Which Dive Shop? Honolulu

[Rebreather MD]

I would have to agree with Lecter. However I would say its more their course director

 

[stuartv]

I just got back from my trip and wanted to follow up on this thread.

I did 10 dives (5 2-tank excursions) with Hawaiian Diving Adventures. Hawaiian Diving Adventures - Home

I dove with Ian (x3), Scooter, and Andrew, and I met and talked to Randall on a couple of different days. We dove the YO/San Pedro, the Sea Tiger (a day dive and my first ever night dive), a few different reefs, and then went out of Waianae one day and dove the ULC and some lava tubes.

All the guys (plus Erica) were awesome. Ian was especially adept at finding and pointing out all manner of critters that I never would have noticed on my own.

One of the reasons that I ended up going with HDA was their ability to provide Nitrox. I was also seriously considering Gabe/Kaimana Divers, but he was not able to provide us with Nitrox and I wanted the convenience of not having to go get it myself and bring it to the boat. HDA picked us up and dropped us off every day except for the trip out of Waianae, and they provided the Nitrox we wanted for the deeper dives.

And (after Matt's post in this thread) I was also seriously considering going with Island Divers. They also offered Nitrox. But, the thing that won us over to HDA was that HDA would have us going out at 7:30 and back to our hotel by 11. ID's early boat doesn't go out until 8:30. With my buddy's wife and kids and my fiancée along, we wanted to do our dives and be back as early in the day as we could and that hour difference between HDA and ID was the determining factor for us.

Thank you to Dr. Lecter for the recommendation on HDA. They were great! I did mention to Andrew and Randall that DL had recommended them and they were highly complimentary of DL as both a diver and a great guy (just FYI).

 

[JBFG]

Going to dive Saturday. Report will follow after the trip! Super excited

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Andrew and Randall. . . were highly complimentary of DL as both a diver and a great guy (just FYI).

Glad you had a great time! As for the above, I think they're both just happy I haven't had the bad manners to get myself killed diving off their boat

 

[Kevrumbo]

oops. I'm staying in Honolulu for 1 day, where I want to dive from and than I'm going to Schofield Barracks

Next to Schofield near Wahiawa:
Three Oahu Dive Shop Locations | Island Divers Hawaii

 

[scottitheduck]

Sorry bout the Nitrox...... Stoked you had a good time diving here on Oahu though!

G

 

[scubadada]

I just got back from my trip and wanted to follow up on this thread.

I did 10 dives (5 2-tank excursions) with Hawaiian Diving Adventures. Hawaiian Diving Adventures - Home

One of the reasons that I ended up going with HDA was their ability to provide Nitrox. I was also seriously considering Gabe/Kaimana Divers, but he was not able to provide us with Nitrox and I wanted the convenience of not having to go get it myself and bring it to the boat. HDA picked us up and dropped us off every day except for the trip out of Waianae, and they provided the Nitrox we wanted for the deeper dives.

I have been to and dived Honolulu 3 times. I would not consider doing the Sea Tiger or YO-257/San Pedro without nitrox. This seems like a very important consideration in operator choice

 

[stuartv]

I have been to and dived Honolulu 3 times. I would not consider doing the Sea Tiger or YO-257/San Pedro without nitrox. This seems like a very important consideration in operator choice

Yep. I did both, and the Sea Tiger twice. I had Nitrox for those dives, but I'm not sure it gave me any extra bottom time, since I'm pretty sure my DM was on air and we went down and up together.

My RMV was somewhere around .55 or .6. I wonder what it would have to be in order for me to run out of NDL time on air before I actually got too low on air and had to ascend anyway, on that dive.

 

[scubadada]

Yep. I did both, and the Sea Tiger twice. I had Nitrox for those dives, but I'm not sure it gave me any extra bottom time, since I'm pretty sure my DM was on air and we went down and up together.

My RMV was somewhere around .55 or .6. I wonder what it would have to be in order for me to run out of NDL time on air before I actually got too low on air and had to ascend anyway, on that dive.

To be tied to the DM, who is diving air, defeats the purpose of diving nitrox unless you are doing it entirely for added safety and not for the additional bottom time.

 

[stuartv]

To be tied to the DM, who is diving air, defeats the purpose of diving nitrox unless you are doing it entirely for added safety and not for the additional bottom time.

I do understand that. And we agreed ahead of time that if he ran out of BT before we ran out of air, he would let us know and go up without me and my buddy and we'd come up when ready. It just worked out that I guess my buddy and I were both sucking down enough gas that we were ready to get out when the DM was. Being my first time diving that deep, I was also trying to be somewhat conservative and not push the limits of my available gas. I was making sure to actually be back in the boat with at LEAST 500 psi still in the tank.

Plus I now know that I developed (or brought with me?) a small leak (3 hole pinch flat) in my wing during the trip, so I'll never know how much, if any, that contributed to my gas consumption on those dives.