Need advice for Hawai'i

[dookie]

i have been certified for a little over a year and have made about 40 dives since. they have all been in pretty much blackwater spearfishing for catfish to a max depth of about 50ft. next week i am going to hawai for a week and will be making a couple of dives while there and would like to know how it is going to 90-100ft? i haven't been that deep and am wondering if it is a big difference. i think it will be great because i will see things other than my light beam.

 

[RJP]

Well, for starters there's plenty to see in Hawaii at 50ft so no reason to go to 90-100ft just for the sake of doing so. If there's something special to see there (wreck or something) fine, but you'll end up burning through your air twice as fast and/or running out of NDL a lot quicker.

Where specifically will you be diving?

 

[dookie]

one of the dives is a wreck dive at 85ft. thats about all i know about the different ones. i am going ot oahu saturday for a week. any pointer about loactions would be great

 

[AnneSat]

I was there some time ago and by then I had more or less your diving experience.
If you want to go 90ft there is the Kahuna Canyon near Oahu in the northern coast and on the western coats there is a Seaplane Wreck. Just to mention two spots... Anyway, Hawaii it's a great place to dive!

Hope this helps

 

[VBlueV]

wow.. you are in for some great dives!
had a dive last week with viz over 150 feet!
and average around Oahu is 70 to 100 feet.

here's a good list of shore dives around Oahu.. with descriptions on where to enter/exit..

Scuba Shore Diving Site Listing for: Oahu, Hawaiian Islands

#6. Hale'iwa Ali'i Beach.. otherwise known as "Hale'iwa Trench" goes down to 99fsw.

and here's a list of other sites and ship wrecks..

http://www.oahuscubadiving.com/index.php?/guide/

 

[friscuba]

If you've only done blackwater stuff, being at 90 feet here will be like a pool session, only more interesting. Keep track of your air, bottom time & profile... wouldn't want to get bent. I had an instructor buddy from Oregon dive with me on a shore dive for fun and when the dive became a deco dive I pointed it out to him... he was amazed... thought we were about 80' shallower than we actually were as he wasn't used to daylight anywhere near that deep.

 

[HawksinKalispell]

I just got back from Maui and did a couple of dives. The dives we did were probably max 60 feet, as the RJP said most of the good sea life is 50 or less. We dove on the North side of Oahu about 10 years ago and it was very cool, you are going to be hooked. Warm water diving is much much better. I would highly recomend bringing your light to exploring the multiple lava caves and tubes but you should have great vis and won't need the light to find your buddies. Have Fun, Aloha.

 

[edrobmaui]

I agree with all the comments about staying 50'-60' max but I disagree that there isn't any reason to go deeper. I didn't pick up which island you will be on? On Maui we have numerous dive sites with a bottom range between 85' and 110'. These sites host some of the same marine life as shallow reef, but in addition you find marine life only found in offshore areas, and the topography is different. Some of the most active and exciting dives we experience are at the 110' sites or by going deep 110'-130' at Molokini.

Molokini is great because you can do multi-level and get an hour dive with 130' (or less) max. depth.

My point is don't limit yourself to shallow dives unless you really want to stay shallow for some reason. We would loose about 1/3 of our dive sites (including some of the best parts of Molokini) if we could not go deeper than 60'.

 

[Black_3000psi]

sounds like you will be diving the y.o. which is actually two wrecks right next to each other.its an excellent dive not too deep. but it will help you better adjust mentally to going abit deeper.the best thing you can do is try to relax and control your breathing. slow long deep breaths.relaxed exhales. the idea is to control your heart rate. just remain in a relaxed state of mind and dont push yourself. cruise control is the key. if you can do that you will run out of bottom time before you run out of air. the y.o offers an awsome abundence of sea life.I wont tell you what cause thats like knowing what your getting for christmas but it should be a great dive.my best shark experience was at the san padro which is the wreck next to the y.o. unfortunatly the shark fishing charters have spooked the sharks away from those wrecks but some times they still make an appearance. good luck and enjoy your dives.

 

[llqwyd]

There are some really spectacular things here in Hawaii. I would recommend that you go see Brian over at Dive Oahu. They are a good operation and know many of the sites very well. I agree with RJP. A lot of the cool stuff that you are going to see is at 35 - 60 feet, so going deep is not a requirement. Plus, the bonus to that is longer bottom times!