Nitrox on Maui?

[czervos]

I'm planning a trip to Maui in January and wondered if there are dive shops that offer Nitrox? I've been checking out the websites of some of the better known shops and don't seem to see anything about Nitrox. Is it more common to dive with air at the dive sites around Maui or am I just missing something?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I'm guessing that like many SB'ers you have not updated your profile page.

In '01 I spent a couple months in the Keys becoming an instructor. I returned to Hawaii to find the EANx situation very different here than on the Inter-State connected mainland. The two main differences are; prices are very high and we don't usually do more than 2 or 3 dives per day.

There are at least 4 shops that pump EANx; I use Maui Dreams for South Side shore diving, Pacific Dive for West Side shore dives and Hawaiian Rafting Adventures supplies the West Side charter I work for.

Maui Dive Shop is the only dive shop I know of that will not get you EANx, and their boats are the only ones I know of that will not allow EANx on board. Advanced arrangements should be made, verified, checked and rechecked; the answering service people have mostly never seen a dive boat except on the web

 

[DiveMaven]

Lahaina Divers and B&B also pump nitrox. I believe that B&B supplies Ed Robinson's with the nitrox for their boats and its $15 extra per tank. Ouch! We only use it when we're doing the 3-tank charters with Ed Robinson's, otherwise air is the order of the day on Maui.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Just had an interesting phone conversation with Lahaina Divers. I asked how much $ to get my pony filled with nitrox. The dude who answered put me on hold for a moment to ask the manager, then came back on to say they do not fill pony's. I ended up talking to todays manager (english not her first language) and it seemed to me she thinks pony's are actually Spare Airs. But she admitted that she is not the pumper and they don't pump nitrox every day so it seemed she did not know if they would fill my pony and she did not offer to call me when she found out.

Neither of them had that experienced diver phone presence I was expecting.

FWIW, I do need to get my pony filled

 

[kidspot]

one other problem with Nitrox I've found is that I must order it at least a week in advance ... rarely could I be sure of getting it sooner and once had to wait almost 3 weeks for a fill :S This has happened at 3 different shops over the past few years.

This is probably the main reason I'd love to get my own compressor! btw - took nearly a week to get an airfill earlier this year too. Good thing I did not have any dives planned.

Aloha, Tim

 

[KrisB]

USUALLY, Maui Dreams has a good supply on hand in rental tanks. And they are usually pumping weekly or more often -- depends on demand. If all the rental Nitrox tanks are empty, their blender will usually spend an afternoon and fill 'em (and any customer ones there at the time, too).

 

[kidspot]

Kind of my point - even shops that deal with lots of Nitrox (lots for Maui that is) they don't fill every day - Currently on Oahu I get my fills from a shop that has banked 32% and even then they only fill 1-2x weekly... ah well time for the home compressor market to take off

Aloha, Tim

 

[KrisB]

Kind of my point - even shops that deal with lots of Nitrox (lots for Maui that is) they don't fill every day - Currently on Oahu I get my fills from a shop that has banked 32% and even then they only fill 1-2x weekly... ah well time for the home compressor market to take off

Aloha, Tim

It's true.

I suppose part of it is that there is also a culture of not owning tanks on the islands. So, as long as the shop has rental tanks filled, they may not bother to do a run to fill the customer tanks (unless there's enough to fill the fill-bank).