This is a belated trip report on my Kauai dive experiences from July 2017. I had a blast. SB’ers, especially AquamanKauai, were kind enough to offer some very helpful advice. Mahalo! I hope other visitors will find this useful and enjoy Kauai as much as I did.
Logistics: For the first night, I stayed around Lihue at the TipTop Motel, which was very convenient to the airport. The room was basic but clean, plenty of hot water and cold A/C. They have limited reception hours but were happy to make advance arrangements to pick up the key after hours. Later, I stayed up north near Princeville. This was really convenient for spending time with family, but not so close (about an 75-90 minutes drive each way) to diving in the south. Oh well, the beaches were awesome and no one disowned me.
Dive stuff: Water temps (in the summer) were in the high 70’s. I brought my 7mm because I hate being cold. No one judged me, haha, but most people were wearing 3-5 mm or less and seemed toasty.
My sense is that Kauai has a few different dive areas.
1. The south where most boat diving happens, with boats leaving out of Poipu or Port Allen. Also where to dive Koloa Landing and some other shore dives.
2. The west/southwest, part of which is reachable from the southern ports (especially Port Allen). NaPali and Mana Crack are up in the northwest, but not close for diving.
3. The east which seems to be mostly boat accessible and less dived.
4. The north, including the famous shore dive Tunnels, which is all shore diving. Due to ocean conditions, not diveable in the winter (Dec-April) and or in the summer.
5. Ni’ihau, which is a totally amazing small island to the west of Kauai. Difficult and expensive to get to, but amazing diving. Charters leave out of Port Allen (closer) or Poipu during the summer seasons, weather permitting.
One big thing I learned: Hawaiian tradewinds, which pick up in the afternoon around noon or so. I admit I was a little skeptical, because weather in the NE US is never so consistent, but sure enough, there was the wind, pretty much every day! So it’s really worth it to do the morning dives. (And if you're coming from the mainland, you're gonna wake up early anyway, right?)
I always feel awkward talking about dive shops, because I can really only tell you about the ones I dove with, right? All the shops I emailed/called were great to work with, so schedule and location ultimately dictated choices.
Explore Kauai Scuba was the first op that I dove with. I booked online and talked to Nick ahead of time (who is active on these boards) to let him know I made it to Kauai. On the morning of the dive, I drove from Lihue to Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor in the west to meet Nick & crew plus 3 new dive buddies. The drive was about 45 min, not much traffic early, GPS was completely accurate and so was the website. The harbor was really quiet when I got there but quickly filled up with people doing NaPali coast tours.
I did 2 dives with Explore Kauai: Hale o Honu and the other side of Hale o Honu. Halo o Honu lived up to its name with no shortage of turtles. Highlights: watching turtles literally line up for cleaning stations, seeing some endemic species unique to Hawaii and some small/macro critters (a fire dart, some new nudibranches to me, etc). Explore Kauai uses a large RIB which was the bigger, faster cousin of zodiac dive tenders I’ve dived with off liveaboards. Well, if the cousin had snacks. I would say the emphasis was on no-stress, safe diving and enjoying the dive experience. It can be awkward for dive ops to have divers without buddies come in, but that was not the case here thanks to some early communication with Nick. Bottom times were great - after part of the group went up, the rest stayed down to finish tanks. Visibility was not as quite as good as I would later see in the south, but I think the conditions were also a little rougher that day. (And also way, way better than the NE USA.)
I also dove 2 days with Bubbles Below, whose boat leaves out of Port Allen (about 20 min drive from Poipu). I scheduled trips from the south because the-dive-buddy-I’m-not-allowed-to-leave-behind arrived a day after me and gets tetchy with long drives. (Or maybe I'm the one who gets tetchy.) FYI, the parking lot is on a hill above the boat dock, so you drop off gear at the pier before parking the car then walk down.
On the first day with Bubbles Below, we did a 2 tank AM trip. Thanks to United airlines, my dive notes disappeared somewhere between Kauai and the mainland (I know, I should have put in my carryon), but I think we dove Amber’s Arches and Hale o Honu. The first dive had some very dramatic topography, with sheets of volcanic rock and a couple of overhangs/caves. There were a lot of schooling fish and some interesting macro stuff. Hale o Honu was just as fun on the third time. More macro stuff, still turtle-tastic.
