Dive Sites on the Big Island

[austintxdiver]

This is my first post here, so hopefully I'm not
breaking any rules or whatever. Also, despite
the title, I hope that this isn't a rehash of some
of the same information available elsewhere in
this forum.

So, with apologies made, here goes. My girlfriend
and I will be visiting the Big Island in the
beginning of September. I have been working on
a map of dive sites on the "Big Island" of Hawaii.
At this point it is only a sketch map, so don't
expect a finished product.

Right now, I have a locator map that gives the
approximate position of the detail maps or Inset
Maps and a somewhat larger "overall view" of
the whole island. The Web page is a little cranky
and the images are reduced in quality so that the
downloads don't take forever. Please forgive these
drawbacks.

Anyhow, with that said, I am interested in feedback
on the dive locations and the overall look of the
map.

http://www.sss.org/maps/hawaii/

--

john.

 

[LioKai]

Way cool charts. Do you have the Latitude and Longitude for the sites too? Where did you get your info for the locations?

 

[jpurkiss]

I like the maps. I wish you had a small synopsis of each site. Pretty Sweet.

Josh

 

[blaz-in]

Nice first posting. My first post,, just tonight; can't touch yours. Just so happens I'm heading off to the Big Island myself in May. I'll keep you posted on what I find.

 

[redrover]

Aloha,

Is there a key? Maybe I’m still too new, what does the red ¼ mean, is this some dive shorthand symbol? Am I guessing correctly it does indicate boat dive vs. the blue for shore?
Looks good to me, I’d take a map over chocolate any day. But if I was a visitor I think I’d use Hawaii the Big Island Revealed www.wizardpub.com and Franko’s Dive Map of Hawaii, The Big Island www.frankosmaps.com .

 

[austintxdiver]

Aloha,

Is there a key? Maybe I’m still too new, what does the red ¼ mean, is this some dive shorthand symbol? Am I guessing correctly it does indicate boat dive vs. the blue for shore?
Looks good to me, I’d take a map over chocolate any day. But if I was a visitor I think I’d use Hawaii the Big Island Revealed www.wizardpub.com and Franko’s Dive Map of Hawaii, The Big Island www.frankosmaps.com .

Thanks for the complements.

I apologize for the formatting. The red 1/4 is a little
dive flag on the original and the blue was a diver. You
are correct that it is boat vs. shore dive. At this point
the map is a work in progress, so it isn't finished by
any means.

When I started on the project I didn't know about
either Franko or Wizard. That said, I think Franco's
map is a little "busy" and as a result a lot of the
information gets lost. The Wizard maps are nice,
but don't really do justice to dive sites (unless I
missed a "dive sites" map).

I have let this sit for a while because I have been
finishing up school, but next week (or so) I'll fix
some of the problems and work on some new
data that I have.

I found some LIDAR data that profiles the depths of
some of the sites in (what looks like) great detail
and I'll try to overlay dive sites on those depth
profiles to see if it "makes sense." If it works, I
should have a "depth topo" that has a continuous
color gradient for depth in a manner similar to the
way heights are handled ashore.

As for the positions, they were given to me in
confidence, so I can't publish them. However, the
information on the maps should be good enough to
find buoys and shore diving sites without too much
problem. At least that is my intent.

I hope this answers all the open questions. I really
do appreciate the feedback.

--

john.

 

[redrover]

I found some LIDAR data that profiles the depths of some of the sites in (what looks like) great detail
and I'll try to overlay dive sites on those depth
profiles to see if it "makes sense." If it works, I
should have a "depth topo" that has a continuous
color gradient for depth in a manner similar to the
way heights are handled ashore.

john.

Oooohhhh, that would be da bomb :monkeydan

 

[lynnk]

I just returned from the big Island where I stayed at the Hilton Waikaloa resort. This resort was beautiful, truly breathtaking. Dived with Big Island Divers for a Manta Ray Night dive which was terrific. Two 8 foot wing span rays gorged themnselves on the plankton illuminated by our lights and came within inches of our group kneeling on bottom. This dive operation was very professional and just plain fun. Brand new spacious dive boat. Although there is no garantee that you will see rays, we lucked out. We also dived with Red Sail Sports located at the resort, but weren't thrilled with having to cart our equipment approx. a 3/4 mile along a sand beach to climb onto their boat which was berthed a few yards from the beach. It made it difficult to keep any cameras and such dry as you waded into the water. I have logged about 800 dives in several hot spots around the world, and was not impressed with the divng on either the Kohala or Kono coast. Little color or fish life. Perhaps that is the way it is at the Big Island? The Manta Ray night dive was definitely worth it. Most of the two tank dives run about $100.00. Also toured the Volcano national park and this was well worth the excursion also. Allow yourself at least 2-3 hours to really do it justice.
Lynn

 

[mccabejc]

Lynn,
Interesting that you weren't impressed with the diving on the Kona Coast. I was there in February, then went to Bonaire in March, and in trying to decide which I liked more I think I'm tending towards Kona. Kona had more rays, a lot more turtles, the manta rays, etc.

Which dive spots would you place on the top of your list? I need to plan my next dive trip

 

[bluemagoo]

....and was not impressed with the divng on either the Kohala or Kono coast. Little color or fish life. ....
Lynn

There is some truth to this. Hawaii is subtropical, isolated and exposed, and the main islands are still too young to have developed any serious protective fringing reefs (Kaneohe Bay on Oahu is a large exception but suffers from runoff, natural and man-made). This means that the waters are cooler, the reef life is dominated by the type whose larval stages did survive long openwater journeys, and the shallow reefs are dominated by stony varieties of corals which can withstand open-ocean swells/surf. And so compared to tropical, sheltered, bio-diverse, and closely spaced places in Oceania or Central America or Southeast Asia, Hawaii's reefs can come in second. But Hawaii's isolation has produced a high number of endemic species, both at sea and on the land. Some distinctions may require an expert's hair-splitting eye; e.g. the Hawaiian convict tang (manini) is distinguished by a body stripe continuing as a small mark beneath the pectoral fins. Others are fairly obvious; e.g. Potter's angel.