Scuba off the island of Hawaii - East or West

[Jonathan Shannon]

Greetings:

My wife and I will be on The Big Island in April, and I plan on going SCUBA diving for the fist time.

We will be staying on the east coast. I have read that diving is better on the west coast (clearer water). But it is a 4 hour round trip drive- taking valuable vacation time.

My wife has no interest in diving, and so this may be my only time doing it. I am not certified, and won't be. I have purchased the PADI OW Manual and DVD and will study it thoroughly so that I won't have so much to take in that day.

Just wondering, from those who have SCUBA'd in Hawaii, is diving from the west coast so much better than the east to make the 4 hour trip worthwhile?

Thank you,

Jon

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Typically the east side is pounded by surf. There is diving at South Point, but it's still a long drive.

 

[Scubanoobi]

Have you been to the BI before?

Just a personal opinion after spending 4 weeks on that island is that aside from the volcano, which can be done in 1-2 days, there is not much to see on the Hilo side. I've done all my diving out of Puako, and found it really enjoyable! Long dives, turtles, sharks, cool topography... Unless you enjoy being off the beaten path, the west side is much better overall, for everything other than active volcanoes.


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[NorCalDM]

You mentioned that you won't be certified when you go you may want to at least get the pool work done before you go so you only have to do the four open water dives if not you will be spending your vacation getting certified and not diving. Bill at Nautilus Dive in Hilo does shore dives on the east side of the island but be warned he is old school so he won't cut you any slack but you will learn!

 

[diversteve]

We seem to have lost some earlier posts so I'll repeat what I posted.

The issue with driving across isn't the distance it's the elevation. The Saddle Road rises to 6600+ feet on the drive across. So altitude restrictions apply post-dive. You also don't want to take a helicopter flight within 18-24 hrs. of your dive. Even Volcanoes Nat'l Park is sort of iffy since it's at 4,000'.

The issue is that diving then going to altitude can result in nitrogen bubbles introduced into your bloodstream during the dive being released into soft tissue/muscle. It's the same reason your PADI manual will say not to fly for 24hrs. after diving. If you did one morning dive then stayed around Kona for the day the risk would be mitigated but with the drive time over - that's not really possible since the Kona boats all leave around 9AM and typically do 2-tank morning dives. It could be possible to do an afternoon shore dive - Jack's Diving Locker in Kona is one option but verify with them b4 you drive over that they have the divers they need for it that day.

It's not clear - did you just buy the book for reference and you're planning to do a Discover Dive that day? Or are you trying to get certified as an O/W diver? Because that's a 3-5 day class or at least two days for just the checkout dives if you show up with a referral having taken the class locally prior. If the latter you can also do the PADI E-learning to cut down the time spent in class once there. It will still be longer though as you have demo skills etc. Plus you can't do all the checkout dives the same day. And it's pricier usually since the shop still has to provide gear plus instructor for the dives. If you are interested in E-learning I believe you book that thru either website - both have links - so they get the proper credit and can access your records/results.

If you just plan to do a Discover Dive - the book/DVD are going to cover a whole lot more than the instructor will in a few hours before taking you diving. So a good thing to know anyway.

In addition to Nautilus, there's also Hilo Ocean Adventures. As mentioned, either only do shore diving. Mostly in Hilo Bay from what I understand. Hilo Ocean Adventures - Dive Sites

 

[REVAN]

The East coast gets all the rain and waves. Surf tends to be big and the visibility poor from all the river runoff. The good news is that you probably won't see any tigers on the East coast. The bad news is, that doesn't mean they aren't there. Diving might be better if you can get off the coast a bit with a boat, but I don't have any experience with that.

Diving on the west coast is outstanding. Check out Honaunau for a good shore dive location. There is also stellar diving at south point, but you need to watch out for currents and thieves. It's not really suitable for a new diver. It's worth driving the extra 45 to 50 minutes north to get to Honaunau, where it is sheltered and beautiful.

 

[lamarpaulski]

Revan said it. Vast majority of diving done on Kona side of island. I did like snorkeling the Kapoha (sp) tidepools..nearish to Hilo.

 

[Rocketman3]

Last year we dived both sides Kona and Hilo. We are newer divers (abt 30 dives). We used Kona Diving Company (KDC) for a great 2 tank dive. We then moved to the Hilo Side and drove over the mountain to do a night manta ray night dive with KDC. That was a very late night because we stayed around to off-gas a bit more before diving over the mountain (no problems for us).

We also did a nice dive with Nautilus. Bill at Nautilus asked if we wanted some pointers during our surface interval. Sure. He told us a few observations that improved out diving.

The diving at Hilo was off Boats and Kona was off shore. Water was clearer at Kona, little less vis at Kona - saw lots of turtles at Kona! IMO climbing up a boat is easier than up a rock. The most memorable dive was the Manta Ray Dive!!!

Good Luck - See if you could squeeze in your certification before you go - it is much better to dive and look at fish - than dive and look at your instructor and go over your water skills.

 

[IVC]

I got certified in Kona just a few months ago (Kona Diving Company - highly recommend) so I'll throw my 2c in, even if not directly answering your comparison question (I've been to BI before and have spent some time in Hilo, but it was before I started diving.)

From your post it seems that you are not going to get certification on this trip. If you change your mind, it will take three days: one day in the pool and two days of two-tank dives in the open water. Even if you do the pool part locally before the trip, you are still looking at two days of scuba diving. It's actually a great thing to do as long as your wife either tags along for the boat ride, or she has some other interests she can do while you're diving. Also remember, it doesn't take all day - a boat ride typically starts early (7 or 8) and you're done by 1 pm.

As for Hilo vs. Kona, either way you'll spend quite a bit of time learning (whether you do certification or not) and making sure you're doing it right. Your dive will much more depend on the quality and friendlines of the instructor than anything else. If you have a good instructor, you'll go to places where you have high likelihood of seeing amazing underwater creatures and he/she will take time making sure you actually observe them. A slightly better/worse visibility means little when you're spending your time looking at gauges and following the leader. Coral will be beautiful on both sides and animals you get to see up close and personal will be amazing.

In short, if I were to get certified or just do my intro to scuba dive, I wouldn't worry about Hilo vs. Kona. I'd do it where I am and enjoy the rest of the island. Besides, if you get certified and *really* want to go a bit more, you can always take a day trip to Kona and organize a dive while there. The "elevation factor" during travel will be minimal given that you'll be diving very shallow water.

 

[Seymour Fisch]

I had a great 3 days with Big Island Divers last December. You're doing to have a great trip!

You'll want to check out the Hawaii forum, too, btw. When I was planning my trip, I got a lot of great advice there.

Several people have mentioned the altitude problem, with varying degrees of concern. Iirc, there's actually no way to drive from one side of the island to the other without technically triggering concerns over altitude. Even the route to the north via Waimea goes up to 3000' or so. Everyone's risk tolerance is different, but if you're not even certified yet, I'd encourage you to be extra careful. As diversteve noted above, going to altitude too soon after diving can trigger the bends. Personally, I'm rather risk-averse, so I planned my trip to stay entirely around Kailua-Kona, putting off volcano viewing for another trip. But if you intend to drive across the island after diving, definitely read up on the recommendations for flying after diving (which deals with the same underlying issue) and/or diving at altitude, for ways to evaluate and reduce the risk.