Certificate on Hawaii

[Kasper03]

Hi.

I live in California and want to go to Hawaii to take a Diver Certificate in end of May.
But im having a little trouble finding places where to take it on Hawaii, which kind of certificate I need to take.

Im currently a exchange from Denmark here for the spring semester in California, so I dont know many people to ask about the subject and though this would be good place.

Hope you can help.

 

[descent]

Welcome to SB!

I hope you are enjoying the fine weather, and I hope you get a chance to splash around, even if it is just a brief snorkeling dip. If you can fit it into your schedule, a trip to the Channel Islands near Los Angeles would probably be a real thrill.

You certainly don't have to wait for a Hawaii trip to get a basic certification. Between Tahoe and Monterey, there are a lot of great diving opportunities close to you right now, and many excellent local dive shops with classes running every weekend.

Good luck, and keep us updated!

 

[KevinNM]

There are dive shops on every major island in Hawaii. They can do a full scuba course or a referral, where they just do the open water parts after doing the pool and classroom parts somewhere else. What island/town are you going to?

I'm a bit confused by your asking "which kind of certificate I need to take." What are trying to get certified to do?

 

[diversteve]

Typically most of Hawaii works under PADI - Professional Association of Diving Instructors | PADI so you'll have more shop choices if you go thru them. They have a dive store locator on their website so you can find someone near where you're planning to stay - there are good operations on all 4 major Hawaiian islands.

The certification you want is Open Water diver because that will allow you to dive independently with others. There are also resort courses or discover dives but they will require you to be accompanied by an instructor on every dive till you achieve Open Water.

An additional aspect is that PADI has online training so you can complete much of the classroom portion now allowing more vacation time for the actual dive certification process - which would then take about 2 mornings to do the pool training and 4 required skills dives prior to being certified. Many offer discounted dives after that also. All have rental equipment available generally, in May you're not going to need much other than mask/fins/boots/snorkel to complete the class - everything can be rented also - including wetsuits if needed. In May I dive in Maui in a t-shirt just to keep from getting sunburned.

If you don't have anywhere in mind yet, I would recommend Maui since for a new diver it's probably the easiest diving and among the best as well. Many of the shops teach a short class, do some pool work, some beach work and then depending on who you're using may do some shallow boat dives at the end of your course. You can probably fly there directly from SFO also.

One advantage Maui has is there is a lot of diving clustered in several areas. Molokini Crater off the Kihei area is shallower, protected good diving. The island of Lanai - accessed by dive operators in the Lahaina area is similar. There's also a lot of easy beach entries - a couple of which you'll utilize during your training. Maui diving is among the best of the 4 islands or possibly Kona but the best of that is more spread out. And most entries are off lava not sandy beaches - for new divers not used to carrying full scuba gear, it's sharp if you go down. Kauai being smaller just has less of everything. Kauai generally requires a stop in Honolulu first also. If it's of interest stay in the Poipu Beach area since all the dive operations are located there. And they teach at Koloa Landing, a shallow site nearby.

I haven't been diving on Oahu so will let someone else comment on that.

If you stay in the typical tourist areas on Maui - some shops I recommend. In the Ka'anapali, Kahana, Lahaina area either Lahaina Divers or Extended Horizons. Both offer PADI certification. So do others but they have the boats. Another option could be Tiny Bubbles Scuba - all they do is shore diving.

Scuba Dive Lanai, Molokini, Molokai, and Maui | Lahaina Divers
Maui Scuba Diving 808 667 0611 Scuba Dive Lanai Extended Horizons - Maui's Leading Green Dive Shop - Lahaina, Hawaii
Scuba Dive Maui Ka'anapali Lahaina Hawaii Snorkel | 808.870.0878 | Tiny Bubbles Scuba Diving Specializing in Private Scuba Dives and Scuba Diving Instruction on Maui

If you stay in "South" Maui, there's more options. B&B Scuba is one I recommend but there's at least 1/2 dozen other options. Google Maui dive operators for a complete list. Others reading this will likely suggest alternatives.

For more personalized instruction, look at Shaka Divers. There's also Maui Dreams Dive Co. in that area - all the the last do is guided shore diving/certification. They have space on Maui Diamond II - a dive boat that leaves from Ma'alea Harbor - a short drive north.

There's also more shore dive options in that area after you're certified, most of the shops can hook you up with other divers wanting to do that. MDDC has a buddy sign-up sheet in-store. Shore diving really cuts down on the costs.

Molokini Boat Charters, Scuba Classes, Rent Scuba Gear - Maui
http://shakadivers.com/
http://mauidreamsdiveco.com/

There are many other good Maui dive operators - the ones I listed I have some personal experience/knowledge of. Some of the larger resorts on Maui also have affiliated dive operators - either nearby or on-site. Most of those will direct you to their/shared dive boats elsewhere for boat-based diving since all the dive boats leave from one of 3 harbors.

