Maui Trip report Sept 7-14th

[StuartT]

2 of my dive buddies and I spent a week in Maui earlier this month and did a ton of dives. It was strictly a dive trip with the idea of doing mainly shore dives. We did end up doing a 2 tank trip with Mike Severns and the 3 tank adventure with Ed Robinsons. 4 of those dives were at Molokini crater with at least 100 ft viz. We saw 3 grey reef sharks, white tip, frogfish, huge lobster, a couple of rare nudibranchs, lots of moray eels, some big jacks, and tons of various reef fish. The rest of our dives were shore dives where most of the dive charters take people for the second dive from the boats. Mala wharf just North of Lahina was great. White tip there, turtles, an octopus, lizard fish, nudibranchs, etc. We also did 2 dives at Honolua bay ( if you ask the local nicely you can drive right down near the water with your gear) the right side of the bay is better than the left. Hawaiin scorpionfish about a foot long, a turtle cleaning station, lots of eels again, large reef fish, etc. We saw 2 eagle rays at Haloa point plus a manta ray there. More frogfish and eels. Moray, snowflake, striped, dwarf moray etc. 3 dives at 5 graves, 2 from the Makena landing side and 1 from the grave side. White tips, nudibranchs, frogfish, octopus, lots of turtles and those dives. One of my buddies saw 5-6 eagle rays at the end of one of those dives right near the shore in about 20 ft of water. We also did Ulua beach, Wailea point twice and Red hill. Our avg dive time was 85 min on all the shre dives with 1 at 108 min. Shore diving is very easy as long as there is no swell or big surf that mucks up the viz. I'd say the avg viz shore diving was 50 ft or so. We used Maui dreams in Kehei for our tank,weight,and flag rental. One of the only things in Maui that's not expensive( $40 for a 10 tank rental) All in all we had a great trip and logged 16 dives in the 6 days we had to dive. I'll post a few pics when I get a chance.
Frog fish

Larger frogfish

Scorpionfish

White mouth moray

Manta ray

 

[DiveMaven]

Great shots! Glad to hear that Maui didn't disappoint.

 

[TSandM]

Sounds like a perfect trip. I see those nudibranchs (last picture) are still in Molokini! One of the things I like about the Mike Severns boat is that they have an address book for unusual endemics, and you always get to see some pretty unique stuff.

 

[StuartT]

This week of diving started 48 hours after our trip to browning pass. Been to Maui many times and enjoy the long comfortable dives there and the troical life but the color and life in Port Hardy is the best diving I've ever done. Been there twice now and have next Labor day weekend already booked with the Hideaway. Some pics from that trip in the western canada forums. Those 2 trips were my fisrt experience with a camera/strobe combo. Got the sealife dc1200 w/strobe setup and it is very easy to use. So far only shot in auto though.