Heading to Maui for the first time June2-9th I need a good op!

[Randy-S]

I will only get two days to dive, I am traveling with three non divers. So with that said any recomendations on two must do dive sites and a good dive op for an experencied diver? I am staying at a condo at 515 South Kihei Road and will have all my own gear.
Thanks in advanced for any feed back.

Randy

 

[Mauifish]

For starters you will probably only be able to dive in the morning, especialy this time of year as the wind picks up a lot about mid day. If you only have two days I suggest do all boat dives. Try B&B dive shop in Kihei, Maui Dive Shop is good, Scuba Shack is OK if nut case owner Charlie is behaving himself. Dive Molokini crater is very popular, the boat operaters will take you to good dive site's, may have to adapt if conditions are bad. Good luck and enjoy!!

 

[ChrisM]

My .02, Ed Robinson's or B&B. Severns has a good rep but never used them. I would never used Maui Dive Shop again.

 

[Mauifish]

My .02, Ed Robinson's or B&B. Severns has a good rep but never used them. I would never used Maui Dive Shop again.

Would you mind saying why you would not use Maui Dive Shop again, just curious.

 

[KrisB]

Interestingly, I've dove Ed Robinson's a fair bit, and I'll *never* dive them again.

Maui Dive Shop I've dove with once, and had a good time... big boat, though. Three groups of 8 divers each. (The Maka Koa out of Maalaea -- we took it to Lanai).

I've got no problem suggesting experienced divers go out with MDS.

I haven't dove with B&B, but they get high marks around Scubaboard, and Mike Severns is well-known locally and online as being a quality op.

 

[diversteve]

My preferences would be:

B&B Scuba
Ed Robinsons
Mike Severns

All three leave from the Kihei boat ramp.

Do the Molokini Backside, you can get some depth and see some interesting stuff.

Another popular dive is the Cathedrals(there's two) off Lanai, but it's a long boat ride from Kihei. I think Robinson's does it midweek.

Or you can drive 45min. north to Lahaina/Mala Wharf and go out to Lanai with Extended Horizons or Lahaina Divers. Lahaina has the big boats, but might be more crowded. Coming back if the tradewinds pick up you'll appreciate it.

If you want to try shorediving in the Kihei area, Makena Landing/5 Graves is a good choice. Or PM Shaka Doug, he runs a divebus in that area.

 

[bobmaggi]

We are on Maui right now and have been using B & B Scuba for Molokini/southside dives and Extended Horizons for Lanai dives. My husband also went with Ed Robinson's on their night dive (thurs. night). B & B usually does Molokini for at least one of their dives during their morning boat trip, but it really does depend on the conditions. They also can do the backwall, too, but it also depends on the conditions and the experience of the divers on board. We have been here 2 weeks and are in our last week here. We have 2 more boat trips planned with B & B, and hopefully we will get to do at least one backwall in these 2 days ( Brad and the crew know this!) We will DEFINITELY use B & B and EH on our next trips.

We have also used Maui Dreams for my tank rentals, and got my husband's rebreather supplies from both B & B and Maui Dreams.

The last 2 trips here, we had used Maui Dive Shop (as well as EH) and had been very pleased with them. We knew many of the divemasters and got along well with them. They tend to have a huge turnover problem with employees. They tend to have lots of new divers on their boats, and do the basic stuff, altho we never had a problem with that, even tho we had some experience, and knew many of the divemasters. This time, tho, my husband has a rebreather, and they REFUSED to have him on their boats, regardless of past experiences, etc. Well, they have lost our business for good, period. Guess they don't want to scare the newbies, or maybe since they don't train for rebreathers, etc....its a problem for them. Whatever, our divemaster friends are gone from there anyway.

That said about MDS, they DO have regular scheduled days for the backwall, and night dives, and we miss that.

just our 2 cents. Maggi

 

[TSandM]

I have dived with B&B, Ed Robinson, and Mike Severns, and although all three were good operators, I'll take Mike Severns if I possibly can. They are really oriented toward people with a serious interest in marine life. They have excellent briefings with photographs of the particular species they're hoping to find at each site.

If the weather cooperates, there is also excellent shore diving on Maui. In fact, each trip I make there (my in-laws live there) I do less boat diving.

 

[diversteve]

Guess they don't want to scare the newbies, or maybe since they don't train for rebreathers, etc....its a problem for them.

More likely they don't want to wait for him to come up...the one time we dove with them they were in a big hurry to get back.

 

[ChrisM]

Would you mind saying why you would not use Maui Dive Shop again, just curious.

One issue is the back wall issue, they only (to my knowledge) schedule a single tank back wall dive and charge $80 for it (for island visitors). Second is the time they put a computer on my hose, even though I already had one. They said "it's for in case something happens, we'll know your profile and nitrogen." I looked at the computer. "ummm, this computer's still got nitrogen loaded, it won't tell you an accurate reading for me." "well, that's OK." huh?

This was years ago, but I always got a similar impression of operation, whether through the store or on a boat.

Then, two weeks ago, there was an incident (death) at Molokini off MDS boat (haven't seen anything posted here), I heard through the grapevine that certan procedures weren't followed.

Re: Severns, my only experiene was a phone call two weeks ago to see what availability they had. Guy who answered the phone could not have been less interested to hear from a potential customer. I have heard the op is good, but that just turned me off.