Big Island help

We are headed to the Big Island next week and I am late in doing doing some of my planning. I have been looking online at different dive shops and it seems like this very well could be my ONLY dive trip there.

Is there ANY dive shop that actually caters to people who actually come to the island to dive? We are there for 10 days, plan on diving at least 7 of them and want to try and do 3, possibly 4 dives a day. So at minimum that puts us at 21 dives each, 2 divers. We have only been diving a couple of years but every other place we have dove none local seems to have reasonable deal for air/Nitrox.

It seems like shops want to rent the tanks for $10 (air) each, but have free refills. Seems like they only want to let 1-2 tanks per diver go. How does someone who wants to go south or north from Kona actually get to dive? Diving once, loading all your gear to drive clear back to the shop seems like a pretty crappy deal. Even then if we did rent 3 tanks each that is $60/day or $420. On top of that weight is $6/day so another $42 (or cheeper for me to USPS Flat Rate Box my own weights down). I know you can not compare but a year ago in Maui we did the same thing (6 tanks, 6 days + weight for $100) and it seemed super common. In Bonaire nitrox was "included" in our package but for the whole week we had at least 12 tanks (4 divers x3 tanks) in the truck. When we travel to dive we want to dive.

Are there any good options for active divers on the BI?

Hi Nwcid,

I don't think you'll match the deal you found on Maui.... I'm guessing it was packaged with something else?? Otherwise, wow!!

I've been diving in Hawaii since 1976.... I think air fills were maybe $2-3 back then, and rentals $5?? So even back in the '70's $100 for six tanks and weights for 6 days would have been a pretty good deal!

In Hilo, air fills are $5 at the shop I use, rentals $8 per day. Kona is usually a little more expensive, $10/day per tank sounds average.

Try calling Jack's Diving Locker, and explain what you want to do, and then try the other big shops as well (Big Island Divers, Kona Honu Divers, Kohala Divers come to mind).

You should be able to rent 6 tanks, as long as the shop has them available. I'm surprised you were told that they prefer to rent only 1-2 tanks per diver... that has not been my experience.

Have fun on your trip!

No special deal, just everyday prices, Maui Scuba Tank Fills and Scuba Rentals We asked how many tanks we could rent and they said "how many do you want" semi cautiously, when we said 3 each they looked like it was a standard request. We would bring empty ones back, pick up fresh ones and head out again. They kept a tally card behind the counter and we paid our bill when we turned the last tanks in. We did do a 2 tank boat dive also that I did not figure in there, but I am not figuring it into the cost of BI diving either.

Direct reply from the email I sent one shop stating we would be diving from 7-7 until 7-16. I had asked about air and nitrox but apparently only got a reply about Nitrox;

"20 dives, that sounds like a busy couple of days! If you’re doing tank rentals for shore diving, we cap at 2 tanks per diver. Nitrox tanks are $15 per tank for 24 hours; however, you can do refills during your 24 hour rental period for $10 a tank. We also rent weights for $6/day. We don’t have any sort of package deals for our shore diving rentals at this time."

I know you can not compare mainland prices to island prices, that is one reason I quoted Maui. Here I think at most shops air fills even in my HP-130 tanks are under $10 (been a while since I had one filled at a shop).

I will do some more emailing around and see what I can find. I appreciate your reply. It just seems like the BI is ok for people that just want to do a few vacation dives, but not for active divers.

I've found Big Island Divers - one of the biggest 2 or 3 outfits in Kona - to be very friendly to shore divers. They have a number of packages for tank and weight rentals, including weekly rates. I would be surprised if they refused to rent the number of tanks you wanted. If you have a particular package in mind that they don't at first have a good match for, I wouldn't hesitate to make them a suitable offer. The work off a barcoded binder system to ring up their packages, but the managers or owner always seem to be able to adjust prices to whatever is agreed

I usually rent 2 tanks for the duration of my stay, and buy a fill card, which works out to around $3.50-$4/fill, if I recall, depending on the size of the card. From what I recall, the weekly rate is about $3/tank/day, with the first fill included. They also do the $10 per day, unlimited refills, but I've never found that practical.

Don't see prices on their site, but shot them an email. Thanks.

---------- Post added July 3rd, 2014 at 03:25 PM ----------

Got a reply from them. Their prices are much more reasonable then the others I have found.

Thanks