Maui end of Oct - suggestions

[vpav]

Aloha,

We're doing a short 4-day trip to Maui at the end of October, staying in Wailea. Any recommendations for good dive shops and sites to see at this time of the year? We're both 500+ dives rescue/advanced divers.

Thanks,
Vlad

 

[Jaan]

Mike Severns all shut down and retired I think ... they were amazing but ...

 

[JohnN]

Big thumbs up for Maui Diamomd dive charter. Very professional, well organized

 

[landphil]

Maui Diamond has a super nice, well-run boat- definitely recommend. Wailea also puts you right in the heart of some great shore diving. I've done guided shore dives around there with Maui Dreams Dive Co.

The one nice thing about Maui boat diving is that the boats will always leave at first light so they can finish up before the afternoon winds pummel the leeward side of the island. That gets you back into the harbor with a half day to do some other touristing. All of the dive boats tend to do a lot of trips to Molokini. If you're only there for 4 days, you should shoot for just 1 tank at Molokini Crater to get a little more variety (if you can do the Molokini backwall dive, that's completely different and worth doing if it's scheduled while you're there.) The trip out to Lanai is also some great diving. But it's a lot more boat time, often in some significant wind and seas. Definitely want to be a couple of doses into your motion sickness medicine before you step on the boat.

And as you're driving back from the harbor, don't miss out on the Kihei food trucks and Kihei Foodland poke bar.

 

[Jcp2]

Island Style Diving (used to be Mike Severn’s) and Yonegan Prodivers (used to be Ed Robinson’s) go out of the Kihei boat launch, 5 minutes from the Wailea resort area. Maui Diamond leaves out of Maalaea harbor, 25 minutes from Wailea resort area. All three will go to Molokini inside crater, with some different trips depending on the operator. Dive Maui leaves out of Lahaina on a large RIB to Lana’i Cathedrals as their only trip as of now. They are more than an hour from the Wailea resort area.

I just dove with Prodivers yesterday (Molokini inside, moored dives, both ends for two tanks) and today (Molokini backwall, Molokini inside around the corner to backwall, St. Andrew’s wreck and reef towards shore, all three drift dives). Water was high 70s, I wore thinned out 3/2 surfing wetsuit with 1.5 mm hooded vest underneath and was comfortable. My favorite dive was St. Andrew’s looking for critters in the tire reef, but all were good dives.

I didn’t have time to shore dive, but Mala Wharf, Makena Landing, and Honalua Bay were nice dives. Mala is an easy pleaser as there is something for everyone. It’s just a long drive from Wailea and I ran out of time so didn’t do it this trip.

 

[Eric802]

Dive Maui leaves out of Lahaina on a large RIB to Lana’i Cathedrals as their only trip as of now. They are more than an hour from the Wailea resort area.

While the Cathedrals on Lana'i is a great dive, it's a beating riding there and back on Maui Divers' RIB.

 

[Jcp2]

While the Cathedrals on Lana'i is a great dive, it's a beating riding there and back on Maui Divers' RIB.

Maui Diamond also goes to Lana’i out of Maalaea Harbor, but it’s a longer ride and the dates didn’t work out for me as we had other things planned at altitude. We did take the high speed ferry to Lana’i out of Maalaea to visit the Lana’i cat sanctuary, the most popular tourist destination on Lana’i. The ferry is similar to the Catalina Island ferries, and the crossing takes just under an hour.