Open water referral check out dives in Maui

[berkeleygirl]

Hi!

My boyfriend and I just completed our 6 class NAUI Scuba Diver certification course in Berkeley in preparation for a trip to Maui from March 15-24. We feel pretty confident about our skills and have decided to do our check-out dives to obtain our certification in Maui. I've done a TON of research on places to do this, and just found your forum.

I'm wondering a couple of things:
1) We'd like to maximize our diving time by doing check out dives in interesting places. We definitely want to make sure we get good instruction, but are wondering if anyone knows of any shops which do these check out dives in especially interesting places. I'm in the process of calling around and comparing where they say check out dives will be done with our Lonely Planet Diving Hawaii book. Lahaina Divers check out dives apparently include some boat dives, and for an extra fee both Scuba Gods and Scuba Shack will let you take your last two dives at Molokini. Anyone really recommend against doing this, or have better ideas for us?

2) Our NAUI instructor said that we should be able to take our Universal Referral form to any shop, including a PADI one, and have them sign off on our four check out dives. When that is completed, he said that this form will serve as a 30 day temporary card until he issues it for us when we return. I've heard different things from different shops I've called, many of them wanting to issue us a PADI card (which I understand costs $30 or so, so I'd like to avoid that if possible). On Mark's Water Fantasy Diving site (http://www.waterfantasydiving.com/maui%20scuba%20diving%20classes.html), he seems to agree with what my instructor says--that the originating instructor can or even should issue the card. However, Maui Diving (http://www.mauiscuba.net/) went so far as to say that my instructor is totally wrong and that the instructor that does your check out dives HAS to issue the card. We want to do some boat dives for certified divers after we complete the open water certification dives...do you think shops will accept the completed universal form?

Thanks so much for any advice anyone can give me about our check out dives...I've already got good advice about where to go after certification by reading these boards.

Allison

 

[Wildcard]

I cant speak for NAUI but whoever signs off the last dive is the certing inst for PADI.
All places are cool when you first learn. Id focus on getting through the rest of your dives then worry about where your doing them.
Aloha and welcome to the board. Enjoy your visit!

 

[DiveMaven]

Of the three ops you've mentioned, I'd go with Lahaina Divers for instruction or your check-out dives. Yes, they have a big boat, but they are geared toward the new or beginning diver, have excellent safety practices, and all the training we've received there has been excellent (both OW and AOW).

However, if you're staying Kihei, you might check with B&B and Maui Dreams. Two favorites on this board. B&B is a boat operation (www.BBScuba.com) and Maui Dreams a shore one (www.mauidreamsdiveco.com).

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Aloha,

With the universal referal, if your open water instructor is with the same agency as your refering instructor he/she signs off on your card and nothing needs to go back to your refering instructor. If the open water instructor is with a different agency, he/she signs off on your paperwork to take back to your refering instructor. You can get a PADI card also (with a PADI instructor), by passing the final exam and paying a small fee.

IMHO checkout dives could easily wait until you get here to book. Mother Nature and Neptune have a lot to say about what is the best dives on a particular day. Also, where you stay has a lot of impact on the best advice, as well as possibly age &/or fitness (a picture of you two in dive gear would do). Proper diving research is often a two way street.

 

[berkeleygirl]

Hi,

Thanks to everyone for their feedback. We are staying in Kihei when we arrive, Thursday & Friday nights, so I just booked dives for Friday and Saturday morning with B&B scuba. They do their check out dives (and I think all their dives) on a boat and will hopefully take us to Molokini for both of them, so that's the best bet for us. We are mid-late 30's and in pretty darn good shape, and are good swimmers so I think this is going to be fine for us. Then we are going up to Ka'anapali for 3 days so will try to book something out of Lahaina to Cathedrals and maybe do some shore dives. I talked with Lahaina divers and they said they are trying to respond to the criticisms that their boats are like "cattle calls" by taking only 24 people in their boats which seat 36. They told me their would be 6-8 people diving with an instructor/divemaster.