Maui Dive Shops also offer certification. They are the only SSI affiliated shop on the island. So you would progress in your training through them instead. Worldwide PADI is a lot more prevalent at most dive destinations. MDS teaches PADI courses also. Boat diving with them requires a short drive to the Ma'alea harbor also so I just don't see any advantage.

PADI also appears to have some presence in your country also - http://padi.dk/

Pick an operator based near where you plan to stay. And contact them directly with questions about class sizes, scheduling, requirements etc. If you do the e-learning here first ask about that also - at one time you needed a referral code at sign up.

Although it doesn't look far, the drive time between Lahaina and Kihei can exceed 45 minutes with traffic. And the boats leave very early from Kihei to get to Molokini before the tradewinds pick up most afternoons.

 

[runsongas]

why not get certified locally? there are quite a few dive shops in the south bay and plenty of good diving in monterey/carmel. diver dan's, any water sports, and pacific scuba divers would all be close to you.

you could then spend your vacation enjoying your dives more.

 

[Keith.M]

why not get certified locally? there are quite a few dive shops in the south bay and plenty of good diving in monterey/carmel. diver dan's, any water sports, and pacific scuba divers would all be close to you.

you could then spend your vacation enjoying your dives more.

I couldn't agree more.

You have plenty of time to get certified locally. Even some some extra dives in before you head to Hawaii in May.

It would be a heck of a lot better to be able to spend your time on vacation being able to just dive, rather than going through all the Open Water course while on vacation.

 

[dmaziuk]

"Referral" means you do the course (pool dives and written exam) locally and then do your "final exam" open water dives elsewhere. That's an option, too, though I'd do the whole thing locally and spend my Hawaii time splashing around captain's bay. There are other factors, e.g. keep in mind Hawaii is expensive and it may be cheaper to bring some stuff with you rather than rent there. You'll need a couple of dives to figure out what you need, that means getting certified beforehand.

 

[Kasper03]

First of all, I want to say thank you so much for the quick and really helpfull answears! You guys answeared so many of my questions.

The reason why I want to take it on Hawaii(I plan to be there for a week) is that I live in San Jose, and the school is taking alot of my time - Much more than I thought. But how long time would it take to take it locally ? Maybe an option would be to take it in my spring break or something ? Is it something you can do three days in a row ?

Thank you again. It sounds like I have alot of options - both here and on Hawaii

 

[KevinNM]

Some places you can do it in 3 days, but I'm not sure you can do it in 3 days per standards for PADI. You probably don't want to do it even if you find someone offering it. Quickie, cheapie OW courses are kind of the bane of scubaboard, as they tend to produce divers whose skills are at best marginal.

Typically a course has 2 days of lecture and pool, or brief review of your e-course and 2 sessions in the pool. Then you need to do 4 open water dives and PADI only allows 3 training dives per day.

The LDS I use has the pool 4-8 pm on Saturday and Sunday, with the open water dives the next weekend. They used to have the lecture starting at 9-10 am when I got certified way back when, not sure how it works these days.

 

[diversteve]

Here's a typical example thru Lahaina Divers. They are kind of pricey IMO but they list a lot of details so I'm using them as a baseline for comparison. if you shop around you should be able to find everything for between $50-100 less. Although they are a good outfit, I dive with them regularly. Nice big boats so pretty stable in case conditions are a little rougher. Off Maui the tradewinds pick up most afternoons so the water is a little choppier.

PADI Get Certified | PADI Scuba Classes from Intro to Instructor

Open Water from scratch is $595 and takes 3 FULL days. It includes all needed gear except you'll have to buy your own mask/fins/snorkel plus Padi OW manual and logbook. They'll sell any of that to you also.

If you do the E-Learning before you arrive, you can complete all the skills/diving in 1.5 days for either $450 or $399 with 2-3 students also enrolled. And $120 for the E-Learning. It allows you to have all the coursework, quizzes and even the final exam done before arriving.

One reason they may be a little higher than others is all their dives are boat dives so that costs them extra compared to others who might do it from shore. Lahaina has a link to their specific e-learning section on their website - if you choose them, sign up there - otherwise sign up thru whomever you pick.

A third option is to do everything but your O/W checkout dives locally then get a referral to do those in Maui. That costs $349 and is done over two afternoons - they do shallower dives close in to the Maui coast. I have no idea what your costs would be locally for the rest of the class or the timing involved - check with a shop there in Silicon Valley.

PADI has a locator at the top of their website - enter a zipcode and they'll list local authorized shops.

I'd at least do the e-learning if yo can fit it in. Much better to be doing other diving or sightseeing your week there than sitting in a classroom all day.

There's really no reason that you couldn't do several more days of boat/shore diving that week after certification is over. Or go with one of the other boat/shore operators. You'll find that most shore dive operators aren't much cheaper since they have all the same expenses less boat ownership. It's not the cheapest place to live. Plus for new divers, falling off a boat is easier.