What's special about diving in Hawaii?

[Rick Brant]

Re advance booking on Kauai, well it depends! If it is a busy week it can get hard to find slots. There are only two operators for Tunnels -- Kauai Scuba Adventures and Fathom Five (both are great). One family of divers can fill a shop's day in one booking. So for anything that is a must-do on a given date, I would book in advance. Niihau is worse as it is very popular and there are not boats going every day. There are more operators but weather is a larger factor. You can most likely get on a boat for local south shore diving without much advance notice, same for south shore shore diving. It's a small island and staffing is still a bit under.

 

[Rearviewmirror]

I will write up a proper trip report once I'm done diving, but for anyone coming to Hawaii I recommend Kona Diving Company in the strongest possible terms. Super-friendly and knowledgeable guides, they let everyone dive their tank, and have a very mellow and relaxed vibe for a day of diving. I'll be doing their night reef/manta dive tonight and very much looking forward to it.

 

[tms.pdx]

Hmmm, any recommendations on a great DM and dive shop on the island then?

 

[Rearviewmirror]

Hmmm, any recommendations on a great DM and dive shop on the island then?

Just finished my trip report - Trip Report - Hawaii - Kona/Big Island May 2023 trip report/dive shop comparison

 

[TheScubaDirectory]

Sounds like a busy trip!

If helpful, below is a link with a listing of dive operators and dive sites for the different islands.

Hawaii Dive sites & Dive Shops

 

[Deinonych]

Beat me to pointing out they no longer exist or no longer own a boat.

I'm really curious why you don't recommend ProDiver. I dove with Ed Robinson one year, then ProDiver post-COVID when I found out ER had sold the boat. I had a really positive experience, with the guide giving me a lot of leeway as an experienced diver. Ordinarily, I'd recommend them and dive with them again. But it's been almost 2 years, so I imagine things might be different? What's up?

(I should add that I strongly prefer smaller boats. I respect the folks at Lahaina Divers, but wouldn't dive with them again just because it's really a cattle boat scenario.)

The original owners of ProDiver (the ones who purchased ERDA's boat) sold the business to another owner. We tried to book with them last year (not knowing the owner was different), and were never able to get a response - no one picked up the phone, website didn't work etc.

Island Style Diving (new Mike Severns owner) is fantastic. Highly recommended. We also like diving with Maui Dreams out of Ma'alaea Harbor. They have a beautiful Newton 46 that's an absolute pleasure to dive from.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

The original owners of ProDiver (the ones who purchased ERDA's boat) sold the business to another owner. We tried to book with them last year (not knowing the owner was different), and were never able to get a response - no one picked up the phone, website didn't work etc.

Island Style Diving (new Mike Severns owner) is fantastic. Highly recommended. We also like diving with Maui Dreams out of Ma'alaea Harbor. They have a beautiful Newton 46 that's an absolute pleasure to dive from.

So Ed Severns is now Island Style Diving? That'd be cool.

Maui Dreams did me a huge favor last time we were there. Never gone diving with them, but appreciate their looking the other way when I "found" a tool I needed to do a quick battery replacement on my computer. (Their tech had managed to break both arms and nobody else in the shop was covered by insurance to do any kind of repair. They wouldn't do it for me and I didn't really need them to, but I'd inadvertently left the tool at home.)

 

[Tegridy]

For Maui, I'd recommend shore diving Mala Wharf and then snorkeling Honolua Bay.

I've snorkeled here before and its amazing!

 

[Tunaman68]

Diving on Maui is very good. As mentioned above, Mala Pier is a good shore dive. The Backwall of Molokini is awesome! So is the Backside of Lanai and the Hammerhead dive at Molokai.
On Kauai you can dive the Mana Crack on the Napili Coast. Also, they go to Ni'ihau. I haven't dove there yet, but I will in August. It looks pretty spectacular.
On the Big Island you should definitely do the night Manta Dive. The night Blackwater dive wasn't what I expected. Very tiny transparent creatures. Some people love it, I didn't.

THIS ^^. Kauai was good, not great but I never made it to Ni'ihau. You can also go over to Lanai from Maui and dive in the cathedrals which are super cool lava caverns and also I thought the vis over by Lanai was stellar as was the back of Molokini. If you like turtles, Hawaii is your place.

 

[Arbu]

OK, I left Hawaii about two weeks ago. I dived with Lahaina Divers at their Hammerhead location, Carthaginian, and the wharf. Saw hammerheads with them as well as a big school of spinner dolphins while diving, which were both fantastic.

I dived with Seasport Divers at Niihau. Seeing monk seals underwater, and lots of Sandbar Sharks was wonderful. But I was unimpressed with the fact that, spending $400+ for a day's diving with them, the "large lunch" they promise on their website turned out to be just cold pasta and pre-sliced bread, cheese and ham, and water to drink.

Anyway I do feel that the diving was comparable to that in Indonesia or the Philippines. Most of the fish that I saw in Hawaii could be seen there as well. It was good to see a number of endemics, and I really liked the concentrations of butterflyfish off the drop-offs, which was something new to me, but otherwise there were a lot of similarities. Not sure why everyone on this forum has insisted they are so different, unless they are referring to the standard of catering on the dive boats (!), which frankly would have been a lot better in Indonesia or the Philippines.

Here's a list of fish I have been able to identify (+ indicates a Hawaiian endemic). The numbers were really good, but most could be seen widely across the Indo-Pacific.

Arc-eye Hawkfish
Bandit Angelfish+
Blacklip Butterflyfish
Blacktail Snapper
Blue-striped Snapper
Bluefin Trevally
Bluespine Unicornfish
Bluespotted Cornetfish
Bluestripe Butterflyfish+
Bluestriped Snapper
Brassy Drummer
Dark Surgeonfish
Fourspot Butterflyfish
Freckled Hawkfish
Goldring Surgeonfish+
Great Barracuda
Hawaiian Chub+
Hawaiian Dascyllus+
Hawaiian Flagtail+
Hawaiian Hogfish+
Hawaiian Sergeant Major+
Hawaiian Spotted Toby+
Hawaiian Spotted Toby
Highfin Chub
Humpnose Bigeye Bream
Indo-pacific Sergeant Major
Island Goatfish
Lei Triggerfish
Mackerel Scad
Manybar Goatfish
Milletseed Butterflyfish+
Orangeblotch Surgeonfish
Pacific Bronze Chromis
Pacific Orangespine Unicornfish
Pacific Sailfin Tang
Pebbled Butterflyfish
Pinktail Triggerfish
Pyramid Butterflyfish
Raccoon Butteflyfish
Redfin Butterflyfish
Redlip Parrotfish
Rockmover Wrasse
Saddle Butterflyfish
Saddle Wrasse+
Sandbar Shark
Scalloped Hammerhead
Schooling Bannerfish
Smalltooth Jobfish
Surge Wrasse
Threadfin Butterflyfish
Undulated Moray
White-tipped Reef Shark
Whitebar Surgeonfish
Whitemargin Unicornfish
Whitemouth Moray
Yellow Tang
Yellowfin Goatfish
Yellowfin Surgeonfish
Yellowmargin Moray
Yellowstripe Goatfish
Yellowtail Coris