Trip to Hawaii

[Lamnid]

A friend of mine is going to Hawaii and is going to learn to dive with his wife. So far he has informed me that he's found more or less 1 million idve companies, all seeming to charge about the same. he asked if I could find out if there were any particularly good companies or if they would all offer the same, so here I am! He would prefer to dive on Maui, but if someone knows an especially good operator on one of the other islands, it's not a problem. Your experiences please! Caz.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

A little more info would help you get a better answer. What time of year, staying in what kind of accomodations, what is their age, physical condition, ocean experience? Every Island has good operators. My suggestion would be to do the pool and book work at home, then just the OW dives on vacation. Going to school in paradise is hard for most people.

 

[KrisB]

For certification classes, Maui Dreams Dive Co. tends to earn top marks from everybody I've talked to. All dives are shore-based (at the Open Water level, anyways) and their price is at the low end of the spectrum -- includes materials, cert card, rental gear and instruction at $299. No surcharge if only two people book (unless they specifically demand a semi-private class), additionally, they keep their groups very small, with no more than 4 students per instructor (and often less!).

If transportation is an issue, the resort ops are typically pretty good also, but you will pay a premium. One resort op I'm aware of charges $450 for an open water cert, providing there's two students -- if they're the only one booked, it's $599.

Doing the pool work here isn't usually a big deal -- it only adds a half-day to the class, at least the way I've seen it done. I know Maui Dreams (and likely other operators) will send the materials to the student at home so they can study and do the knowledge reviews before they get here... making the "school in paradise" virtually non-existent.

 

[BigBadDiver]

Give Ocean Concepts a call.

oceanconcepts.com

 

[DiveMaven]

I'd have to agree with Kris about Maui Dreams. Excellent for instruction. We did our OW and AOW with Lahaina Divers (years ago) and had an excellent experience with them.

 

[justleesa]

Aloha Caz!

Seeing that your friends would be coming from so far away I might suggest that the go the referral route. Referral means they would do their class work and pool skills at home and just complete their dives here in Hawaii. Doing it this way they wouldn't have to spend their time reading the book and watching the DVD's while here on vacation. They would have more time at home to do the ground work and most likely be more sure in the water when they get here.

Traveling more than half way around the world to get here and then spending time on skills where they could be done with them would free some time up for them to enjoy their stay in Hawaii Just a thought....

 

[Shaka Doug]

I agree with what Justleesa said. Have them look into doing a referral.

 

[lazyturtle]

With a post like this you're going to get everyone's pet shop, and thier personal self-endorsements. It's really hard to get an unbiased opinion, especially as negative comments (about guides or companies) seem to be.....unappricated. The best bet would be to look at the shops (or guides) that have taken the time to build a decent website, decide what you want from them, and see if they'll accomdate.
Personally I disagree about the referal comments. Get certified where you live and then you'll be able to spend more time diving on your vacation. In addition to doing more vacation diving, you'll be better prepared (as learning to dive in the UK will much more challenging than learning in Hawaii). If you do a referal down here, it'll take 2 days (well 2 half-days) to do the dives (which will be fun, but still training dives). That time could be better spent doing non-training dives (which will be even more fun).

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

B&B charges about the same as everyone else, right about 300 dollars but you do your checkout dives on the boat, twice, so you get two 109 dollar boat trips thrown in.

 

[Dayolddoughnuts]

While I somewhat agree with what lazy turtle said, a decent web site just doesn't cut it. When I went through the same thing, I called a bunch of shops from home to ask questions. One of the larger ones that shall remain unnamed, was too busy for my call, and asked me to call back or call another one of their stores. When I did, they were still too busy (probably selling t-shirts and renting crappy gear) - these guys had the best web site.

I wanted the same "personal" experience I have with my local dive store, and based on a referal I ended up with Pacific Dive. It's a family run shop and all of the people there are awesome. Everytime I went in there for air or advice, they said hi to me by name, got to know my family and basically were just incrediable people. Arty and Piper are husband and wife and run the place - check them out - www.pacificdive.com.