I am in Hawaii for a family vacation and squeezed in three early morning shore dives. The reason I chose shore diving is that I can have the rest on the morning to do things with the family, as I was back to my hotel by 930 to 1030 am, depending on location. A boat dive would have meant not being able to keep our scheduled lunch reservations.
Outfit used: Living in the Flow Scuba. They are the concession for the Hyatt Regency, where we stayed, and Tim was the instructor/owner that certified me in 2018, so a nice reunion for us. Tim had no other divers in my group for any of the dives.
For those of you that are interested, his wife Sarah is the one that wrote the PADI distinctive mermaid diving specialty. That part of the company is really popular now, with Forbes doing an article about her and a Korean reality TV shore using her school as part of an upcoming episode.
Back to diving. I dove three sites, Mala Wharf, Makena Landing, and Kapalua Bay. Conditions were excellent, with very little surface swell, sunny weather, and no winds for all three dives.
Mala Wharf was an easy 5 minute drive from the hotel. I met Tim there at 7 am, and parking was plentiful at that time. Non commercial visitors can park along the left by the restroom and shower towards the wharf while commercial vehicles have to park farther away, maybe 100 yards from the entry. The diver entrance is on the beach to the left of the wharf and there is an extended walkout in shallow water over irregular rocks with hidden urchins until it’s deep enough to put on fins. I recommend thick soled boots. The swim out is short, to the end of the still intact portion of the pier. This is where groups drop the flag and descend to 10 feet. From here it’s a short leisurely dive to the end of the collapsed pier, 25 feet max depth. There is a lot of structure and a lot of big and small life hidden in all of it. My memories are a frogfish the size of a small cabbage, a large conch trundling along the bottom, sleeping black tipped reef sharks, a spotted eagle ray looping off the structure, and turtles, turtles, turtles. I stopped counting at 30. A lot of fun, you can go really slow to find and observe little things, or do big circuits around and through the structure. We were first ones in the water at about 730 am but when we finished, the lot was getting full and there were 4 other groups in the water and a few more getting ready to enter. A great dive if there is not a big south swell.
Makena Landing is a good 50 minutes from the Hyatt. Tim picked me up in his dive van and we made it to Makena Landing just before 7 am. The parking lot was pretty empty, but it’s small and completely full by the time we finished gearing up. The walk to the sandy entry was 40 yards from our spot. There is a shower and restrooms on the other side of the entry and then a kayak rental outfit. The swim out is on the right side of the bay and we dropped the flag between a black mooring ball and the right wall and descended to 15 feet. The dive follows the right wall with some small “caves”, one with an air pocket, hiding turtles and sharks. These caves are really just deep alcoves with the largest being the size of a small bedroom. The topography is chunky with lots of coral. There was no current and I made it to three of the five caves before turning back with the wall on the left. Not as much fish as Mala, but we did find an octopus and there were tiny fry above the sea grass the size of silt particles, except they had tiny tails. Max depth 30 feet. By the time we got out and doffed our gear, a dive boat moored at the mooring ball and dropped off their divers for the same dive that we did. There were also three large catamarans dropping off hordes of snorkeled with matching pool noodles in the same general area. A nice dive but I think I would do it again only if I stayed in the Kihei or Wailea area as the drive back was also an hour.
The third dive was at Kapalua Bay, in front of merrimans and the Montage. I met Tim at 7 am and was able to get a parking spot easily. There is a shower and bathrooms next to the parking lot. The entry point to the beach is located a quarter mile from the parking lot, down a short flight of stairs, and was definitely the hardest physically. The swim out was along the right side of the bay towards a low coral shelf. We dropped the flag and descended in about 15 feet of water. The topography was big angled slabs and coral/lava shelves, with small valleys between coral or lava walls. Some turtles, schools of tangs, goatfish and squirrel fish under the shelves, and schools of trevaly and other silvery fish in the distance away from the wall. Spotted a small group of needlefish, and again the tiny fry against the sea grass. We must have missed the squid, but found its ink instead. This location was only 15 minutes from the Hyatt, and a very popular beach for beach type activities. A snorkel catamaran dropped off its group close to our dive site but we saw no other divers, maybe because of the long walk from the parking lot to the beach. The lot gets full really quickly with regular beach goers parking on the street.
In summary, shore diving in Maui can be fit into a vacation with non divers, and still allow time in the morning to do something with them. Go early to get a parking spot. Wear sturdy boots. Be prepared to walk with all your gear (for some sites). I did not bring my BC or regulator, but did bring my own mask, snorkel (for the swim outs), thin gloves, watch, computer, trilobite, compass, spool with DSMB, light, and dive skin with socks. The water temperature was 81 degrees at each site without a thermocline. You can expect AL80s with air as the standard cylinder and gas; nitrox seems to be hard to get unless you are going out on a charter boat.
