Diving the Kona Coast

[SharkDZ]

Well, I start my adventure Monday, the 24th. Tuesday I will begin 5 days of diving, including two nights with the mantas. I've scheduled these dives through Jack's Diving Locker and will be staying at the Kona Beach Hotel.

With the exception of tanks/weights I will be bringing all my gear. Okay, I left the 7mil but packed a 3mm full along with a 2mm shorty. I guess I should bring an umbrella as well. Is it still supposed to rain?

How often does weather affect boat diving? Anyone diving during that week?

Thanks!

 

[friscuba]

Local weather is usually a non-factor when it comes to diving off Kona. Rain does nothing as there are no rivers or streams in the area to provide runoff. The shoreline here is more rock than anything. Strong winds can get boats off the water, but that usually only happens a few days a year in the Kailua area, much more commonly up north of the airport though because the volcano doesn't block the tradewinds up there. The storms which affect diving the most are usually thousands of miles away (think New Zealand in the summer and Japan in the winter), a major storm elsewhere can send big surf here a few days later.

Is it supposed to rain? Hadn't heard that, but I rarely pay attention to anything but major storms. If you are getting your information off one of the internet weather pages, it probably says rain for Kona 200-250 days out of the year. Above four or five thousand feet that's maybe the case, down on the coast that's hardly the case. This time of year we may see a bit of rain in the late afternoon/evening from convection moisture building up on the mountain, it can make it muggy or a bit wet later in the day, it's the tropics. Occasionally we'll see a storm come through from the west, those are the ones that can give you rain all day, but it's not that common.

Have fun,

 

[SharkDZ]

Hey Steve,

Cool! Great info; just what I needed.
Yeah, weather dot com says there'll be "showers" Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
But only a 30% chance. If it does rain, I hope is there and gone, or at least dive-able.

 

[NJDiveGirl]

Yeah, weather dot com says there'll be "showers" Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
But only a 30% chance. If it does rain, I hope is there and gone, or at least dive-able.

Weather.com showed rain every day when we were there in August as well - I'm happy to report we only had one cloudy day (due to Flossie) and the water was flat calm the entire week!

Have a great time!

 

[SharkDZ]

I arrived Monday, and it was beautiful, as was yesterday my first day diving. Today is a different story: overcast with the occaissional sprinkle. Oh, and it's still 80 degrees outside. It's still perfect UW!

Did 2 dives a day. Tomorrow will start 2 days of 4 dives; 2 AM, 1 PM, 1 Night w/ Mantas.

 

[ScubaAndDreams]

sweet sounds like fun...take some pictures and post'em for us