mattharmer
New
Hello all -
Just wanted to take a moment and give a quick report on a dive trip to Ni'ihau, a small island roughly 20 miles southwest of Kauai.
For perspective, I've done 53 ocean dives over the past 15 years or so in a number of environments, including cold water diving off of San Diego and Catalina in southern California, Fiji, Cancun, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, etc.
A Ni'ihau trip requires a full day commitment. We left Port Allen on Kauai's southwest shore around 7:00 am and returned at about 5:30 pm. We had roughly a 2-hour boat ride each way and did 3 dives off Ni'ihau.
For any of you considering this trip, I highly, highly recommend it. I've done 4 dives off the south shore of Kauai and frankly they don't compare at all to the pristine waters off Ni'ihau. Visibility was easily over 100' and we saw an abundance of sea life, including a manta ray, numerous grey sharks, pelagics, nudibranchs, etc. The underwater topography was as impressive as crystal clear waters and the abundance of critters.
I'd like to recommend Bubbles Below as an operator. Naturally, on a dive like this, everyone in the boat was an experienced diver, but I thought the staff at Bubbles Below did an outstanding job of prepping us before the dives, telling us what to look for, and then pointing out rare specimens and endemic species below. They were comfortable letting us wander away from the group (within reason) and were safety-conscious without being restrictive - sometimes a tough combination.
In any event, for experienced divers who want something a little more interesting than the turtle dives or the occasionally murky waters off Kauai, I highly, highly recommend Ni'ihau and Bubbles Below.
For perspective, we had a marine biologist on the trip with us from the US Fish & Wildlife Service (I'll keep his name private). He's been stationed in Hawaii for many years and said that our Ni'ihau dive was the best dive he'd ever had in Hawaii - period.
Happy diving
Just wanted to take a moment and give a quick report on a dive trip to Ni'ihau, a small island roughly 20 miles southwest of Kauai.
For perspective, I've done 53 ocean dives over the past 15 years or so in a number of environments, including cold water diving off of San Diego and Catalina in southern California, Fiji, Cancun, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, etc.
A Ni'ihau trip requires a full day commitment. We left Port Allen on Kauai's southwest shore around 7:00 am and returned at about 5:30 pm. We had roughly a 2-hour boat ride each way and did 3 dives off Ni'ihau.
For any of you considering this trip, I highly, highly recommend it. I've done 4 dives off the south shore of Kauai and frankly they don't compare at all to the pristine waters off Ni'ihau. Visibility was easily over 100' and we saw an abundance of sea life, including a manta ray, numerous grey sharks, pelagics, nudibranchs, etc. The underwater topography was as impressive as crystal clear waters and the abundance of critters.
I'd like to recommend Bubbles Below as an operator. Naturally, on a dive like this, everyone in the boat was an experienced diver, but I thought the staff at Bubbles Below did an outstanding job of prepping us before the dives, telling us what to look for, and then pointing out rare specimens and endemic species below. They were comfortable letting us wander away from the group (within reason) and were safety-conscious without being restrictive - sometimes a tough combination.
In any event, for experienced divers who want something a little more interesting than the turtle dives or the occasionally murky waters off Kauai, I highly, highly recommend Ni'ihau and Bubbles Below.
For perspective, we had a marine biologist on the trip with us from the US Fish & Wildlife Service (I'll keep his name private). He's been stationed in Hawaii for many years and said that our Ni'ihau dive was the best dive he'd ever had in Hawaii - period.
Happy diving
