I originally joined this board to find out about diving in Kauai. Now that I have had my first Hawaiian experience, I thought it important to relate some of the experiences that I had.
To put things in perspective, I have been diving for 18 years, open water certified for the last 9, and have dove in the Bahamas, Eleuthera, Aruba, Cozomel, Grand Caymans, and Texas. I consider myself a very conservative diver with 40+ real dives and another 100 or so shallow water dives doing underwater boat maintenance. I also have a USGC 50 ton master's license and own several boats.
The first difference between my other diving experiences and those on Kauai is that it appears that the majority of the dive companies keep their boats on trailers. I found out that this is partially due to the high $2000 per month commerical slip rental fees imposed by the government controlled marinas.
The requirement to launch the dive boats introduces new logistical issues. For example, it may be necessary for you to go between a remote parking lot and the boat ramp. Some companies like Bubbles will shuttle your gear and possibly you to the ramp. Others such as Fathom Five actually load your equipment on the boat prior to leaving the boat storage area. In those cases, you must travel to the launch site. To save space, some boats require you to configure your equipment in a particular manner. You may also be required to leave your gear bag behind. All of this requires additional time, so plan accordingly.
Another difference is that there seems to be more of a dependence on group diving rather than group diving with dive partners. I received the feeling that individual ascent did not have the same level of taboo as with all of the other dives that I have performed. The dive companies that we interacted with strongly encouraged the use of individual dive computers.
We also discovered that the current is Kauai can be quite strong for moored dives versus drift dives. I found that finning against these currents could greatly increase the consumption of air. If you are thinking about getting a better pair of fins, Hawaii is a good justification.
We were originally scheduled to do a total of five dives in Kauai. We did two with Bubbles under Kauai to Ambers Arches and the Turtle House. I had a couple of equipment glitches on the first dive which required me to terminate the dive a little early. One was that my regulator free flowed while attaching the dive computer. This resulted in diving with 2700 PSI. I also burned up extra air trying to figure out why my Bonica HDDV camera would not function. Apparently it has some sort of difficulty reading the 16 GB, but not the 8 GB memory card. I made the mistake of testing the camera for only a few seconds with the 16 GB card. Always, always thoroughly test out all your equipment before use.
We were scheduled to go to Nihiu, but cancelled that dive because my wife was not confident enough to do their three tank dive and we had heard that the return passage that week was going to be very rough.
We had such a good time anyway, that we rented some tanks and weights. Apparently a number of the dive companies will not allow you to rent tanks. To do a shore dive you must book a guided dive. Of course, there are pluses and minuses to that. We were able to rent from Sea Sports Scuba. We found them to be very friendly and knowledgeable. Interestingly enough, the woman that we rented the tanks from politely assessed our ability to execute shore dives.
Since we were not going to Nihiu, we decided to book another local dive. This time we used Fathom Five. Unfortunately, I had a serious disagreement with the dive master / instructor that we were suppose to have just prior to the dive. Both my wife and I were so upset at this situation that we walked back to the store and cancelled our dives. I must give the Fathom Five manager, Loni credit for quickly and effectively addressing this problem. Though we were way too upset to dive that morning, Loni really displayed great concern for our negative experience.
It was a couple of more days before my wife was mentally recovered enough to go diving again. In the end, we only did one more dive and that was a shallow shore dive with our tanks from Sea Sports. This was at Kolah Landing. Since we mostly boat dive, this was also an interesting contrasting experience. Fortunately, some time ago, someone had the generousity to lay down a very large section of rug on the entry ramp. This makes it significantly easier to get to the water. You may however still have to walk some distance with your equipment. I actually made several trips carrying rather than wearing our equipment. We will have to buy a couple of cheap foldable chairs and a small mat next time. Perhaps Sea Sports can rent those out at the same time as the tanks.
After snorkeling Tunnels reef, we decided that it would definitely be worth a shore dive. However, by the time we were ready, there were significant swells from the north that would have made it unsafe. So, you may want to try to do Tunnels as early in your trip as possible in case the weather changes. Tunnels is also difficult to do, due to the very limited availablity of parking. The distance between the parking area and the beach is quite far. So you might consider using some sort of wheeled carrier to make things easier.
As a final word, I would have to agree with many other in that the diving in Kauai is quite different from that of the rest of the Carribean. The visibility may not be as great and the sealife not quite as abundant in some areas. However, the unusual endemic sealife of Kauai and the other islands is definitely worth diving.
