MikeRDar
Registered
Aloha everyone;
This will be a little more to-the-point than my usually long winded diatribes just because it's late and it's been a long day.
Headed to Maui via Superferry (we live on Oahu) Saturday. I'll talk more about the ferry another time, but suffice it to say it works great and is an enjoyable trip.
Our two goals were Cathedrals on the south side of Lanai (either of them) and the back wall of Molokini (I love walls). First up was Lahaina divers since they were recommended and would be a shorter ride to Lanai than any of the Kihei operators...
First off, booking with them over the phone was no problem at all, very helpful. I wouldn't normally mention that, but as you'll read later, we had issues with others. The shop was great, folks were friendly despite the early hour, directed us to a free parking lot (public) and got our paperwork in order quickly. They also mentioned that conditions were not going to be ideal, with a South swell coming in, which I appreciated. Since we didn't have much flexibility to change our dive plans for the week, we stuck it out, but they *appeared* to be allowing other divers to re-book. If that was the case, I'm impressed.
They loaded our gear on a truck, thankfully, because it's about a 3 block walk to the boat. They have two identical boats, custom made, and I have to say they are the best designed dive boats I've been aboard. Very well laid out, full size head (bathroom), plenty of storage, two freshwater showers, etc. Good, if cheesy, pirate themed safety brief over the speakers and we're off.
Probably my biggest single complaint comes right here... the tanks. As you may have heard, they use 72 cu ft aluminum tanks. There is nothing inherently wrong with a 72, it's just... annoying, given that the overwhelming standard in Hawaii diving is an 80. It just means adjusting everyone's tank straps a little, having a little less air, having slightly different buoyancy. None of this is a big deal, but WHY? Why would you equip a large, two boat outfit with, I presume, HUNDREDS of tanks that aren't the usual size? I don't know, but they did. By the way, I was aware of this when I booked and requested 80's, but was told no-can-do because of their storage racks being sized for 72s. Sure enough, it's a great storage setup, but it still begs the question... why not 80s?
My second complaint is more of a concern, because it didn't happen to us. The boats are obviously set up for quite a few divers, maybe up to 24. We only had 12 which made things comfortable, but it would have been quite a cattle operation if they had been full-up. A well coordinated and smooth cattle operation mind you, but a round-up nonetheless.
The third bummer had nothing to do with Lahaina divers: the conditions were indeed poor on South Lanai, and despite putting a divemaster in the pool at both Cathedrals, neither was suitable, so we ended up at Lighthouse and No-name reef. Lighthouse was lame, just a gradual sloped bottom with sparse, mostly dead reef, poor vis, and very few critters. Even the apparently common white-tip reef sharks weren't home. No-name made up for a little bit. A large pinnacle with several swim throughs and other nearby topography, it also had good sea-life and vis.
All in all it was a marginal day, disappointing due to the conditions. The divemasters made the best of it and gave great briefs for each, and we appreciated everyone's efforts. Summary: great shop, great boats, good crew and DMs, fair service (they switched tanks between dives, but otherwise didn't setup or breakdown), silly tanks, and reasonable rates. I'd dive with them again, but I might check out some other Lahaina operations too.
Second target was Molokini, which gave us a plethora of shops to choose from. The two most recommended were Mike Severns Diving, and Ed Robinsons. MSD came with slightly higher recommendations from most, so we tried them first. I won't rant about it too much here, but suffice it to say that after three phone calls to them, I gave up. The lady who answered the phone on all three occasions (one of those calls being made by my wife) was so unhelpful, I kept checking to be sure I had the right number. Every time it was like pulling teeth to answer a question, and it was VERY obvious that she had no interest whatsoever in helping you get the information you needed and booking your dive. You were just a distraction from re-lacing all her tennis shoes. An email to Mike Severns, returned by Pauline, revealed that they use an answering service to handle their calls so it was not actually a MSD team member I was talking to, and of course they would look into the problem. That was certainly encouraging, but in the meantime I had a great talk and booked with Ed Robinsons.
ER launched their boats from Kihei boat ramp, right across from where were staying. No shop of course, but they had a table set up with juice, coffee, etc and had all the paperwork ready on clipboards when we arrived. They also took our bags onboard immediately and set up our gear for us; much appreciated due to the tight confines aboard the boat.
Can't say enough about the DMs and crew. All were top notch, very friendly, positive, and informative. From the minute you arrived they ensured you didn't want for anything.
