Any Kona Aggressor (Recent) Comments?

[DSR-3]

I've done the search thing and read what came up*, but I'd like to hear more about the diving, etc. *Thanks for the great report ewaiea.
I'm hungry for something other than the caribe, 'looking at the pacific and (not too) beyond. I'd like to do a liveaboard, probably solo. Fiji looks awesome, as does the Philippines, Palau, etc. BUT it would be so much cheaper & easier for me to get to Kona from Cali. I've done a few dives on Oahu- 10 years ago, but nothing too memorable. I'm not picky about diving, like to see nice varieties of fish & coral. I like to shoot pic's, esp. macro.

Should I spend the extra $$ and time to go farther?

I would love to see some pictures from guests on the Kona Aggressor.

Thanks!

 

[Damselfish]

That's a hard question to answer from what you said. The Kona Aggressor is a nice trip, the diving is ok but it's not in the same class as lots of other places in the Pacific. If I lived in CA and had the time and money to go farther, I would.

 

[ewaiea]

You might have read my trip report already. But I did the Kona Aggressor II last August. Great crew, awesome food, and my first experience on a liveaboard dive boat. I'm officially hooked and will not go back. I'm heading off on the Star Dancer in Papua New Guinea in t-minus 5 1/2 weeks! As a veteran of Hawaii diving (10+ years) I will admit, the diving here though good and lots of endemic life, is not all that great. To be honest, if you want to try the Pacific and you live on the west coast, you should think about Cocos Island or perhaps the Galapagos Islands. But then again, those destinations are aimed more at swimming with the big stuff. Kona is an excellent destination for the macro critters and the Kona Aggressor really makes the diving easy - though I'd recommend a summer trip because the water is warmer (probably 79 degrees) as oppsed to right now (about 72 degrees).

Other Pacific hotspots that I would hit if I were you (I trust the extra expense would be well worth it) would be Palau. I think a couple of extra months of saving would be worth your time. Believe it or not, flying to Palau from the west coast tends to be cheaper than for us out here in Hawaii!

I'm planning on doing the Palau Aggressor or the new Tropic Dancer in Palau in January 2011. Papua New Guinea and Palau are my top two on the current bucket list! Oh by the way, the Star Dancer in Papua New Guinea just dropped their price on a 10 day liveaboard down about $900 from what it was - I don't know about anyone else but that was too tough for me to turn down. Go for the gusto, make a good bet on March Madness and use the winnings for a PNG trip!

 

[robint]

It is not that much more to fly to Palau and the diving will be exponentially better. I would go for it. There are several liveaboards to choose from: Aggressor, Peter Hughes, Ocean Hunter, and Explorer (we did this one and loved it, a bit cheaper than the others and the boats are older and funky, boat crew is Filipino, food distinctively Asian, DMs from US, UK, and PI were fantastic). All the diving will be exactly the same no matter which liveaboard boat you choose.

Friends did the Na'ia liveaboard in Fiji recently and said it was worth every penny, too.

robin

 

[DSR-3]

Thanks for the feedback.
I guess I'm not surprised, but I keep hoping that HI will look like a great option. It's just that it's quite a bit easier, and the total cost would be measurably less. However, I don't want to spend the time and effort to make a trip and wish I had gone the extra "mile", which sounds like the consensus here.

So I guess it's back to looking at the other destinations and options.

I would still like to see some more pic's from the Kona Aggressor clients.

 

[robint]

Thanks for the feedback.
I guess I'm not surprised, but I keep hoping that HI will look like a great option. It's just that it's quite a bit easier, and the total cost would be measurably less. However, I don't want to spend the time and effort to make a trip and wish I had gone the extra "mile", which sounds like the consensus here.

So I guess it's back to looking at the other destinations and options.

I would still like to see some more pic's from the Kona Aggressor clients.

We were diving in Kona a few years ago, land-based and so I have photos of the diving there though not all the same sites you would be visiting. We did enjoy the diving and the topside things like Volcanoes National Park. The big differences between diving in Palau vs. Kona = Palau has huge dramatic walls covered in brilliantly colored soft coral, huge schools of fish, big fish, sharks, mantas, and anemone fish. Kona has coral that is small, reefs are built on lava rock, not very colorful, no sea fans, no soft coral, and the fish life is not as diverse. Palau is drift diving, Kona has very little current. Kona we saw lots of turtles, butterflyfish, and eels, Palau we saw lots of sharks, mantas, anemonefish, and huge schools of all types of fish.

Palau

my Palau video:
[vimeo]3506378[/vimeo]





Kona

my Kona video:

sorry this one is such poor quality, but I saved it as lower quality as that was all I could do at the time.

I am not saying you wouldn't enjoy the Kona Aggressor... but if you have a choice between doing that or Palau on a liveaboard, I would opt for Palau. Both are going to be good diving, but Palau is going to be that much better for sooooooo many reasons!

robin

 

[DSR-3]

Thank You!

 

[Mossman]

I have to agree with all the above. Personally, I'd love to try the Kona Aggressor, but I haven't yet because I too tend to weigh the advantages of spending a bit more money to get a lot more out of the diving.

