Kauai Dive Operators - Good, Bad, Whatever?

Who has good and/or bad experiences with the dive operators on Kauai? :10:

Also, where are the best places around Kauai to dive in July?

I haven't dived in Kauai, but we're going there in August, so I've looked into this a fair amount recently. Consensus on the boards and in the guide books seems to be that the two best operators are Fathom Five and Bubbles Below. Fathom Five has two 6-diver boats and will split the divers onto the two boats by skill level, which is nice. Bubbles Below goes to Ni'ihau two days a week during the summer and does Kauai-area diving the rest of the week. Both are pretty small operations, so you'll want to make reservations with either one now, as they'll probably fill up pretty soon. If you do a search on the board, you should find lots of older posts about Kauai, although they may have been casualties of the recent changes in how the Hawaii posts are categorized. Both Fathom Five and Bubbles Below have websites, which you can find with a Google search.

As for shore diving, you can find lots of good into at http://www.shorediving.com/. In the summer, the water is calmer on the north side, where Tunnels beach is probably the best shore dive on the island. There's also good diving off of Ke'e beach as well. On the south side of the island, Koloa Landing is a nice easy dive, but in the summer conditions may not be as good there as on the north side.

a couple of years ago when I visited Kauai - and I was extremely pleased. [Small, fast boat - not much more load than myself & my boys - talkative and knowledgeable divemaster & captain....about my only issue is they had my boys & myself thinking the divemaster/instructor life on the S. shore of Kauai is where we ought to be, it was tough to go back] They were reccomended by another diver from this board - so I expect the message chains are searchable.

They work the South / East shores out of Ele'ele, which was great as we were staying near Poipu

www.manadivers.com

Revidabucs:

Who has good and/or bad experiences with the dive operators on Kauai? :10:

Also, where are the best places around Kauai to dive in July?

Click to expand...

Hands down, Bubbles Below is the best. Linda and her staff are great!

My wife and I are going this weekend on a very last minute trip to Kauai. We just booked our package last night!

Based on what I have read here, scubadiving.com's board, and undercurrent articles, I called Bubbles Below this morning. Unfortunately, they're pretty much booked for the days we'll be there. I have found several good things written about Fathom Five but quite a number more comments about Seasport (they're probably a bigger op). However, I'm leaning towards Fathom Five because they run smaller groups.

Any additional thoughts about the two dive ops? Thanks in advance!

Ive been on about 15 dives with sea sport their really good . they have a new boat.
if you can take the trip Certified Diver Summer Niihau Three-Tank Dive (seasonal, May-September): For the Experienced Certified Diver, this is one of the best dives in Hawaii and is an all day event. Very few leave Niihau disappointed. The incredible wall dives, soaring lava pillars, and enormous caves, combined with bountiful fish, numerous pelagics, and unlimited visibility, dazzle even the most discriminating divers. The day incorporates three dives, two deep and one shallow and includes sites like Vertical Awareness or Keyhole, a 280-foot wall, Super Highway, Drive Through Cave and Lehua Rock.

well worth it Vertical Awareness rocks

I just returned from Kauai, and had a very unpleasant experience with Bubbles Below. They seemed like the nicest people on earth, until a dive fell apart.

You can read about my experience on Accidents and Incidents. I think this will get you there:

http://www.scubaboard.com/t58550.html

I don't like to be negative, but I would never dive with them again.

WOW so sorry you had to go threw all that..
form what you said it sounds like you have learned allot in one dive.
keep diving.
just remember if somthing dont feel right call the dive and dive another day.

I went diving with Bubbles Below in late May. I'm a pretty new diver but in very good physical shape.

Both days were sunny, but the second day was very, very windy, which made for an extremely rough boat ride and surface waves, etc. This made for a difficult descent and ascent, but we had a line so that was helpful.

Because I'm not that experienced, I did not plan to go on the Niihau dive, but the DM suggested to our group the day before that the Niihau trip probably wouldn't happen that week anyway, due to the windy weather.

I'm glad I went, to have the experience of doing it. We saw lots of turtles, but the diving in general was much better in Kona several days later. So, I would likely not make the effort to go there as a dive destination. (This was actually a family vacation, and I'm the only diver in the family so it was an extracurricular activity away from them.)

I have been to kauai twice and dove with bubbles below both times. had great times (other than leaving my hat the last time). Captan was knowledgable and took us to good spots.

The sea was a bit heave on both trips, waves and surge, though not too bad below. Have a video of the first trip.