deep blue.

If you're staying in Kapalua, don't discount the Kapalua Dive Company (www.kapaluadive.com). I REALLY like them. They have shore dive packages that run about $250 for 3 dives (night, kayak, and DPV). That price may seem somewhat steep, but there are never crowds and it will probably just be you all and the instructor. He'll basically cater the dive to your experience levels. The DPV and kayak dives are the best, just make sure to do the kayak dive from the Ritz so you can go to Honolua Bay. The DPV dive takes you into the bay right in front of the hotel pool, which has some awesome rock formations and lots of turtles. If you dive with them, request to dive with Paul. He's a great diver, instructor, and is really friendly. I got my OW certification from him.

One caveat about Kapalua: the shore diving in Kapalua Bay itself isn't that great. It's full of kayakers, swimmers, and snorkelers, plus the viz is only in the 20-30 ft. range. That's why I suggest the DPV dive and kayak dive from them...they get you out of Kapalua Bay and into the better dive spots.

Enjoy your trip.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

One thing about Maui ... if you don't like a dive shop, there's always another one right next door ...

I've also had great experiences with B&B Scuba. One thing they do a bit differently that I really liked. Most dive charters will put you in a small group with a divemaster, and when the first person in your group gets low on air the whole group comes up ... the first time this happened to me I surfaced with 2000 psi in my tank. Boy, was I bummed (for this I paid $125 and got a total bottom time of less than an hour for two dives).

B&B has a system that lets you get more bottom time if you're a more efficient diver. They assign three or four divers per DM, but everyone starts the dive as a group. At a certain point they do an air check and shuffle the heavy breathers off with one DM, reassiging divers to other DMs as they go. Each DM takes a group up at intervals as they use up their air. That way, if you're good on air you get to continue your dive until you need to surface. I did three charters with them in a week, and my shortest dive was 55 minutes. Dive charters are expensive in Maui ... with B&B I really felt like I got my money's worth.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

They did exactly that at B&B with us. My wife is a very low consumer of air and she was always the last one up with Brads wife Blesi. One dive they were down for 72 minutes. She certainly go her moneys worth, as I did too.

 

[813Diver]

As much as you all keep talking about B&B, I'm starting to regret not diving with them on this past trip!

I guess I already know who I'll be diving with next year