We had an absolutely terrific time with Shaka Divers. Both boys finished their certification dives without any problems. We dove with Doug on two separate days. Due to the fact that we were there with extended family, we had a rather difficult schedule, but Doug was very accomodating.
First day, we met at McDonald's in Kihei (an easy "landmark" to find and of course, you can't miss Doug's bus!). We followed him down to Makena Landing, but the water was too murky, so we went to Ulua Beach. Visibility was not what I expected (since most of my saltwater diving has been in the caribbean), but tons better than most freshwater. We went to a depth of 39 ft for about 37 minutes. Had an hour fifteen minute surface interval, then went in for second dive. This time it was a 43 minute dive to 42 feet. That first day, it was Doug, another diver, my sons and me.
Second day (actually 3 days later, though) we dove the first dive at Makena Landing. This dive (the boys 3rd cert dive) was a 50 minute dive with a max depth of 30 feet. After a 2 hour surface interval, did the boys final cert dive at Ulua Beach (47 mins, 35 ft max depth). For this day of diving, it was Doug, Happy2BMe and her husband (Dale), my sons and me.
In addition to being very accomodating regarding dates/times of dives, Doug was very easy to get along with and did a great job briefing each dive and what skills were going to be covered. During the dives, he was always able to find and point out interesting wildlife (we saw a ton of different critters - fish, octopus, turtles, crabs, eels, etc.) Though Doug carried a camera, it certainly was not a distraction to him or us in any way. In fact, when we received the CD of our dives, I was amazed at how many pictures and how much video he had taken of our dives because I rarely saw him using his camera.
I went on all four of the boys dives. I don't THINK I was too much of a distraction to Doug or to my sons. I tried to stay out of the way for the most part, but did the skills when the boys did. One of my sons was a little anxious about mask-clearing in saltwater because he thought it would sting his eyes. So when I did the mask removal drill, I opened my eyes as wide as I could get them, to try to show my son that it wasn't anything to worry about. Actually looks pretty comical on the video that Doug gave us...
Overall it was a great experience and I would recommend Shaka Divers to anybody doing certification dives or anybody new to Maui interested in doing some shore diving. The dives were nice easy dives, small number of divers, Doug didn't cut corners on the skills and he made all the dives fun and interesting!
Steve