In re: to the Universal Referral form, I found this website: http://www.universalreferral.com/ (see the "Referral Tips" page). Though Maui Diving said their instructor HAD to issue me a PADI card though my original training was in NAUI, as the website says, that this is wrong. I talked with some other folks and apparently they may have been confusing PADI rules with universal referral rules; in PADI the instructor who does the check out dives gives the certification, but with a Universal Referral form, it's the initial, initiating instructor who issues the card (it seems regardless of the affiliation of the instructor who does the check out dives). However, Lahaina Divers told me that though they do Universal Referrals and issue the "universal temporary card" the website and form mention, they would accept just my universal referral form with all the required signatures as a temporary card, just as my NAUI instructor at home said people should. If you'd like to see a copy of the universal referral form, it's available here: [SIZE=-1]www.villagedivers.com/SSI_Forms/Universalreferral.pdf

By the way, the guy at Lahaina Divers I talked to, Jonathan, was so incredibly helpful and nice I'm considering doing our Cathedrals dive with them despite the mixed things I've heard about them on this board, as well as Extended Horizons.

Thanks again--see you in Maui!
Allison
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[kidspot]

just a "note" but Lahaina Divers gets mixed reviews mostly because of who they cater to, new/infrequent divers. However they are definitely NOT a bad op... and probably your best bet for a new diver wanting to go to the Cathedrals.

I think booking with B&B for your checkouts was a great decision, I am a big fan of theirs. They are very good with new divers and will definitely give you some interesting sites for your checkout dives, which frequently are in the shallows at Molokini crater... the only downside is you'll be spoiled for much of your future diving

Have a wonderful time here

Tim

 

[bobmaggi]

ditto to what kidspot said about B & B. . . they are wonderful and you will be so spoiled! Extended Horizons out of Lahaina ( mala ramp) is great, too! Have fun! Take care, Maggi


I also agree with Wildcard. . . unless its bad weather/ swells, all the diving in Maui is great! Concentrate on getting the checkout dives first, tho, you should be fine! have fun!!

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Sounds like you have it handled. Nice to hear Lahaina Divers listens to us.

I'd correct my referal post by noting that it isn't universal if it's instructors from the same agency, just referal. With PADI the instructor for the 4th OW dive signs for the card. For universal referal, PADI instructors could easily follow the universal procedures but some may be easily confused.

 

[berkeleygirl]

Interesting...my instructor gave me a universal referral form and said that I should use that with whoever did my checkout dives, NAUI (like him), PADI, whatever, but that he would issue the card. Apparently I paid for that in my fees already. It IS confusing for all of us.

Just FYI, here's the response I got from Maui Diving Scuba center when I emailed them to explain the procedure I figured out about universal referrals:

"I think that you completely misunderstood what we were saying. What we said is that we can certify you for PADI, SDI or NAUI because we have instructors for all these agencies.
We also said that if you do NOT want us to give you the certification card, it is fine with us. The price for the certification dives is only $169.00, including all equipment.
If after you decide to do a boat trip to Molokini or Lanai, where there are no instructors on board, only divemasters, they will need to see a certification card for you to go diving, not just the referral form. That is why we said that it would be better for you to have a card after completion of dives.
Maybe Lahaina Divers will let you go, if they are the ones doing your certification...
Hope that clarifies your questions."

The big question for me is IS the universal referral form, all filled out with all the proper signatures but NO universal temporary card going to be enough to get us on boats? Apparently it will with Lahaina Divers, and I guess B&B could be a back up plan since they will have done our check-out dives (though we'll be far away at that point N. of Ka'anapali).

 

[Shaka Doug]

Don't sweat it. Sounds like you're already a bit worked up about this. Go out with B&B and do your thing. They'll take good care of you. Afterwards, Always bring all of your paperwork and update your logbooks as you go and you shouldn't have anything to worry about as far as "Proof" or "Temp Cards" go. Anyone should be comfortable taking you from there. The folks at B&B will tell you what to do next once you finish your check-outs.