As they say in Hawaii, Mahalo
To put things in perspective, I have been diving for 18 years, open water certified for the last 9, and have dove in the Bahamas, Eleuthera, Aruba, Cozomel, Grand Caymans, and Texas. I consider myself a very conservative diver with 40+ real dives and another 100 or so shallow water dives doing underwater boat maintenance. I also have a USGC 50 ton master's license and own several boats.
The first difference between my other diving experiences and those on Kauai is that it appears that the majority of the dive companies keep their boats on trailers. I found out that this is partially due to the high $2000 per month commerical slip rental fees imposed by the government controlled marinas.
The requirement to launch the dive boats introduces new logistical issues. For example, it may be necessary for you to go between a remote parking lot and the boat ramp. Some companies like Bubbles will shuttle your gear and possibly you to the ramp. Others such as Fathom Five actually load your equipment on the boat prior to leaving the boat storage area. In those cases, you must travel to the launch site. To save space, some boats require you to configure your equipment in a particular manner. You may also be required to leave your gear bag behind. All of this requires additional time, so plan accordingly.
Another difference is that there seems to be more of a dependence on group diving rather than group diving with dive partners. I received the feeling that individual ascent did not have the same level of taboo as with all of the other dives that I have performed. The dive companies that we interacted with strongly encouraged the use of individual dive computers.
We also discovered that the current is Kauai can be quite strong for moored dives versus drift dives. I found that finning against these currents could greatly increase the consumption of air. If you are thinking about getting a better pair of fins, Hawaii is a good justification.
We were originally scheduled to do a total of five dives in Kauai. We did two with Bubbles under Kauai to Ambers Arches and the Turtle House. I had a couple of equipment glitches on the first dive which required me to terminate the dive a little early. One was that my regulator free flowed while attaching the dive computer. This resulted in diving with 2700 PSI. I also burned up extra air trying to figure out why my Bonica HDDV camera would not function. Apparently it has some sort of difficulty reading the 16 GB, but not the 8 GB memory card. I made the mistake of testing the camera for only a few seconds with the 16 GB card. Always, always thoroughly test out all your equipment before use.
We were scheduled to go to Nihiu, but cancelled that dive because my wife was not confident enough to do their three tank dive and we had heard that the return passage that week was going to be very rough.
We had such a good time anyway, that we rented some tanks and weights. Apparently a number of the dive companies will not allow you to rent tanks. To do a shore dive you must book a guided dive. Of course, there are pluses and minuses to that. We were able to rent from Sea Sports Scuba. We found them to be very friendly and knowledgeable. Interestingly enough, the woman that we rented the tanks from politely assessed our ability to execute shore dives.
Since we were not going to Nihiu, we decided to book another local dive. This time we used Fathom Five. Unfortunately, I had a serious disagreement with the dive master / instructor that we were suppose to have just prior to the dive. Both my wife and I were so upset at this situation that we walked back to the store and cancelled our dives. I must give the Fathom Five manager, Loni credit for quickly and effectively addressing this problem. Though we were way too upset to dive that morning, Loni really displayed great concern for our negative experience.
It was a couple of more days before my wife was mentally recovered enough to go diving again. In the end, we only did one more dive and that was a shallow shore dive with our tanks from Sea Sports. This was at Kolah Landing. Since we mostly boat dive, this was also an interesting contrasting experience. Fortunately, some time ago, someone had the generousity to lay down a very large section of rug on the entry ramp. This makes it significantly easier to get to the water. You may however still have to walk some distance with your equipment. I actually made several trips carrying rather than wearing our equipment. We will have to buy a couple of cheap foldable chairs and a small mat next time. Perhaps Sea Sports can rent those out at the same time as the tanks.
After snorkeling Tunnels reef, we decided that it would definitely be worth a shore dive. However, by the time we were ready, there were significant swells from the north that would have made it unsafe. So, you may want to try to do Tunnels as early in your trip as possible in case the weather changes. Tunnels is also difficult to do, due to the very limited availablity of parking. The distance between the parking area and the beach is quite far. So you might consider using some sort of wheeled carrier to make things easier.
As a final word, I would have to agree with many other in that the diving in Kauai is quite different from that of the rest of the Carribean. The visibility may not be as great and the sealife not quite as abundant in some areas. However, the unusual endemic sealife of Kauai and the other islands is definitely worth diving.
As they say in Hawaii, Mahalo
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