I think Bubbles Below are one of the oldest dive operations on the island. I was mostly focused on getting my buddy back into diving after a few years. The Bubbles Below team were very accommodating and safety-oriented but also really nice about it.
Later that week, we did a trip to Ni’ihau (3 tanks). This is not a cheap or easy trip, but definitely a highlight which lived up to the hype. We really, lucked out with the weather and had a silky smooth crossing 2.5 hour crossing from Port Allen. I think our dives sites were Vertical Awareness, Pyramid Point, and Ni’ihau Arches, with the last a group drift drive. I spent about half of the first dive just watching a monk seal guarding his territory, most of the first surface interval looking for a monk seals on the surface, and the next 2 dives just chilling, enjoying the underwater scene. The crossing back was rougher, but not as bad as I had feared. We did luck out with the weather and also had a great group of divers who relaxed and enjoyed the dives, but were also safety conscious and got back to the boat.
I followed some excellent advice to take meclizine the night before and morning of the Ni’ihau trip, and had no seasickness issues. We did use nitrox for 2nd and 3rd dives, but not the first, in case of lack of vertical awareness on Vertical Awareness. Definitely bring sunglasses, a hat, and a rain shell or boat coat if you have one.
For scheduling purposes, I tried to plan as far in advance as possible but also tried to be flexible in case the weather didn’t cooperate. The dive ops tend to go out to Ni’ihau on different days of the week. At the time, the schedule was: Bubbles Below – Wednesday and some Saturdays, Seasport – Tuesdays and some Fridays, Fathom Five - Monday & some Thursdays. Explore Kauai scuba may go there when the weather is really, exceptionally good. Bubbles Below use their larger dive boat, which leaves out of Port Allen. From what I understand, both Seasport and Fathom Five leave out of Poipu, so the boat ride can be a little longer. Seasport has the biggest boat going to Ni’ihau.
The dives that got away: my dream list for Kauai also included a shore dive at Tunnels (to see lava tubes), a shore dive at Koloa Landing (to look for dragon morays), Mana Crack / Na Pali Coast (to see what can be seen) and some night diving (because night dives are awesome!). I didn’t get to these dives on this trip, but my family are still talking to me, and there’s always next time.
Dive thoughts: Most of my diving has been in either the Caribbean, Asia, or NE US. The boat dives off Kauai were pretty straightforward, with just some slight surface chop coming up from second dive and not much current at the bottom. Visibility was not as good as, say, Cozumel, but you'd still really have to work at it to lose your buddy. Ni'ihau had amazing visibility but I tried to do my homework and respect that this a remote location in the open ocean, where conditions can change quickly. On the day of my trip, conditions were not as rough as some places I’ve seen in the open ocean or with strong tides/current (say, Galapagos, Komodo, Socorro), but Ni’ihau could easily have strong currents and/or poor surface conditions. The boat ride back definitely involved some up and down. We lucked out with the weather for the crossing and diving, but I don’t expect I’d hit the same jackpot twice.
On a philosophical note, I loved Kauai diving, for beauty of unique places like Ni’ihau, the endemic species that were new to me, and the novelty of diving in a volcanic landscape. Ni’ihau was absolutely worth all the flying, driving, gear schlepping, money, and herding my buddy around. It would have been worth it even if I had spent the whole return trip upchucking off the back of the boat.
I have been spoiled by the opportunity to dive in many beautiful places. What made the Kauai trip awesome, though, was the dive operators. I talked to more dive ops than I could dive with; they were all welcoming and professional and I wished I could have gone with everyone. The two that I actually dove with, Explore Kauai Scuba and Bubbles Below, were fantastic. I would have loved to dive a few more days with both of them. Both are well run ops and their people clearly love diving. Nick and Explore Kauai went out of their way to make sure I had great dives even though I could only dive with them one day. Bubbles Below went out of their way to help my buddy get re-acclimated to diving so he could make the trip to Ni’ihau safely. They helped me keep an eye on him while we were out there without taking away from others’ dive experiences.
I have loved almost every dive I’ve done, but it was really great to dive in Kauai with people who love diving and love their island.
