Which Island is the best for diving?
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DiveMe:I prefer Maui, though to be fair I haven't dove the Big Island or Oahu. ;-)
Nice thing about Maui is that there's not only good shore diving on Maui, but there's 2 other islands to enjoy....Molokini crater and Lanai. You have the variety of in-shore reefs, an amazing "aquarium" dive in the inner crater of Molokini (100+ foot viz and dead calm water), the excitement of a world class blue water/wall dive doing the backwall of Molokini, and a bunch of fabulous dive sites at Lanai, including Cathedral 1 and 2.
Add to that all the on-shore activities and gorgeous beaches, and to me it's the perfect vacation destination!
Big Isle is all that and more in some ways, much differnet in more ways. It's all good.
Lived on Oahu, still, Maui and Big Isle. One thing about the big isle is no mater how bad the weather, you can find some place to dive....Sniff sniff, I mis big isle
Timothy Randall
Registered
DiveMe,
I am going to be in Kihei for 12 days March 12-22, I am the only diver in the group and wish to dive as much as possible. I am from the PNW and Have over 200 dives in the last couple of years. I really don't want to dive with a "Cattle boat" group. I am am Nitrox certified and dive/hunt Solo quite a bit. Could you recomend a good operator to hook up with? I would love to find an enthsiastic "local" diver to go with that knows the area/sites.
Thanks,Tim
PM and I will give phone number if interested.
I am going to be in Kihei for 12 days March 12-22, I am the only diver in the group and wish to dive as much as possible. I am from the PNW and Have over 200 dives in the last couple of years. I really don't want to dive with a "Cattle boat" group. I am am Nitrox certified and dive/hunt Solo quite a bit. Could you recomend a good operator to hook up with? I would love to find an enthsiastic "local" diver to go with that knows the area/sites.
Thanks,Tim
PM and I will give phone number if interested.
DiveMaven
Contributor
Tim,
I'd say get hooked up with Kidspot (Tim) and do some shore diving in the Lahaina area (unless Tim wants to drive to Kihei). You also might want to get in touch with ShakaDoug to do some guided shore dives in Kihei. Doug's definitely the shore diving "expert" on Maui and his prices are extremely reasonable for his services. For a boat charter, it sounds like B&B will likely fit your needs well. Although we haven't done any diving with B&B yet, I've read nothing but great things about them, they run a 6-pack, and can even do trimix. I'll be booking charters with B&B for our April trip and am really looking forward to the personalized service they give, as well as the longer bottom times.
Ed Robinson's and Mike Severns also run really good ops out of Kihei, but they put 12 people on their boats (6 to a guide), so only you can decide if you don't mind that.
However, I have to strongly recommend that you take at least one charter out to Lanai to dive the cathedrals. It's more than worth the effort it takes to get there. For Lanai, I think taking a charter out of Lahaina is worth the drive since the crossing is only 30 minutes instead of a good hour plus from Kihei. You'd probably prefer going with Extended Horizons for Lanai as they run a 12 pack boat vs. Lahaina Divers which will put up to 24 divers on their big boat. Personally, I prefer the bigger boats, so we go with Lahaina Divers (I have sea sick issues), and we've rarely had full boats with them, so it's worth it to us. Both Lahaina Divers and Extended Horizons run the same profiles at Lanai, with 35-40 min. bottom times, so to me the fact that Lahaina Divers uses AL72s is no big deal. I've never gotten below about 900psi on one of their tanks, so if you're good on air, size won't matter for Lanai dives.
Al, Tim (Kidspot), and Doug, can you guys chime in here?
BTW, I live in Brush Prairie, so we're neighbours!
I'd say get hooked up with Kidspot (Tim) and do some shore diving in the Lahaina area (unless Tim wants to drive to Kihei). You also might want to get in touch with ShakaDoug to do some guided shore dives in Kihei. Doug's definitely the shore diving "expert" on Maui and his prices are extremely reasonable for his services. For a boat charter, it sounds like B&B will likely fit your needs well. Although we haven't done any diving with B&B yet, I've read nothing but great things about them, they run a 6-pack, and can even do trimix. I'll be booking charters with B&B for our April trip and am really looking forward to the personalized service they give, as well as the longer bottom times.
Ed Robinson's and Mike Severns also run really good ops out of Kihei, but they put 12 people on their boats (6 to a guide), so only you can decide if you don't mind that.
