Maui West Side Diving

[Steve Eady]

Good shore dives, Mckenna landing, Kapalua bay, Black rock. For your gear, Maui dive shop. B&B Scuba. I think guided would be the way for you guys to go the first few dives, that way you get comfortable. I might be going back soon, what dates are you going to bre there ?

[Mark Derail]

You don't need guides if you go to Big Beach.
You don't need gear... if you go to Little Beach.

(meant to be funny - LB is a clothes optional beach)

[DiveMaven]

I'm going to respectfully disagree with Mark when he says you don't need guides. Although there are sites where you don't need guides for navigation, one of the biggest mistakes divers new to Hawaii make is to not hire a guide (or have a bad one). Hawaii's creatures and topography is so different than the rest of the world that unless you know what you're looking for and where to look for it, you'll miss 90% of what there is to see.

There's just nothing more annoying and frustrating to me than reading posts about Hawaii having crappy diving, everything is dead, there's nothing to see, don't waste your time, etc., etc. That's only true if you either go it alone and haven't a clue what you're looking for, or you've had crappy guides who aren't interested in pointing out the cool stuff.

Do yourself a big favor and hire a good guide for all (or most, depending on how much you're doing) of your diving on Maui. It is worth every dime it will cost you.

[Mark Derail]

Ahhhh.....only for Big Beach! The rocks between LB and BB are full of life, and 20-30 feet out of BB there's lots to see.

IOW, you spend a day at the beach, and snorkel/freedive, you don't need a guide for that. I recommend being there on a Sunday.

For all other dive sites - yes by all means get a guide. Memorable dives w/o having to use a boat op, cheaper too.

I'm going to respectfully disagree with Mark when he says you don't need guides..

[ccrom30]

thanks for the info. we arrive in maui april 17th and leave may 1st. we scheduled a 2 tank dive on the 19th with shaka doug. the "plan" is to spend a lot of time in the south and don't mind driving ( drive 25 miles one way to work), so we will probably rent his gear from B & B.
we will probably only do 1 boat dive, so we have to decide on lanai (lahaina divers vs extended horizons) or molokini (prob B & B)
if we night dive black rock, any suggestions on guides?

[lonebrave]

I didn't do a night dive at Black Rock, but our guide (Keith) from Extended Horizons was awesome for our dive there during the day. He knew the site like the back of his hand, knew exactly how to dive with the current there, where to ride it to an advantage, and where to duck into cover to spend more time looking at the wildlife.

[Roc]

I stayed in Kaanapali last year. being new to Hawaii I found maui Dive shop easy to rent from. Black rock is a good bet for getting back in the water. Better to put in the north side of B/R then you can go all the way around, otherwise the current is too strong. Watch out for cliff divers.