Mahalo to the folks who helped me go diving, and to Aquaman, ExploreKauai and the SB’ers who generously offered their advice.
Logistics: For the first night, I stayed around Lihue at the TipTop Motel, which was very convenient to the airport. The room was basic but clean, plenty of hot water and cold A/C. They have limited reception hours but were happy to make advance arrangements to pick up the key after hours. Later, I stayed up north near Princeville. This was really convenient for spending time with family, but not so close (about an 75-90 minutes drive each way) to diving in the south. Oh well, the beaches were awesome and no one disowned me.
Dive stuff: Water temps (in the summer) were in the high 70’s. I brought my 7mm because I hate being cold. No one judged me, haha, but most people were wearing 3-5 mm or less and seemed toasty.
My sense is that Kauai has a few different dive areas.
1. The south where most boat diving happens, with boats leaving out of Poipu or Port Allen. Also where to dive Koloa Landing and some other shore dives.
2. The west/southwest, part of which is reachable from the southern ports (especially Port Allen). NaPali and Mana Crack are up in the northwest, but not close for diving.
3. The east which seems to be mostly boat accessible and less dived.
4. The north, including the famous shore dive Tunnels, which is all shore diving. Due to ocean conditions, not diveable in the winter (Dec-April) and or in the summer.
5. Ni’ihau, which is a totally amazing small island to the west of Kauai. Difficult and expensive to get to, but amazing diving. Charters leave out of Port Allen (closer) or Poipu during the summer seasons, weather permitting.
One big thing I learned: Hawaiian tradewinds, which pick up in the afternoon around noon or so. I admit I was a little skeptical, because weather in the NE US is never so consistent, but sure enough, there was the wind, pretty much every day! So it’s really worth it to do the morning dives. (And if you're coming from the mainland, you're gonna wake up early anyway, right?)
I always feel awkward talking about dive shops, because I can really only tell you about the ones I dove with, right? All the shops I emailed/called were great to work with, so schedule and location ultimately dictated choices.
Explore Kauai Scuba was the first op that I dove with. I booked online and talked to Nick ahead of time (who is active on these boards) to let him know I made it to Kauai. On the morning of the dive, I drove from Lihue to Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor in the west to meet Nick & crew plus 3 new dive buddies. The drive was about 45 min, not much traffic early, GPS was completely accurate and so was the website. The harbor was really quiet when I got there but quickly filled up with people doing NaPali coast tours.
I did 2 dives with Explore Kauai: Hale o Honu and the other side of Hale o Honu. Halo o Honu lived up to its name with no shortage of turtles. Highlights: watching turtles literally line up for cleaning stations, seeing some endemic species unique to Hawaii and some small/macro critters (a fire dart, some new nudibranches to me, etc). Explore Kauai uses a large RIB which was the bigger, faster cousin of zodiac dive tenders I’ve dived with off liveaboards. Well, if the cousin had snacks. I would say the emphasis was on no-stress, safe diving and enjoying the dive experience. It can be awkward for dive ops to have divers without buddies come in, but that was not the case here thanks to some early communication with Nick. Bottom times were great - after part of the group went up, the rest stayed down to finish tanks. Visibility was not as quite as good as I would later see in the south, but I think the conditions were also a little rougher that day. (And also way, way better than the NE USA.)
I also dove 2 days with Bubbles Below, whose boat leaves out of Port Allen (about 20 min drive from Poipu). I scheduled trips from the south because the-dive-buddy-I’m-not-allowed-to-leave-behind arrived a day after me and gets tetchy with long drives. (Or maybe I'm the one who gets tetchy.) FYI, the parking lot is on a hill above the boat dock, so you drop off gear at the pier before parking the car then walk down.
On the first day with Bubbles Below, we did a 2 tank AM trip. Thanks to United airlines, my dive notes disappeared somewhere between Kauai and the mainland (I know, I should have put in my carryon), but I think we dove Amber’s Arches and Hale o Honu. The first dive had some very dramatic topography, with sheets of volcanic rock and a couple of overhangs/caves. There were a lot of schooling fish and some interesting macro stuff. Hale o Honu was just as fun on the third time. More macro stuff, still turtle-tastic.
