Tech in Oahu?

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Hal

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Location
Washington, D.C.
Have a weekend of diving in Oahu in March and am looking for tech diving opportunities in Oahu - longer rather than deeper dives. Tried Ocean Legends and others but all seem rec-oriented or, to do tech dives, require me to charter my own boat/trip, which is too expensive. Any other options out there?

Thanks,

Hal
 
Sorry, I've been meaning to reply to your PM and just forgot. To start off, I'm not affiliated with any shop out here, but I do dive fairly regularly with Hawaiian Diving Adventures and Kaimana Divers - bit biased towards them, and not a fan of Ocean Legends based on a number of personal experiences with them. Kaimana and HDA are both pretty much rec-only unless you either charter the boat, keep your own run-time short, or catch them on a day they're double-dipping a deep wreck.

Chartering isn't cheap, I think I paid $300 for a three hour charter of a local boat a couple years back, but would be a very affordable option if you could just round up some local tech divers. Problem is, many of us are diving off private boats for barely the cost of our share of the gas, so it's hard to justify even a split charter fee. I know someone on here who wanted to dive deeper wrecks last year was able to get a pretty reasonable tech charter set up with Kaimana, though gas costs from Ocean Legends where he got his tanks were obscene (par for the course with that shop).

It's possible you could link up with one of the guys here who does a lot of tech diving off his own boat: drop pensacolaracer a PM. Only issue is that we're generally pushing past 200-300' rather than doing really long dives in the 100-200' range. There are various reasons for that, not the least of which being that I can't think of many sites where a really long BT in the 100-200' range is really worth the effort. Maybe a complete kick-diving (vs DPV) tour of the YO-257, nearby airplanes, and other features like wine-racks and pyramids (60-120' range, mostly around 100').

Your best bet might be seeing if you can get a local rec op like HDA or Kaimana to commit to a double-dip on a wreck like the Sea Tiger or the YO-257, which would give you a couple hours of run time to work with while the rec divers do dive #1/SI for a double deep dive/dive #2.
 
I know of only one dive in the 140 foot range. It's a piece of a wreck out west, near a slightly disappointing ledge.

If you can get your hands on a DPV, we can show you some stuff off the boat that will make you buy one the very next day.
 
Hi, if you wanna do some long dives on the cheap, jwelburn is the guy to see. He does ~2.5 hour shore dives on the regular. The North shore might open up occasionally in March if you're lucky. The popular dive sites stay pretty shallow so you can get some pretty obscene run times with little to no obligations.
 
You should get someone to set up a trip to the Friendship. Right outside Kewalo Basin, 190fsw, perfect Tech One range. I can help with coordinates if you can set up the boat. Our boats are USCG 12+ passengers, so charter would start at $600. You should be able to find a six pax for less than that. There is sorb and nitrox at Honolulu Scuba Co nearby if you need it. These guys dive for fun now and again, you can try posting there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hawaiiunderwaterexplorers/
Cheers
 
Either way, signing up for pensacolaracer's Meetup group is a good first step (and free!).
 
The numbers games out here are hilarious: coordinates for the Friendship wreck are N21 16.988 W157 52.144 It's also listed with numbers precise enough to drop anchor on the stern, though not by name, in the NOAA wrecks/obstructions survey for Oahu.

HUE is a great group of divers, but they have some pretty strong feelings about air diving the Friendship :D
 
Hope it's helpful. Here's a link to Michael's prep to a tech trip out here last year: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/hawai-i/470303-deeper-wreck-diving-oahu.html

He can speak as a traveling diver to tech diving with Kaimana, gas/tank rental from OL, and diving off pensacolaracer's boat here.

I keep checking the Hawaii subform for some reason, maybe it's to give something back to the group of people that showed me a fantastic time while I was over. Dr. Lecter, pensacolaracer and Gabe from Kaimana. Keep having to say thanks even tho it's been a year!!

As mentioned, I traveled to Hawaii from Australia. I'm an open circuit diver and came with all my own gear except for tanks and weights obviously. I even took my drysuit which is probably way too warm for Hawaii waters, if I were to do this again I'll go with a 5mm instead. I am very susceptible to the cold.

Was told that helium is a bit hard to come by in Hawaii and I should go with air as backgas which I did. I dived the friendship with air and although feeling slightly narc'ed it was manageable. If you are diving with Kaimana they can organize tank hire and air, I dived sidemount so I didn't require twins. Otherwise if you are an OC twin diver I believe OL may be able to assist.

All my deco gas I got through OL. You should call / email ahead of time to organize the mix you want and what size tank you prefer. They do require payment up front for gas, but from memory they also accept paypal for us overseas travelers. :)

You do need to organize your own vehicle to cart the hire tanks around and getting to and from dive site if you are diving with pensacolaracer. Otherwise Kaimana normally offer local pickup and dropoff.
 

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