Certifying in Maui

[diving-will]

Thanks! I just book a referral dive with MDDC. For the OW dives, the first day will be from shore and second day from boat. Seems most companies in Maui offer shore dives for all 4 OW dives, and just a few give you the option of boat dives but charge extra.

---------- Post added October 18th, 2014 at 11:05 AM ----------

In fact a quick google search reveals...

• Bamboo Reef Scuba in San Francisco charges $349 for the full course, including four OW dives.
• Lahaina Divers in Maui charges $349 for just the four OW referral dives.

So if you do the full course at home it will cost you $349 to get certified. However, if you do academics and confined water at home, and then do referral checkouts in Maui it will cost you $698 to get certified.


Ray

Yeah, it'll be costly and depends on the shop. I found a weekday deal at another local shop (Marin Diving Center) for the confined water training for $149, from 10am-7pm. For the OW water referral, it's $299 at Maui Dream Dives.

 

[diversteve]

They use Maui Diamond II - that's a nice boat. They limit the # of divers to a reasonable amount.

 

[kafkaland]

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:
Scuba Diving Guides

I would like to second the recommendation for Mike Severn's boat. I was on Maui earlier this year and tried a couple of different boats. Severn's stood out as the best experience. A great vibe on the boat, good communications beforehand, and a crew that understood things like how to set up my BP&W rig, getting the right nitrox mixes for each dive, etc.

That stands in stark contrast to one other dive boat mentioned on this thread, where the captain made fun of me when I asked at the end of the briefing whether he had emergency O2 on board. It turned out he had, but he was poking fun at me in front of everyone just for asking that question (along the lines of what kind of diver I was that this even mattered). To me, it actually mattered, because I had just seen someone needing it two weeks earlier elsewhere, and I wanted to know that they had it. Not very professional.

So Severn's it is for me the next time I'm back on Maui.

 

[NorCalDM]

[/QUOTE]Yeah, it'll be costly and depends on the shop. I found a weekday deal at another local shop (Marin Diving Center) for the confined water training for $149, from 10am-7pm. For the OW water referral, it's $299 at Maui Dream Dives.[/QUOTE]

Marin Diving Center is a very good shop John takes care of his customers.

 

[diving-will]

Awesome, thanks!