Staying at Hanua Kai on Maui, looking to do a few dives

[DiveMaven]

Please note that Ed Robinson’s is no longer in business as someone else on this board pointed out recently. Ed sold the boat and permits to ProDiver and now Sea Diver is called ProDiver III. The good news is that most of the crew is still there and the diving is the same so I’m being told that you’ll likely only feel a subtle difference. When you call, you’ll still talk with Robyn and continue to get excellent customer service.

I believe check-in with ProDiver is 6:15 (15 min earlier than ERDA’s old check-in time), but I’m hearing they have great snacks and drinks on the boat and really take care of the customers. I’m looking forward to diving with them in November to see what the changes are for myself. I’ve been diving with Ed Robinson’s for almost 15 years and working very hard to embrace the changes.

Unfortunately a 2-tank charter on Maui will run in the $150 range, give or take a few dollars.

 

[diversteve]

It' seems based on severalthings. I'm sure they're not paying for the pickup w/o adding that in.

Also if you want to go to Molokini from Lahaina, that's a longer run. Molokini from Kihei is a lot closer, on a good day you can tell some of the boats moored there from Kihei/Wailea - at least the bigger ones like Pride of Maui.

Plus the more the dive pkg. includes dives at the other islands the more it costs. IIRC Molokai is about the most expensive since it's a long ride.

Also almost as a rule kihei boats go to Molokini then back along the South Maui coast for 2nd dives, Lahaina boats generally dive Lanai except Lahaina Divers runs to Molokini a couple times/wk.

Here's their pricing - Scuba Charters - Lahaina Divers

If you want to get up early and drive to Kihei, consider B&B Scuba - Dive Molokini & Maui

I may have been a little low at 2/$100, haven't priced Maui recently. Actually I Never have, I pick reputation over cost. On a $3K/wk vacation $50 +/- isn't of concern to me.

Shame about Robinsons...

 

[scuBecca]

I dove with Lahaina Divers this past Feb and would dive with them again. My buddy did her check-out dives with them, so my dives were a combination of fun dives for me (solo), and "easy" dives for her (new buddy!). The afternoon dives seemed to be more full than the morning dives, with more "newbie" divers in the afternoons. Never felt crowded or packed in on the morning dives, plus the SI snacks were better!

There is a discount (or there was when I went) for multi-day dives (I booked over the phone), so my prices (2-tank dives) ranged from $72 (Turtle Reef) - $175 (Molokai).

It was an early morning and a long-ish boat ride to Molokini, but saw a good variety of fish at the Crater. A storm rolled in while we were there (and cancelled a few of my dives later in the week) so instead of a second dive in the Crater, we moved closer to shore and dove the Pali Coast, which was probably one of my favorite sites due to the sheer number of fish/varieties of fish there! The Backwall had lots of cool critters (nudibranchs!!, GIANT lobsters, frogfish, white tip sharks). Not sure of the comfort level of your group, but there was a decent current when I was there, and it's really easy to go deep (though that's where the big stuff is!).

My Turtle Reef dive was at Mala Wharf, which you can also do as a shore dive (there's actually a lot of shore dives in the area- Lahaina Divers has a helpful map you can pick up at their store. If I can find mine, I'll scan it and send it your way). Lots of turtles there, but also sharks sleeping under ledges, several varieties of shrimp, an octopus and NUDIBRANCHS!! (my favorite!). A Hawaiian monk seal showed up for our surface interval, so I jumped back in with my snorkel and watched him (her?) dive down and around the concrete structures for a while- that was pretty cool to see!

Did a trip out to Lanai and dove the cathedrals- lava tube swim-throughs- and that was pretty neat. A bit of a surge going through some of them, but some really different topography. Also found some nudibranchs I hadn't seen, so that was awesome!

The trip out to Molokai was... sporty? Crossing the channel was seriously choppy. The boat was pretty quiet, both going out and coming back, a few people got sick, but once we were through and closer to the island, things calmed down a bit. Getting back on the boat, the ladder pitched up and down quite a bit, but slowly enough that you could time your exit. Saw 3 hammerheads (including one that joined us for our safety stop! ...after I had turned off my camera got a shot of him swimming away). We checked out a reef on the first dive and saw a few fish, but it was mostly a drift-along-in-the-blue-and-hope-to-see-something kind of dive. We saw sharks, but not til the end of the dive.

I was there in Feb and saw more whales on my dive boats than on the whale watching cruise we did- we even had a mom and baby pass about 10 feet off the stern as we were getting ready to head back to shore! You'll likely see/hear them while you're there as well!

 

[doctormike]

Wow! Sounds great, thanks so much...

 

[doctormike]

Just got back, had a great trip, thanks to all who helped!

I ended up doing four two-tank half-days during my trip. Three with Extended Horizons (Carthaginian and Mala Wharf, Night dives at Airport Beach and Black Rock, and then double dip on the Mala Wharf). Did one half-day with ProDiver Maui out of Kihe (Molokini Crater and the St. Anthony).

I loved the Mala wharf, wish I had time to do it as a night dive. Airport Beach was nothing special (but it was twilight, maybe better at night). Carthaginian was pretty nice, I took my family on the submarine tour later and it was cool to show them where I had been diving). St. Anthony was a cool little wreck, and as I'm a big Grateful Dead fan, it was nice to hear the history about how Jerry contributed to the funding. Here's a little video of him diving, I believe this is in Hawaii.

Molokini crater was nothing special. I guess if you love vis, it's nice, but we didn't see much. They said they were taking us to the backside of the crater, but we splashed inside, swam around the interior wall and I think we might have crossed over for a bit, but nothing spectacular or different on that side. Maybe just the luck of the draw.

Black Rock was an AWESOME night dive, here's the only vide that I have finished so far:


Can't wait to go back... I think that I'll just rent tanks next time and do the wharf a bunch, to save some money for boat dives...

Mahalo!