Trip Report Maui shore settling down

[Desertlifter]

Headed over to the island last week for a reunion/birthday party for my mom in Wailuku. Took most of the family and one of my sister in law's family, who had never been to Maui. My sister and bro in law got there a week earlier to do domestic stuff at our parent's house - they didn't get into that water at all between the brown out and then the big surge. Luckily things improved a fee days before I headed back. Anyhoo...

Chose Makena for our first jaunt. Got there before the park opened and hit the water as soon as we could. There was an OW class going on so we bypassed the bubble cave and headed out to toilet bowl and worked our way to the South Finger. Visibility was good. Lots of assorted critters including a frogfish and a spotted eagle ray.

Next morning we hit Mala. My regulator was spitting air out the port where I had my console attached so I missed the first dive. Nothing major- had to change the o-ring for the hose. That wavemageddon that rolled through the islands the week before we arrived (South Kihei road had just reopened when we arrived) took some more of the structure down. Poked around there for a great dive with minimal surge. Lots of Honu as usual, only one white tip. Sadness.

Many here knew Maui Dive Shop, who closed. The shop is now open as Maui Diving. Good folks, IMO. Rented my weights and tank there.

 

[Jcp2]

How is the parking situation at Mala? Same as before? I thought there was some discussion about some sort of overflow lot for divers.

 

[Desertlifter]

How is the parking situation at Mala? Same as before? I thought there was some discussion about some sort of overflow lot for divers.

We got there right at first light, so it wasn't hard to park on Saturday morning. Maui mantas were doing a cleanup dive and there was another group, but that was it other than us. We splashed our first dive at 0700 and the second at about 9 and it was starting to get busy.

My sister went back earlier this week and it was a hot mess. Don't know when she arrived. There was a snorkel tour and a bunch of other traffic to deal with. There was a cruise ship in town then so it might have made an impact - I dunno. All in all it was easier to get in and out of than Makena.