Certifying in Maui

[NorCalDM]

Except it's in Monterey - a several hour drive from most of the Bay area. So you have to factor in some sort of oricier overnight accommodations or a lot of travel time and some gas money

And if we compare apples to apples, the Bamboo Reef dives are shore dives off San Carlos Beach. Sanctuary Charters offers boat dives in Monterey at 2/$92 - I didn't look at the others.

Things are more expensive on Maui no doubt. With Lahaina Divers they're all 4 boat dives as well.

One option is do the whole program thru Shaka Divers - it's $399 for everything.

Or $420 total with Maui Dreams Dive Co. if you do the e-learning first - I think with PADI you book it thru the shop you're using but I'm not certain. $520 if all done there.

Bamboo Reef has a shop in San Francisco and Monterey so all the class and pool work could be done in San Francisco also several of the hotels in Monterey offer dicounts for divers Travel Lodge is from $69 to $89 a night. I can get from Vacaville to Monterey in less than three hours and San Francisco is about 30 miles closer than I am. The OP states he is going to Maui to get certified so if that is the case there are plenty of good options in Maui to get that done but if he is going to Maui to go diving why waste the vacation time in class when you can get it done in your own back yard and spend your time diving during your vacation.

 

[C Dub]

I got certified last summer in Maui. I did the online class on the PADI website before I left. Then I did all pool and ocean dives at The Fairmont with Pro Diver/Ultra Dive. They are on site at the hotel. It is at Polo beach, and close to Makena. The scuba gear pavilion is literally 20 steps from the sand, 10 steps from the pool, and we did all the ocean dives from the shore. Was incredibly easy, and the reefs there looked great. I would definitely do it again. It cost more than a class here in SoCal, but worth every dime. Price included all gear rental, even personal gear. I think I recall it was something like $450 or so.....

 

[diversteve]

Maybe because it's more pleasant to learn to dive in a t-shirt/board shorts than a full 7Mil?

 

[C Dub]

Maybe because it's more pleasant to learn to dive in a t-shirt/board shorts than a full 7Mil?

Haha, so true!!

Then after you get your certification, go out with Mike Severn's boat from Wailea. Great crew who take their time, and did a great job with my daughter and I as newly minted divers. Highly recommend them. We dove with all four of their DM's on various days:
http://www.mikesevernsdiving.com/dive-guides.html

 

[fisheater]

I STRONGLY suggest/urge you to get certified here. Do your classroom (home study?) and pool work in the Bay Area. Do you ocean dives in Monterey.

Advantages:

- You won't waste precious vacation time doing drills in Hawaii, when you could be actually diving.

- You'll find the Hawaii diving so much easier than cold water diving that you'll be equal to water water only divers with much more experience.

- You won't be intimidated by cold water diving and you'll be able to keep up with diving here at home and improve your skills. (Contrarily, if you only dive on your annual vacations, you'll probably never get appreciable better.)

- You'll meet awesome people who routinely dive here in NorCal.

- You'll be able to feel pretty confident diving darned near anywhere.

- The underwater life here is much more plentiful and rich than the tropics.



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[Keith.M]

As a new diver, I took a trip to Cozumel pretty early on and stayed at Scuba Club Cozumel.

When I checked in and handed them my OW card:

SCC: How many dives do you have?
Me: 20
SCC: Where did you get your certification?
Me: Monterey
SCC: OK, you'll be fine.

 

[fisheater]

Yep. I went to Kauai with only one post OW dive for AOW. I explained to my instructor that my OW instructor said my buoyancy was good, but that I still sometimes got sucked to the surface at 10 feet or so. She got a quizzical look and asked where I was certified. When I said Monterey, she laughed and said "You're already a better diver than those guys over there with 100 dives."

I protested, saying "You don't understand."

She countered with "No, YOU don't understand."

Turned out she was right, in Hawaii I was a buoyancy God.

Back home, I still sucked. But I got better with more diving here.


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[mrdre]

I second those who say learn here, in Cali. If you learn to dive here, you will be able to dive anywhere. If you learn to dive in warm waters, you will have to relearn to dive in Cali later. Sometimes people with hundreds of dives in Caribbean have trouble diving in California. You have excellent opportunity to learn here. Why do it in Hawaii? Why waste vacation time for class?

Moreover, taking class with some LDS will later give you discounts for purchasing gear and/or taking further classes. You will meet lots of local divers with whom you will be diving later. There are all advantages learning at home and none otherwise.

 

[diversteve]

Oh Please...

I learned to dive in SoCal. (LaJolla and Coronados) The only thing harder about it is fighting all that exposure protection on and then fighting it again during the dive. I suppose learning to dive with a drysuit is harder but that's why Hawaii is ideal - you don't have to.

All these opinions - even mine - are pretty useless until the OP tells us what he wants to do. I'd hazard a guess that since he mentioned Bonaire and Hawaii he's going to become a warm water diver. So learning in Monterey is really of no relevance if he is. He's also going next month so maybe the easiest thing is just do it all there - except maybe the e-learning which cuts down the time/cost a little.

November water temperature Monterey - 56^o
November water temperature Maui 78^o

Not a tough call for me...

The underwater life here is much more plentiful and rich than the tropics.

Yeah right...

Then explain this:

the reefs of the Indo-West Pacific are the richest by far. Zoom in further, and you’ll find the “Coral Triangle,” an area bordered by the Philippines, Indonesia, and Papua-New Guinea that's been documented as the area of greatest marine diversity, home to an astounding number of species that exist nowhere else in the world.

It's within this area that you'll find the Verde Island Passage—waters teeming with such an abundance of life that Academy scientists suspect it may be “the center of the center” of biodiversity.

- quoted from the California Academy of Sciences website.

Not Hawaii but definitely the "tropics":

[vimeo]29974818[/vimeo]

 

[RJP]

I second those who say learn here, in Cali. If you learn to dive here, you will be able to dive anywhere except for NJ... those people are nuts.

Fixed it for you.