Recommended Maui dive op?

[melfox26]

I'll be travelling to Maui in June and would like a dive op recommendation from those of you who have dove there before. Preferably one on the west side, Kaanapali/Lahaina.

A couple conditions, of course:

NO cattle boats
Nitrox available
No arbitrary limit on bottom time, divers stay down as long as their gas/nitrogen loading allows

Thanks in advance for your help.


Mel

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Not on the west end but if you want to do Molokini I highly reccomend B&B Scuba

 

[Uncle Pug]

I second B&B

Brad could even set you up with trimix if you are certified for it.

 

[slammer]

I Agree With Pug. I Dove With B&b On My Last Three Trips And In Fact Was Certified By Brad. No Crowed Boat On Any Of My Trips. A Good Outfit!!! Ask To Dive Three Crosses Or Was It Three Graves I Don't Remember. Saw Lots Of Large Turtles And The Entry Was Exciting Different. Slammer

 

[DiveMaven]

Okay, does anyone know of ANY charter boat on Maui that has no dive time limit?

If you want to take a charter, unless someone tells me otherwise, I'd be shocked if there are any ops that won't impose a time limit on your dives. Otherwise, I think your best bet is to rent a Nitrox tank and do some shore diving. Nobody will tell you where and when to go, and how long you can dive.

If you want a charter out of the Lahaina area, Extended Horizons takes about 12 divers to Lanai. Otherwise you'll have to drive to Kihei, where you can go with B&B (6 divers), Mike Severns, or Ed Robinsons (both take 12 divers each). Remember that all charter operators have led dives, so you won't be able to go off on your own and do your own thing.

Although I like to dive with Lahaina Divers, you'll want to avoid them as they can take up to 24 divers on their boats, use AL72s as standard, and limits bottom time due to their charter schedule and SI requirements. They do have Nitrox though.

 

[Charlie99]

Extended Horizons sounds like the ones best suited for you in West Maui. They do limit bottom time, particularly for the 1st dive, but are more liberal than most. They do DM led group dives. Same for all other dive ops I know of in Maui.


For Kihei to Molokini trips I find the DMs at Mike Severns to be the least likely to get antsy and want to get out of the water before I'm ready. 60+ minute dives are common with them. I'm looking forward to my next dive with them in about 10 hours.

 

[melfox26]

Thanks for your replies all. I decided to go with Mike Severn's and their 3-tank Friday dive where they limit their load to 10 divers and go to more "advanced" sites. I'm just hoping for the back wall of Molokini, everything else is gravy.

For trips on the west side of Maui, does anyone have any experience with the "Gorilla diving" program at Pacific Dive? http://www.pacificdive.com/maui.gorilla.dive.html
Sounds like something I'd be interested in as well.


Mel

 

[Charlie99]

I decided to go with Mike Severn's and their 3-tank Friday dive where they limit their load to 10 divers and go to more "advanced" sites. I'm just hoping for the back wall of Molokini, everything else is gravy.

For trips on the west side of Maui, does anyone have any experience with the "Gorilla diving" program at Pacific Dive? http://www.pacificdive.com/maui.gorilla.dive.html
Sounds like something I'd be interested in as well.

The combination of heavy swell causing surge at depth and a strong wind that would push the boat towards the backwall during pickups caused Mike Severns to skip the backwall today.

For most people the dive times were effectively unlimited. Mine were 131' 61 minutes for the 1st dive at Enenui side of Molokini, and after an SI of 1:15 a 53' 73 minutes at Wailea Point. On dive 1 I was air limited, and dive 2 it was just me and the DM John at the end, and although I chose to go up while still having 900psi he seemed like he would have been happy to stay longer.

The 3 tank Aloha Fridays isn't necessarily to advanced sites. What I've seen is a day where they are more willing to make long boat runs to less dived sites, advanced or not. In fact, the first time I went on one of Mike Severns Friday dives nobody had mentioned that it was a 3 tank trip, and I only realized what was going on when the Capt and mate started gearing up for a dive after our second dive.

-------------------

I haven't done the "Gorilla Diving" under the current owners. About 4 years ago it was just guided dives by a petite local woman Angie, who has since moved to Maine. She was willing to do crazy things (in addition to moving to Maine) like rough entries on sharp lava rock and another dive where the entry point was a 25' cliff where they would throw the gear in and the jump down and don it.
Your best bet is to figure out what you want to do, then call up Pacific Dive and request it. If they won't do it, try some of the other local guys like Shaka Doug.