Because of its remote situation, Hawaii lacks soft corals and the diversity of fish you might see in spots closer to the Indo-Pacific underwater "garden of Eden" from whence all the fishies sprung. On the other hand, due to post-Garden-of-Eden evolution, Hawaii boasts many endemic species that you simply can't find anywhere else on the planet. However, you can experience much of this by simply flying to Hawaii and doing a couple boat or shore dives each day, spending your afternoons enjoying the land diversions. Don't forget to book a manta night dive, IMO the crown jewel of diving the Big Island. Personally, if I'm going to spend a few grand on a liveaboard and remain stuck on the boat for a week or more, I'd rather be in a place where the diving is more remarkable than what you'd find in Hawaii. If I had 8 weeks of vacation a year, and money to burn, the Kona Aggressor would be on my short list (or already would have done it). Since that's only a pipe dream, I tend to focus my limited time and money on trips that provide more bang for the buck.

Unfortunately, there is a serious price differential. It's relatively cheap to get to Hawaii from L.A. as you point out, much more expensive to get to Palau or Fiji and then you'll be spending more on the liveaboard as well. On the other hand, you could probably get away with spending the same as the Kona Aggressor trip on a land-based Fiji or Indonesia experience where the savings on the dive and room/board would balance out the increase in air fare. Of course with Palau and Indonesia, you'd also have to budget a few more days of vacation just for the travel time.

Cocos is another option suggested here. The liveaboard will cost a bit more, but the flight to Costa Rica is usually about the same as to Hawaii. (Galapagos is quite a bit more expensive when you figure in flights to Ecuador, to the islands, and mandatory overnight stays in each direction.) Unfortunately, other than a few nudibranchs and the handful of itty-bitty fish found everywhere, Cocos is primarily wide-angle fare. For macro, Kona is probably better, and Palau and Indonesia far superior.

 

[ewaiea]

Thanks for the feedback.
I guess I'm not surprised, but I keep hoping that HI will look like a great option. It's just that it's quite a bit easier, and the total cost would be measurably less. However, I don't want to spend the time and effort to make a trip and wish I had gone the extra "mile", which sounds like the consensus here.

So I guess it's back to looking at the other destinations and options.

I would still like to see some more pic's from the Kona Aggressor clients.

To be honest, how often can a guy like me say that he has an Aggressor boat just a $100 flight away from home? So that made me think I should do the Kona Aggressor, plus I'd always left Kona wishing I had gotten more than just a day of boat diving from day boats in. The other reason I picked the Kona Aggressor was in 2009 I had dropped the game of golf and got back into diving so I needed to upgrade some of my gear and camera kit so with the equipment expense made it so I couldn't go to Palau, or Belize - which were my two destinations that I wanted to have as my first liveaboard.

The Kona Aggressor will always go down as a very special trip, but with the exception of a quick couple days in the Florida Keys last summer, I've really only been underwater in Hawaii for the last 9 years (oh and once in WA State to do my drysuit cert last October - the diving there rocks!) so I think PNG next month and Palau next January will definitely go down as out ranking Hawaii by quite a bit.

One more way to look at your situation, if you do the Kona Aggressor and you want to have a truly awesome trip, you'll probably want to stay a day or two before or after your liveaboard trip to drive around the Big Island and see the Volcano, Waipio Valley, and don't forget the summit up on Mauna Kea (rent a jeep and do it - even though the rental companies frown on it nothing is going to happen if you're careful it's just a bumpy road - just have AAA insurance and you'll be fine, don't worry). So when you factor in the extra cost of all that stuff (which is a can't miss) you have probably totaled what the Palau Aggressor trip would be.

But be careful with Palau, alot of people are going to try to sell you on a stopover in Yap and Truk, as tempting as that would be (and do it if you can) it will amp up the cost of the trip something fierce.....so enjoy Palau and just make it a point to come back some day and do the other places in the surrounding area (Yap and Truk Lagoon).

Sorry to be so long winded....check my profile, I have a few Kona Aggressor trip pics posted somewhere on here. I'll work on finding a few more...I think the video posted on the Aggressor website does a good job of showing some of the diving possibilities you'd have on the Kona Aggressor.

 

[robint]

Another factor in considering which trip, Palau or Kona, is whether you want to spend any time topside activities.

Palau topside is a day, maybe two tops, a land-tour to Peleliu to visit the WWII memorials by US and Japan, etc. There really isn't much else, after you visit the jail and buy a storyboard. The island of Koror is pretty, how shall I say it nicely... slummy and touristy. Friends who were on the liveaboard with us did a few days landbased and drove up to a waterfall, quite a long bumpy ride but said it was nice once they got there. That was all they could find of interest to do not related to diving/snorkeling.

Kona, on the other hand, has lots of topside stuff worth several days of touring. The Volcanoes National Park is definitely a day or two, then another day or two over on windward side visiting the rainforest, waterfalls, caves, etc. The views are spectacular and you can spend hours just taking photos everywhere. You can do lots of hiking if you enjoy that, or drive up to the top of the one volcano for incredible views. Then you could spend another full day visiting the historic sites on the island regarding the Hawaiian people. I do have the Kona Aggressor on my list of trips to do eventually, and the topside stuff is a big part of that equation. I really enjoyed Hawaii topside.

robin