Molokini Crater - Back Wall Dive

[happydiver]

Hi all,

I will be on Maui in eight days. Among other dives, I am doing Molokini "Back Wall" and was wondering if anyone has done this dive and if so, can you give me some details on it?

Any information you can provide would be most appreciated.

Thanks and Happy New Year to you all!

Safe diving,
Happydiver

 

[Jason101010101]

The back wall is an awesome dive from what I understand and its high on my list of things to dive here. Even though I havent dove it I can tell you quite alot about it.
To start there is only one company on the Island that gaurantees they will do the back wall. Thats Maui Dive Shop.
It is a drift dive. Good bouancy control and air consumption is a must.
Its a bottomless dive(that is to say the wall drops vertically out of sight), and from what I understand quite breath taking. It's rated as one of Hawaii's best dives for diversity of marine life.Plan to see alot of white tip reef sharks, and if your quite enough hear plenty of humpback whales.
Visibility runs 70-150 feet.
If you book ahead maui dive shop does a 3-tank dive. 2 inside the crater and then 1 on the backwall.
Hope you have a blast in Hawaii!!

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi happydiver,

I have dived the back wall numerous times. Be aware that due to current & depth this is considered an advanced dive, and IMHO it is. Reputable ops will not take you unless they are first convinced that your skills are adequate. This usually means they have observed you on previous dives, but sometimes a log book showing the required skills will suffice. Going also means having the minimum number of qualified divers necessary to make it financially viable for the op. Additionally, the dive is condition dependent. The wave action on that side can get pretty wild, in which case it's a no go. I went in 8'-10' seas one time & the most perilous part of the dive was getting back on the boat. The seas in that region are typically calmer in the AM, and some ops leave very early to do this site.

Anyway, you'll drop in somewhere around the mid-point and rapidly drift around to the front, air permitting. The crater drops off fairly precipitously, althouh not entirely vertically, to bottom at about 400'. The profile is typically to ~90' plus/minus 10'. They'll be mostly uninteresting rock to one side & blue water to the other. The draw is the rapid drift & the chance to see big pelagics. Sharks of several varieties are common, and manta sightings are not unusual, although there are of course no guarantees.

Here's a neat aerial shot of the crater:

http://www.alohanetwork.com/molokini.htm

Hope this gets you started.

DocVikingo

 

[happydiver]

Hi DocVikingo,

Thanks for the great review of the back wall. My buddy and I have our AOW and have pretty good buoyancy skills.

We are so looking forward to it! We are diving it with Lahaina Divers - have you been diving with them?

Thanks,
Happydiver

 

[Warhammer]

report when you get back. My wife and I are planning a trip to Maui this June. I'm strongly considering Lahaina Divers, so let me know how they do. All the info I've gotten on them so far has been positive, except for price, which is typical in Hawaii.

 

[DocVikingo]

My pleasure, happydiver. Lahaina Divers does a fine job for a big op with large boats that serve a variety of divers.

You should have a superb time.

DocVikingo

 

[happydiver]

Hi Warhammer,

Just got back from my wonderful, sun filled, dive studded trip to Maui! I need to move there in a bad way! NJ and NJ diving just don't cut it after being out there!

Anyway, the diving was fabulous. We enjoyed LD very much. They use big boats and average 10 - 16 divers on it, but there was plenty of room to gear up. We dove 4 days and 1 night. The night dive is up there on my list of best dives ever. We went out on a Monday night dive to "Black Rock" with Greg (Frenchie) as our guide. He was almost as incredible as the dive. His dive briefing was second to none and we saw everything he said we would. We saw 6 different species of eels (all freeswimming), 3 huge turtles, 2 octopus, 1 fairly large squid, a spanish dancer, an eagle ray, a banded coral shrimp and countless other marine life!

We then did the 3 tank "back wall of Molokini" dive, again with Greg and he didn't disappoint this time either! We hired him for 2 of the three tanks to take pictures (he takes a roll of 24 pictures of whatever you want - we did 10 of us with marine life and 14 of just marine life). The highlight of the entire trip was that we saw a giant Manta ray and Greg got 3 pictures of it! We estimated the wingspan to be about 12 feet across! It was just swimming out in the deep blue - good thing we looked over our shoulders away from the wall for a moment or we would have missed him! Also saw and got a picture of a black tipped reef shark, also swimming out in the blue abyss.

We liked LD but we LOVED Greg. Definitely do the night dive at Black Rock (be careful of who you do it with though, 2 divers did the dive 3 nights before us and were swept out to sea and had to be picked up by the Coast Guard. They said the current was much too strong that night and the dive should have been aborted). The night we went, we only had a mild current.

The "Cathedrals" off of Lanai are not to be missed either. We got to do Cathedrals 1 and 2 - very cool rock formations and swim throughs.

Also, don't miss the back wall! We can't wait to do it again, what an experience.

LD does all the above dives and you get a 15% discount for diving 5 days - 10% discount for 4 days.

Sorry to go on and on, but it was just such an exciting vacation and the diving was the best - no matter what people say about Maiu diving!

Happy and safe diving to you and your wife,
Happydiver

 

[Warhammer]

Glad you had a great time diving with LD. I'll definately give them a shot. Move there? Only if you take me!

 

[happydiver]

Sure, move with me, but only if your wife allows it!! LOL!!

Enjoy!

 

[Warhammer]

That's one of the reasons she is set on Maui, she wants to check out the local living conditions and job market. She would love to move there as well. I've got a fairly good and hard to come by job here, if it wasn't for that I'd already be gone! We've been conteplating moving for a couple of years and if I could find a decent job in Hawaii, I'd move in a heartbeat. It's just hard to let go of the security here.

Looks like our trip there is going to be delayed until July. Her boss is taking a trip to France for 3 weeks in June, so she can't get off then. But come July, lookout Maui, here I come!!