Maui

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:49 pm

I'm headed to Maui for a week with the wife next month. This is not a dive trip; but I think I really need to try and squeeze at least one dive in while I'm there- can anybody recommend an outfit for gear rental and/or a charter? What dive sites should I try and hit?

Grateful Diver · Post by **Grateful Diver** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:53 pm

Joshua Smith wrote:I'm headed to Maui for a week with the wife next month. This is not a dive trip; but I think I really need to try and squeeze at least one dive in while I'm there- can anybody recommend an outfit for gear rental and/or a charter? What dive sites should I try and hit?

B & B Scuba in Kihei
Try for at least one dive on the backside of Molokini ... or if not the back side, Shark Alley is pretty nice.
Shore dives ... I really enjoyed Five Caves (can also be done as a boat dive), McKenna's Landing, and Milepost 14 (further northwest toward Lahaina)

Hope I got all that right ... it's been a few years. Someone will correct me if I didn't.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

BDub · Post by **BDub** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:55 pm

Joshua Smith wrote:I'm headed to Maui for a week with the wife next month. This is not a dive trip; but I think I really need to try and squeeze at least one dive in while I'm there- can anybody recommend an outfit for gear rental and/or a charter? What dive sites should I try and hit?

What part of Maui, Josh...Kihei? Lahaina? Kaanapali?

My best friend lives in Kihei, and we visit him at least once a year. For boat dives, we always use Ed Robinson, and have never had a bad experience...class act op. There are plenty of awesome shore dives on the island too. Let me know where you're staying and I'll give you some good shore dives.

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:08 pm

Staying in Lahaina. Wife doesn't dive, so I figured my best bet was to just book a charter and go with an instabuddy, or a DM- this will be my first, ever, non PNW dive, if I do it- so I'm not really sure how everything works, but I'd like to go with someone a little more familiar with the area than I am.

BDub · Post by **BDub** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:17 pm

Joshua Smith wrote:Staying in Lahaina. Wife doesn't dive, so I figured my best bet was to just book a charter and go with an instabuddy, or a DM- this will be my first, ever, non PNW dive, if I do it- so I'm not really sure how everything works, but I'd like to go with someone a little more familiar with the area than I am.

I haven't dived up in that area, much, but Black Rock is a great dive (I believe that's at the Sheraton, iirc). Most of ops up there don't go to Molokini, but Kihei is only about an hour south, which is where most of the Molokini trips depart from. The Lahaina ops typically go over to Lanai'i, which has some amazing dives. The Cathedrals are must do dives, IMO.

Lahaina Divers are very popular, though I believe they're on the cattle op side, and Extended Horizons are popular too. There's also a new technical op up there that I want to try on our next trip. I can't recall the name, but they apparently go to Molokai which is supposed to be just mindblowing. I'll see if I can find the name of the op.

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:25 pm

Ooooo- If I could get a tech dive in, that would be kewl! I never got an OC mix cert, though, and I'm not packing the Meg for one dive. Still, If I could rent doubles and a stage for deco gas, I could have some fun, anyway!

BDub · Post by **BDub** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:37 pm

Found it...

http://northshoreexplorers.com/

The website has changed a bit. They used to list more info regarding rental gear, gases, technical dive profiles, etc.

May want to give them a call and see if they're still doing them. A tech dive on Molokai would be epic.

Tangfish · Post by **Tangfish** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 3:18 pm

Josh is going to look hawt in a 3mm shortie and jacket BC!

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 3:22 pm

tangfish wrote:Josh is going to look hawt in a 3mm shortie and jacket BC!

One of the great parts about being married is not caring how you look any more. Unlike certain vain peacocks I dive with. (What's a jacket BC, by the way? )

Tangfish · Post by **Tangfish** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 3:32 pm

Joshua Smith wrote:One of the great parts about being married is not caring how you look any more.

Clearly, you are correct.

Yes - I love how you say something about every three months that calls for this photo to resurface.

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 5:32 pm

Ed Robinson, B & B, and ProDiver are the 3 top companies in my opinion. ProDiver is the only 6-pack.

You'll at least get 2 dives in, but Josh consider this... When charter diving on Maui, you're at the ramp at 5:45am and back to the dock by 10:30am... plenty of time for the wife to sleep in and then you've still got the rest of the day to play. The diving is just too good to be limited by an Al80 - I'd pack the Meg and see if you could squeeze in 2 mornings (4 total dives) of diving. You'll certainly get better bottom time on your Meg and will feel better having the extra O2 for the ascent.

If you're going to rent one of those fancy jacket BCD's, regs, etc. ProDiver includes all rentals, gas, etc (I'd bring our snorkel gear) all in one package so if you're going to be a tourist and sport the local tourist gear fare, Prodiver might be a good option.

mancub · Post by **mancub** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:52 pm

I had a great time with Lahaina Divers...but I am no tech diver. Great boat, great staff.
Cathedrals are great. anything on Lana'i is.
Mala Wharf is awesome (I did it as a shore dive). swim thrus (concrete pieces of old pier, turtles, reef sharks)
Molokini backwall is great, but a bit of a boat ride from Lahaina.
The first two I mentioned are northern sites.

Oh, and try to go to Alexander's. It is this fish place that is a great stop for lunch.
-Jacob

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 9:09 pm

Cool- thanks for the pointers, everyone! (except Calvin, of course)

I may just stick to recreational dives, this time- seems like gearing up for any kinda tech dive would be more hassle than I want to deal with. I'll still have to reconfigure my OC regs, but that's no big deal....

Maverick · Post by **Maverick** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:41 am

Dude you are going to have so much freakin' fun with Paula there you may not come home. You can buy Jameson's at the grocery store and or gas station, so when diving doesn't work out and you are so tired of shopping and time share meetings you can just tell her you have to go meet a friend and pick up Jameson at the store and everything will be groovey. i sure hope you have the chance to dive and dust off that old camera of yours to show us some nice pics (top side too). to bad you are missing Dema and the club dive though, i will think of you as i put on all 300 pounds of my gear to do a 30 min dive at sund rock. LOL

LCF · Post by **LCF** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 9:36 am

If you are staying in Lahaina, going over to Lanai to do the Cathedrals and the pinnacles with Lahaina Divers might be the best choice, if you are only going to dive one day. (That's where we saw our whale!) If you are interested in some shore diving as well, Tim Dekle (kidspot on DMX) is a VERY nice man who lives in Lahaina, and knows the sites well. The Mala Pier is a really fun dive, with lots of structure, tons of life, and shallow depths. It may well be my favorite shore dive on Maui (and we've been there a lot of times, because my in-laws live there.)

Don't do a Molokini trip from Lahaina, unless you like long boat rides. It's well worth the drive down to Kihei to go out of there, but you might not want to use B&B then, because they leave the earliest in the morning. My favorite charter operator out of Kihei is Mike Severns -- They seem to attract a somewhat more advanced diver, and are very into marine life (the owner is co-author of a marine life guide for the Hawaiian Islands, and she often dives as DM off the boat). But we've been out with B&B, Ed Robinson, and Mike Severns, and had no complaints about any of them.

We've actually settled on doing almost all shore diving, because honestly, the charters are expensive, and you can see most of the same animals on the shore dives. Unless the surf is up and the viz in the shallows is down, shore diving is a much more cost-effective option.

OreCoastDiver · Post by **OreCoastDiver** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 10:07 am

Josh,

Have you gone? Are you back? Where's the report!?

Northwest Dive Club

Maui

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