Boat was medium size, but well designed with a place for everything. The tank racks are in the center of the boat rather than the rails, so it divided the deck and made things feel a little more crowded than it actually was, but the arrangement certainly works and allows you to adjust your gear while sitting on the bench.
The crew asked each dive group early on what type of diving they enjoyed and what they were looking for, a nice touch. We requested the back wall and sure enough, that's where we headed. It's a drift dive from a small boat, so procedures were important, and they did an excellent job of explaining everything to expect; and then even brought our gear to us so we could suit up near the side-doors where we stepped in. Two groups of six, well organized so as not to bunch up.
The back wall itself was fantastic, with 100+ ft vis and plenty of critters. As predicted by the DMs, we actually didn't see much deep-water life, but the topography and small-stuff certainly made up for it. I'll throw some pictures below.
Getting out of the water I noticed another nice touch... fresh towels as soon as you were seated. Snacks and drinks as well. Again, it's a bit of a crowded boat, but with the DMs bending over backwards to hand you anything you need (fresh towel? more pineapple? how about a soda?) there's really not much need to climb over everyone.
Another small bit I liked... our next dive site was nearby (Red Hill) but they meandered about for a while to ensure a comfortable 1 hour surface interval, recommended by most agencies. It was obvious they weren't going to rush anything necessarily.
Red Hill was a nice site, but Molokini is a hard act to follow. Vis was probably 30-40 feet with current and occasionally strong surge. There was plenty of critter hunting to go around though and we enjoyed it. Probably the biggest gripe there was our fellow divers, who unfortunately were not very aware of their surroundings nor did they have excellent buoyancy control. My wife and I took more than our fair share of kicks to the head, and eventually decided to hang back and swim at our own pace. This left us in their silt (I think one guy never found his power inflator the whole dive) but gave us a chance to enjoy more once they sucked down their tanks and headed up. Speaking of which, I thought it was nice they way they allowed some folks to go up or stay down even though both dives were drifts. Most companies seem to call the dive for everyone when the fastest is done, but ER had a good system for letting buddy teams head up and get recovered while allowing the rest of the group to continue. No one was lost or left floating, and no one had their dives cut short.
I guess that's about it. I'll probably re-read this in the morning and make some changes, but for now I'll throw down some pictures and call it a night. Oh, and just in case it wasn't clear, Ed Robinsons was one of the best dive ops I've ever been out with, highly recommended.
This will be a little more to-the-point than my usually long winded diatribes just because it's late and it's been a long day.
Headed to Maui via Superferry (we live on Oahu) Saturday. I'll talk more about the ferry another time, but suffice it to say it works great and is an enjoyable trip.
Our two goals were Cathedrals on the south side of Lanai (either of them) and the back wall of Molokini (I love walls). First up was Lahaina divers since they were recommended and would be a shorter ride to Lanai than any of the Kihei operators...
First off, booking with them over the phone was no problem at all, very helpful. I wouldn't normally mention that, but as you'll read later, we had issues with others. The shop was great, folks were friendly despite the early hour, directed us to a free parking lot (public) and got our paperwork in order quickly. They also mentioned that conditions were not going to be ideal, with a South swell coming in, which I appreciated. Since we didn't have much flexibility to change our dive plans for the week, we stuck it out, but they *appeared* to be allowing other divers to re-book. If that was the case, I'm impressed.
They loaded our gear on a truck, thankfully, because it's about a 3 block walk to the boat. They have two identical boats, custom made, and I have to say they are the best designed dive boats I've been aboard. Very well laid out, full size head (bathroom), plenty of storage, two freshwater showers, etc. Good, if cheesy, pirate themed safety brief over the speakers and we're off.
Probably my biggest single complaint comes right here... the tanks. As you may have heard, they use 72 cu ft aluminum tanks. There is nothing inherently wrong with a 72, it's just... annoying, given that the overwhelming standard in Hawaii diving is an 80. It just means adjusting everyone's tank straps a little, having a little less air, having slightly different buoyancy. None of this is a big deal, but WHY? Why would you equip a large, two boat outfit with, I presume, HUNDREDS of tanks that aren't the usual size? I don't know, but they did. By the way, I was aware of this when I booked and requested 80's, but was told no-can-do because of their storage racks being sized for 72s. Sure enough, it's a great storage setup, but it still begs the question... why not 80s?
My second complaint is more of a concern, because it didn't happen to us. The boats are obviously set up for quite a few divers, maybe up to 24. We only had 12 which made things comfortable, but it would have been quite a cattle operation if they had been full-up. A well coordinated and smooth cattle operation mind you, but a round-up nonetheless.