I think Bubbles Below are one of the oldest dive operations on the island. I was mostly focused on getting my buddy back into diving after a few years. The Bubbles Below team were very accommodating and safety-oriented but also really nice about it.
Later that week, we did a trip to Ni’ihau (3 tanks). This is not a cheap or easy trip, but definitely a highlight which lived up to the hype. We really, lucked out with the weather and had a silky smooth crossing 2.5 hour crossing from Port Allen. I think our dives sites were Vertical Awareness, Pyramid Point, and Ni’ihau Arches, with the last a group drift drive. I spent about half of the first dive just watching a monk seal guarding his territory, most of the first surface interval looking for a monk seals on the surface, and the next 2 dives just chilling, enjoying the underwater scene. The crossing back was rougher, but not as bad as I had feared. We did luck out with the weather and also had a great group of divers who relaxed and enjoyed the dives, but were also safety conscious and got back to the boat.
I followed some excellent advice to take meclizine the night before and morning of the Ni’ihau trip, and had no seasickness issues. We did use nitrox for 2nd and 3rd dives, but not the first, in case of lack of vertical awareness on Vertical Awareness. Definitely bring sunglasses, a hat, and a rain shell or boat coat if you have one.
For scheduling purposes, I tried to plan as far in advance as possible but also tried to be flexible in case the weather didn’t cooperate. The dive ops tend to go out to Ni’ihau on different days of the week. At the time, the schedule was: Bubbles Below – Wednesday and some Saturdays, Seasport – Tuesdays and some Fridays, Fathom Five - Monday & some Thursdays. Explore Kauai scuba may go there when the weather is really, exceptionally good. Bubbles Below use their larger dive boat, which leaves out of Port Allen. From what I understand, both Seasport and Fathom Five leave out of Poipu, so the boat ride can be a little longer. Seasport has the biggest boat going to Ni’ihau.
The dives that got away: my dream list for Kauai also included a shore dive at Tunnels (to see lava tubes), a shore dive at Koloa Landing (to look for dragon morays), Mana Crack / Na Pali Coast (to see what can be seen) and some night diving (because night dives are awesome!). I didn’t get to these dives on this trip, but my family are still talking to me, and there’s always next time.
Dive thoughts: Most of my diving has been in either the Caribbean, Asia, or NE US. The boat dives off Kauai were pretty straightforward, with just some slight surface chop coming up from second dive and not much current at the bottom. Visibility was not as good as, say, Cozumel, but you'd still really have to work at it to lose your buddy. Ni'ihau had amazing visibility but I tried to do my homework and respect that this a remote location in the open ocean, where conditions can change quickly. On the day of my trip, conditions were not as rough as some places I’ve seen in the open ocean or with strong tides/current (say, Galapagos, Komodo, Socorro), but Ni’ihau could easily have strong currents and/or poor surface conditions. The boat ride back definitely involved some up and down. We lucked out with the weather for the crossing and diving, but I don’t expect I’d hit the same jackpot twice.
On a philosophical note, I loved Kauai diving, for beauty of unique places like Ni’ihau, the endemic species that were new to me, and the novelty of diving in a volcanic landscape. Ni’ihau was absolutely worth all the flying, driving, gear schlepping, money, and herding my buddy around. It would have been worth it even if I had spent the whole return trip upchucking off the back of the boat.
I have been spoiled by the opportunity to dive in many beautiful places. What made the Kauai trip awesome, though, was the dive operators. I talked to more dive ops than I could dive with; they were all welcoming and professional and I wished I could have gone with everyone. The two that I actually dove with, Explore Kauai Scuba and Bubbles Below, were fantastic. I would have loved to dive a few more days with both of them. Both are well run ops and their people clearly love diving. Nick and Explore Kauai went out of their way to make sure I had great dives even though I could only dive with them one day. Bubbles Below went out of their way to help my buddy get re-acclimated to diving so he could make the trip to Ni’ihau safely. They helped me keep an eye on him while we were out there without taking away from others’ dive experiences.
I have loved almost every dive I’ve done, but it was really great to dive in Kauai with people who love diving and love their island.
Mahalo to the folks who helped me go diving, and to Aquaman, ExploreKauai and the SB’ers who generously offered their advice.
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