After diving the Big Island for about a week and a half, we head for Maui to meet our friends, Dave and Joan, and to dive yet another part of this American paradise.
Lots of people have written about Maui and, so, I will keep this reltively short. I want to pass on some recommendations for dive shops on Maui and say a few words about the dive sites.
We dived with Ed Robinson's Diving Adventures(www.maui.net/~robison/erd1) and the Maui Dive Shop (www.mauidiveshop.com). The week before we arrived on Maui, Dave dived with Lahaina Divers (www.lahainadivers.com).
Ed Robinson's is the Mercedes of dive shops on Maui in our opinions. He offers several options for diving, including 2-tank and 3-tank morning dives; he offers what he calls select and premium dives also. The select dives have six divers per dive master, while the premium have four divers per dive master. The boats have 12 to 16 divers aboard, but you get divided at the dive site and you stage off the boat at intervals that lead to an uncrowded dive site. They also do all your gear set-up, and very neatly, at that. It is a nice operation and the one we would pick first.
Every morning they go through a very thorough safety discussion and before every dive they review the site and include 8"x11" photos of the "important" sea life you might encounter. It is very professional, save one thing: they try just a little too hard to be humorous; and most would not make it as stand-up comedians.
The Maui Dive Shop (MDS) offers a unique dive:
they depart Kihei (where most shops depart) at 10:00am. Most other dives start at 6:30am or so (including Maui Dive Shop's initial morning dives). We wanted to sleep in one day and, thus, we chose the 10:00am dive. They warn you that the winds might come up at 11:00am, making the boat ride and post-dive boat boarding less pleasant, but we decided to try it anyhow. And we lucked out: the day we dove was calm and the water's surface was like glass. We liked the MDS and would recommend them also. We especially liked one dive master: Brendan. He truly went out of his way to make our diving a pleasure, including finding for me a Crocodile Moray Eel on the night dive. He was just great.
One word of warning about MDS: it is the largest operation on Maui and caters to both snorklers and divers. Thus, the people in their stores may not be as knowledgeable as one would like--they are basically sales clerks. But, having said that, I still liked the operation. Also, because their operation is so large, you have to double check where to check-in and where to go to board the boat.
As I mentioned, Dave dived with Lahaina divers and he compared them favorably to MDS. Finally, we heard very good things about Mike Severns (www.sererns.maui.hi.us), but we did not dive with his shop. From what we heard, though, it is a first class operation.
The Diving: Maui means Molokini, the steam vent crater off Makena. You can dive the inside of the crater, but that is where snorkel boats go and where most dive shops take less experienced divers. Unless you go deep (to say "Shark Condos at 130 feet) you may feel a little crowded. Inside the crater is worth one daylight dive. The outer wall is a different story.
From Reef's End you catch the current and do a great drift dive. The strength of the current varies from day to day and from depth to depth. You will likely see huge schools of butterflies of all sorts, white tip and gray sharks, turkeyfish, frogfish, and, if you peer out at the blue (deep) often, you will likely see large pelagics, including rays--maybe a whale or dolphins. And, during whale season you will constantly hear them singing and talking; it got so that you really missed it when you could not hear them.
Molokini's back wall was great: we dived it 3 times and would have happily returned for more--lots to see!
One more thing to mention: the turtle cleaning station near Makena. The first time we dove it there were 4 green sea turtles being groomed by wrasses. They just stood there as we approached and let me come close for a nice photo op. Because it is against the law to molest the turtles and the law is obeyed and enforced, the turtles are not skittish and will let divers get quite close while the wrasses do their work. I hope that divers will continue to just look and the turtles will always be so cooperative!
The bottom line: Maui is very "touristy" and somewhat crowded, but has wonderful diving!
Joewr
Lots of people have written about Maui and, so, I will keep this reltively short. I want to pass on some recommendations for dive shops on Maui and say a few words about the dive sites.
We dived with Ed Robinson's Diving Adventures(www.maui.net/~robison/erd1) and the Maui Dive Shop (www.mauidiveshop.com). The week before we arrived on Maui, Dave dived with Lahaina Divers (www.lahainadivers.com).
Ed Robinson's is the Mercedes of dive shops on Maui in our opinions. He offers several options for diving, including 2-tank and 3-tank morning dives; he offers what he calls select and premium dives also. The select dives have six divers per dive master, while the premium have four divers per dive master. The boats have 12 to 16 divers aboard, but you get divided at the dive site and you stage off the boat at intervals that lead to an uncrowded dive site. They also do all your gear set-up, and very neatly, at that. It is a nice operation and the one we would pick first.
Every morning they go through a very thorough safety discussion and before every dive they review the site and include 8"x11" photos of the "important" sea life you might encounter. It is very professional, save one thing: they try just a little too hard to be humorous; and most would not make it as stand-up comedians.
The Maui Dive Shop (MDS) offers a unique dive:
they depart Kihei (where most shops depart) at 10:00am. Most other dives start at 6:30am or so (including Maui Dive Shop's initial morning dives). We wanted to sleep in one day and, thus, we chose the 10:00am dive. They warn you that the winds might come up at 11:00am, making the boat ride and post-dive boat boarding less pleasant, but we decided to try it anyhow. And we lucked out: the day we dove was calm and the water's surface was like glass. We liked the MDS and would recommend them also. We especially liked one dive master: Brendan. He truly went out of his way to make our diving a pleasure, including finding for me a Crocodile Moray Eel on the night dive. He was just great.
One word of warning about MDS: it is the largest operation on Maui and caters to both snorklers and divers. Thus, the people in their stores may not be as knowledgeable as one would like--they are basically sales clerks. But, having said that, I still liked the operation. Also, because their operation is so large, you have to double check where to check-in and where to go to board the boat.
As I mentioned, Dave dived with Lahaina divers and he compared them favorably to MDS. Finally, we heard very good things about Mike Severns (www.sererns.maui.hi.us), but we did not dive with his shop. From what we heard, though, it is a first class operation.
The Diving: Maui means Molokini, the steam vent crater off Makena. You can dive the inside of the crater, but that is where snorkel boats go and where most dive shops take less experienced divers. Unless you go deep (to say "Shark Condos at 130 feet) you may feel a little crowded. Inside the crater is worth one daylight dive. The outer wall is a different story.
From Reef's End you catch the current and do a great drift dive. The strength of the current varies from day to day and from depth to depth. You will likely see huge schools of butterflies of all sorts, white tip and gray sharks, turkeyfish, frogfish, and, if you peer out at the blue (deep) often, you will likely see large pelagics, including rays--maybe a whale or dolphins. And, during whale season you will constantly hear them singing and talking; it got so that you really missed it when you could not hear them.
Molokini's back wall was great: we dived it 3 times and would have happily returned for more--lots to see!
One more thing to mention: the turtle cleaning station near Makena. The first time we dove it there were 4 green sea turtles being groomed by wrasses. They just stood there as we approached and let me come close for a nice photo op. Because it is against the law to molest the turtles and the law is obeyed and enforced, the turtles are not skittish and will let divers get quite close while the wrasses do their work. I hope that divers will continue to just look and the turtles will always be so cooperative!
The bottom line: Maui is very "touristy" and somewhat crowded, but has wonderful diving!
Joewr