The third bummer had nothing to do with Lahaina divers: the conditions were indeed poor on South Lanai, and despite putting a divemaster in the pool at both Cathedrals, neither was suitable, so we ended up at Lighthouse and No-name reef. Lighthouse was lame, just a gradual sloped bottom with sparse, mostly dead reef, poor vis, and very few critters. Even the apparently common white-tip reef sharks weren't home. No-name made up for a little bit. A large pinnacle with several swim throughs and other nearby topography, it also had good sea-life and vis.
All in all it was a marginal day, disappointing due to the conditions. The divemasters made the best of it and gave great briefs for each, and we appreciated everyone's efforts. Summary: great shop, great boats, good crew and DMs, fair service (they switched tanks between dives, but otherwise didn't setup or breakdown), silly tanks, and reasonable rates. I'd dive with them again, but I might check out some other Lahaina operations too.
Second target was Molokini, which gave us a plethora of shops to choose from. The two most recommended were Mike Severns Diving, and Ed Robinsons. MSD came with slightly higher recommendations from most, so we tried them first. I won't rant about it too much here, but suffice it to say that after three phone calls to them, I gave up. The lady who answered the phone on all three occasions (one of those calls being made by my wife) was so unhelpful, I kept checking to be sure I had the right number. Every time it was like pulling teeth to answer a question, and it was VERY obvious that she had no interest whatsoever in helping you get the information you needed and booking your dive. You were just a distraction from re-lacing all her tennis shoes. An email to Mike Severns, returned by Pauline, revealed that they use an answering service to handle their calls so it was not actually a MSD team member I was talking to, and of course they would look into the problem. That was certainly encouraging, but in the meantime I had a great talk and booked with Ed Robinsons.
ER launched their boats from Kihei boat ramp, right across from where were staying. No shop of course, but they had a table set up with juice, coffee, etc and had all the paperwork ready on clipboards when we arrived. They also took our bags onboard immediately and set up our gear for us; much appreciated due to the tight confines aboard the boat.
Can't say enough about the DMs and crew. All were top notch, very friendly, positive, and informative. From the minute you arrived they ensured you didn't want for anything.
Boat was medium size, but well designed with a place for everything. The tank racks are in the center of the boat rather than the rails, so it divided the deck and made things feel a little more crowded than it actually was, but the arrangement certainly works and allows you to adjust your gear while sitting on the bench.
The crew asked each dive group early on what type of diving they enjoyed and what they were looking for, a nice touch. We requested the back wall and sure enough, that's where we headed. It's a drift dive from a small boat, so procedures were important, and they did an excellent job of explaining everything to expect; and then even brought our gear to us so we could suit up near the side-doors where we stepped in. Two groups of six, well organized so as not to bunch up.
The back wall itself was fantastic, with 100+ ft vis and plenty of critters. As predicted by the DMs, we actually didn't see much deep-water life, but the topography and small-stuff certainly made up for it. I'll throw some pictures below.
Getting out of the water I noticed another nice touch... fresh towels as soon as you were seated. Snacks and drinks as well. Again, it's a bit of a crowded boat, but with the DMs bending over backwards to hand you anything you need (fresh towel? more pineapple? how about a soda?) there's really not much need to climb over everyone.
Another small bit I liked... our next dive site was nearby (Red Hill) but they meandered about for a while to ensure a comfortable 1 hour surface interval, recommended by most agencies. It was obvious they weren't going to rush anything necessarily.
Red Hill was a nice site, but Molokini is a hard act to follow. Vis was probably 30-40 feet with current and occasionally strong surge. There was plenty of critter hunting to go around though and we enjoyed it. Probably the biggest gripe there was our fellow divers, who unfortunately were not very aware of their surroundings nor did they have excellent buoyancy control. My wife and I took more than our fair share of kicks to the head, and eventually decided to hang back and swim at our own pace. This left us in their silt (I think one guy never found his power inflator the whole dive) but gave us a chance to enjoy more once they sucked down their tanks and headed up. Speaking of which, I thought it was nice they way they allowed some folks to go up or stay down even though both dives were drifts. Most companies seem to call the dive for everyone when the fastest is done, but ER had a good system for letting buddy teams head up and get recovered while allowing the rest of the group to continue. No one was lost or left floating, and no one had their dives cut short.
I guess that's about it. I'll probably re-read this in the morning and make some changes, but for now I'll throw down some pictures and call it a night. Oh, and just in case it wasn't clear, Ed Robinsons was one of the best dive ops I've ever been out with, highly recommended.