Outfit used: Living in the Flow Scuba. They are the concession for the Hyatt Regency, where we stayed, and Tim was the instructor/owner that certified me in 2018, so a nice reunion for us. Tim had no other divers in my group for any of the dives.
For those of you that are interested, his wife Sarah is the one that wrote the PADI distinctive mermaid diving specialty. That part of the company is really popular now, with Forbes doing an article about her and a Korean reality TV shore using her school as part of an upcoming episode.
Back to diving. I dove three sites, Mala Wharf, Makena Landing, and Kapalua Bay. Conditions were excellent, with very little surface swell, sunny weather, and no winds for all three dives.
Mala Wharf was an easy 5 minute drive from the hotel. I met Tim there at 7 am, and parking was plentiful at that time. Non commercial visitors can park along the left by the restroom and shower towards the wharf while commercial vehicles have to park farther away, maybe 100 yards from the entry. The diver entrance is on the beach to the left of the wharf and there is an extended walkout in shallow water over irregular rocks with hidden urchins until it’s deep enough to put on fins. I recommend thick soled boots. The swim out is short, to the end of the still intact portion of the pier. This is where groups drop the flag and descend to 10 feet. From here it’s a short leisurely dive to the end of the collapsed pier, 25 feet max depth. There is a lot of structure and a lot of big and small life hidden in all of it. My memories are a frogfish the size of a small cabbage, a large conch trundling along the bottom, sleeping black tipped reef sharks, a spotted eagle ray looping off the structure, and turtles, turtles, turtles. I stopped counting at 30. A lot of fun, you can go really slow to find and observe little things, or do big circuits around and through the structure. We were first ones in the water at about 730 am but when we finished, the lot was getting full and there were 4 other groups in the water and a few more getting ready to enter. A great dive if there is not a big south swell.
Makena Landing is a good 50 minutes from the Hyatt. Tim picked me up in his dive van and we made it to Makena Landing just before 7 am. The parking lot was pretty empty, but it’s small and completely full by the time we finished gearing up. The walk to the sandy entry was 40 yards from our spot. There is a shower and restrooms on the other side of the entry and then a kayak rental outfit. The swim out is on the right side of the bay and we dropped the flag between a black mooring ball and the right wall and descended to 15 feet. The dive follows the right wall with some small “caves”, one with an air pocket, hiding turtles and sharks. These caves are really just deep alcoves with the largest being the size of a small bedroom. The topography is chunky with lots of coral. There was no current and I made it to three of the five caves before turning back with the wall on the left. Not as much fish as Mala, but we did find an octopus and there were tiny fry above the sea grass the size of silt particles, except they had tiny tails. Max depth 30 feet. By the time we got out and doffed our gear, a dive boat moored at the mooring ball and dropped off their divers for the same dive that we did. There were also three large catamarans dropping off hordes of snorkeled with matching pool noodles in the same general area. A nice dive but I think I would do it again only if I stayed in the Kihei or Wailea area as the drive back was also an hour.
The third dive was at Kapalua Bay, in front of merrimans and the Montage. I met Tim at 7 am and was able to get a parking spot easily. There is a shower and bathrooms next to the parking lot. The entry point to the beach is located a quarter mile from the parking lot, down a short flight of stairs, and was definitely the hardest physically. The swim out was along the right side of the bay towards a low coral shelf. We dropped the flag and descended in about 15 feet of water. The topography was big angled slabs and coral/lava shelves, with small valleys between coral or lava walls. Some turtles, schools of tangs, goatfish and squirrel fish under the shelves, and schools of trevaly and other silvery fish in the distance away from the wall. Spotted a small group of needlefish, and again the tiny fry against the sea grass. We must have missed the squid, but found its ink instead. This location was only 15 minutes from the Hyatt, and a very popular beach for beach type activities. A snorkel catamaran dropped off its group close to our dive site but we saw no other divers, maybe because of the long walk from the parking lot to the beach. The lot gets full really quickly with regular beach goers parking on the street.
In summary, shore diving in Maui can be fit into a vacation with non divers, and still allow time in the morning to do something with them. Go early to get a parking spot. Wear sturdy boots. Be prepared to walk with all your gear (for some sites). I did not bring my BC or regulator, but did bring my own mask, snorkel (for the swim outs), thin gloves, watch, computer, trilobite, compass, spool with DSMB, light, and dive skin with socks. The water temperature was 81 degrees at each site without a thermocline. You can expect AL80s with air as the standard cylinder and gas; nitrox seems to be hard to get unless you are going out on a charter boat.