However, I have to strongly recommend that you take at least one charter out to Lanai to dive the cathedrals. It's more than worth the effort it takes to get there. For Lanai, I think taking a charter out of Lahaina is worth the drive since the crossing is only 30 minutes instead of a good hour plus from Kihei. You'd probably prefer going with Extended Horizons for Lanai as they run a 12 pack boat vs. Lahaina Divers which will put up to 24 divers on their big boat. Personally, I prefer the bigger boats, so we go with Lahaina Divers (I have sea sick issues), and we've rarely had full boats with them, so it's worth it to us. Both Lahaina Divers and Extended Horizons run the same profiles at Lanai, with 35-40 min. bottom times, so to me the fact that Lahaina Divers uses AL72s is no big deal. I've never gotten below about 900psi on one of their tanks, so if you're good on air, size won't matter for Lanai dives.
Al, Tim (Kidspot), and Doug, can you guys chime in here?
BTW, I live in Brush Prairie, so we're neighbours!
You won't regret it if you go out with B&B Sucba.Tim (kidspot) is fun to dive with and recently some friends of mine went out with Shaka Doug and can't say enough positive things about him.Timothy Randall:
Charlie99
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There were two couples from Honolulu on the boat in Maui yesterday. One couple's opinion was similar to yours, the other couple was of the "Both are good. Different, but good" sort of opinion. Both couple liked Maui diving enough compared to Oahu that they hop a plane over several times a year.Wildcard:
The big attraction of the Big Island for many are the mantas, but we were lucky enough to see 2 spotted eagle ray, and then watch mantas being cleaned for about 50 minutes total out of a 60 minute dive off of West Maui. Not typical, though.
Which site Charlie?Charlie99:
Hey Kathy - Both Maui and Big Island are the usual choices in the state for diving. Though contrary to what Wildcard says... I did go to the big island and the weather prevented us from diving anywhere but the Kona Harbor... which was nice as far as harbors go... then again I guess that means he was right, if nothing else is diveable the Kona harbor should be 
Have fun either way Generally speaking for each island, if one side is washed out for diving, the other side is usally ok. Since most of our bad weather/surf comes from one direction at a time...
Tim - Drop me a PM when it gets closer to your visit and we'll see if we can get a dive or two in while you're here.
Aloha, Tim
Have fun either way Generally speaking for each island, if one side is washed out for diving, the other side is usally ok. Since most of our bad weather/surf comes from one direction at a time...Tim - Drop me a PM when it gets closer to your visit and we'll see if we can get a dive or two in while you're here.
Aloha, Tim
Wildcard is probably right, but you'd have to drive a ways. I've dove the southeast corner/tip (Whittington park) of the island on days it's been 15-20 footers in Kona. If the island were a bit smaller it'd be easy to pick a side, you rarely have surf coming from both directions.
Aloha,
Aloha,
Timothy Randall
Registered
Kidspot and the rest of ya all
Thanks for the posts and keep them coming. I am determined to have a blast. sounds like I could bring a 3mm suit and be comfortable? Or should I rent a 5mm? I am not normally cold in the water, and even here in the PNW in a drysuit I usually am over dressed. I the last two warm water trips I brought my Aluminum Backplate and single wing, Regs, Can lite and computer. Are larger/ steel tanks with din valves usually available along with Nitrox? How about Night diving from either boat or shore (my favorite)
I hear the shore diving is pretty good near Kihei, I printed out a map with some dive sites on it, so imput from you locals would be great.
Thanks alot for your answers to a million questions.
Kidspot, I will definetly drop you a PM when I know more as to where we are staying and the like.
Thanks for the posts and keep them coming. I am determined to have a blast. sounds like I could bring a 3mm suit and be comfortable? Or should I rent a 5mm? I am not normally cold in the water, and even here in the PNW in a drysuit I usually am over dressed. I the last two warm water trips I brought my Aluminum Backplate and single wing, Regs, Can lite and computer. Are larger/ steel tanks with din valves usually available along with Nitrox? How about Night diving from either boat or shore (my favorite)
I hear the shore diving is pretty good near Kihei, I printed out a map with some dive sites on it, so imput from you locals would be great.
Thanks alot for your answers to a million questions.
Kidspot, I will definetly drop you a PM when I know more as to where we are staying and the like.
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