Recommended Dive Shop In Kona?

[guppyman]

Another vote for Kona Diving Company. You must do the manta night dive.

 

[DiverDave1956]

My wife and I wanted to book a 3-tank long range charter but were told that we needed to make a previous dive with them or they wouldn't take us. This requirement was never disclosed on their website. In fact the only related verbiage on their official website for this dive charter was: "Some long range sites are best suited for Advanced Divers and above so let's be sure to talk about where you'd like to go and your dive experience and certification level!". My wife and I are divemasters - we have several thousand logged dives each, we're very active (I average between 200-300 dives per year), we are Nitrox certified/experienced, we've made previous dive trips to Hawaii/Kona, and on this particular trip we would be making several shore dives immediately prior to the requested charter. In other words we're VERY experienced and capable divers with recent experience. I can't see how we're not an appropriate customer for this charter. They wrote us saying: "...we group divers with like divers, which we cannot determine from a log book alone. We really like to get to know our guests because we try to make everyone’s experience as personalized as possible." If that TRULY was their rational, then they would also say "We'll take you on the charter, but since we haven't dove with you then you'll be with the "least experienced" group, so do you still want to go on the charter?" NO, instead they insist we spend another $200+ on a dive trip we don't want, so we can go on the dive trip we do want. In my opinion this is an underhanded way to force us to spend more money with them. They try to portray themselves in this situation as coming from a customer-oriented concern, but it's clearly not the case. It's their business, so they can make whatever rules they want, but if there's a REQUIREMENT of a previous dive with them to make this trip, then at the VERY least spell it out on the website. Instead they went out of their way on their website to give the impression that it wasn't a requirement by stating "...let's be sure to talk..." Kona Diving Company has wasted our time writing and calling them because they failed to disclose this unwritten requirement and in fact actively misled us with the charter description on their official website. Not customer-centric in this instance.

 

[Rustydiver]

+1 for Jack's Dive Locker. Large op with great, attentive staff. They have a pool on site, so OW training would be convenient. We did our AOW there a few years ago with a good experience.

+2 Dove with Jack's a few years back. Great crew, nice boat with easy exit/entry. Would dive with them again.

 

[49north]

When we were there in February, we used Sandwich Isle Divers. They are a small company that only takes a maximum of 6 divers. They had 2 DMs in the water and they were great at finding critters. We had a great time and I highly recommend them if you want to use a small dive op.

 

[bperc]

We dove with Jack's Diving Locker and would recommend them. Keller is a hoot and a great guide. Several other good guides too. The Manta dive was incredible.