AK,
Let's talk some more
I live here, and I'm a DM here. What company are you using to boat? I can try to steer you away/towards companies or sites perhaps.
February is a little tough. When in February? Beginning or end? The issue is, on Oahu in the winter (Nov-Feb) the swells in the north are large and small in the south. Moderate on the west side. There are a lot of good dive sites either way, but the north has some of my favorite. Depending on if you get lucky, if it's the tail of Feb you might be able to dive up north...MAYBE.
Also if you are here after the 15th I can probably dive with you on a weekend. I have a full time job, but I am taking leave from the 2-15th for my accelerated PADI instructor course which is 7a-7p every day for 14 days so I can't dive with you during that time.
I can, however, recommend decent sites.
Use this site for surf forecasting:
Surf Forecast for O`ahu but only use as a guide because remember it's not always 100% accurate. However, if it says wave heights are going to be 10-12 feet or in the case of the other day 18-25 feet, you aren't going to dive there. Shore diving conditions here you aren't going to want to enter the water I'd say with wave heights any higher than 2-4 feet. 0-1 or 1-3 is going to be your best bet. I have never dove off a shore here in anything worse that was a good dive or even doable.
Dive sites in the south and west that you can visit reasonably in the winter: Hanauma Bay, first vote. It's also the biggest pain in the ass, and depends on your skill level and air consumption as the sites you want to see are far out. So if you're sucking air down, you won't make it out. Hanauma Bay also has the best snorkeling so you can do that between dives or have your family and friends do that. The bay is down towards the bottom of a hill so you have to take a tram for like $1 with your tanks. So it's a bit of a haul, and you have to get there early as it fills up quickly and they shut it down to more people. Also you have to watch a 7 minute video on protecting wildlife. I've attached a panoramic of the bay.
HB is southeast on the island. Moving west from there and along the south you also have Magic Island, which is pretty shallow and nice, depending on the day. My wife and I just dove there on Christmas Day (pics of turtle and stuff attached).
Then you have Kakaako. It's not great, but I like the easy entry. Vis has to be pretty good for it to be an awesome dive. Also your air consumption is going to be the key factor in how awesome the dive is, as you can get quite far out if you are good.
From there it pretty much skips to the southwest side. You have two great sites over there. Electric Beach might be one of the most popular on the island. It's on the west side but it kind of faces south, so the surf reports are hard to judge for there without going and seeing it. The gear up area has a large pavilion, nice for gearing up. Small beach with a moderate entry. The entry is a pretty narrow strip between a concrete wall from the electric plant (it discharges warm water from the plant, hence the name of the beach) and a rock wall, but rocks in the water sort of limit you to a 20-25' opening to enter. If waves are high it will knock inexperienced divers over, or thrash your mask off if you aren't careful. Once you get out though, it's a nice dive. Off to the left (south) are some hot water pipes that you can tumble around if you're good or get shotted out 140' if you're not paying attention (can also be fun, but it's a long swim back lol). Off to the right (north) if you have good air consumption are some overhangs where you often find white tip sharks and turtles.
Further north but facing west is a great site, Makaha, but Makaha has a long surface swim and beach walk to get out so many people are turned off by it. There are some nice swim throughs and probably the nicest coral reef you can see from a shore dive on the island. Also there is a turtle cleaning station at a relatively low depth so you can spend an hour just watching turtles if you want. You'll see the japanese tourist boats out there, so just head for there.
Make sure you have a dive float. Especially at Makaha, as the parks and rec people are fining people these days. You have to descend and ascend within 50 feet of your float. You can get a ticket technically for exiting or entering without one. Meaning, if you are diving three times, bring your float in each time. Other places are less strict for some reason.
I hope this post was useful and I hope you're still following it. I haven't been active on these boards until recent so I didn't see this.
