Molokini wall ???

[TSandM]

After years of diving Molokini, guiding Maui divers, listening to other Maui guides and hearing feedback from visitors who dove Molokini I am of the opinion the Backside of Molokini ranks as the 5th, 6th & 7th best dives at Molokini (depending on where you drop and which way the current is).

I have to agree with this. After all the hype of this dive, I was really puzzled when we did it, and I kept wondering where the fabulousness was . . . I was hoping for pelagics, but we saw none that day. I think it's probably an exciting dive, if you have never done a wall that fell off deeper than you can see, though.

As far as I can tell, the biggest determining factor on doing the back wall isn't who the divers are on the boat, but what the weather and water conditions are -- a lot of days, the current or the swells are wrong for doing that dive, so you can't ever really count on it.

 

[jon m]

thanks all, maybe we'll scratch that and stay "in the bowl". we are going to be limited in the # of dives we can do while there, so we really want to maximize them. we are traveling with a 7 month old, and will only have a sitter for two days.

thanks again!!!

 

[KidK9]

You'll be fine. It's a nice dive. Not earth shattering but a nice dive. Your experience is fine.

 

[samurai_k]

I dove Molokini backside 2 years ago in the winter and we are going back to the crater in a week! I have dove some challenging currents in the Maldives and Palau and would have to say the drift part of the Molokini backside to be very chill (at least when I was there). The only part that could be problematic for some would be the safety stop, as I remember being pushed up and down by a current/surge. You could dive to 100' as the vis is superb and you could loose track how deep you are, but there was plenty to see at 45' which is where I like to spend most of my time to conserve air. Saw some sharks and looking out in the blue I got lucky and barely caught a picture of a very large tuna that swam right by me. Didn't have much time to compose the picture and adjust my strobe, but it ended up filling up the entire frame of my UW camera. I wish I had a WA lens!

At any rate, we dove many different sites in Lanai, Maui, and Big Island on that trip and would have to say Molokini backside was one of the memorable dives. Since you are there I would recommend a trip to one of the Catherals and Sergeants @ Lanai. The former being a cool cavern picture opportunity and the latter to see squadrons of racoon butterflyfish attack sergeant major nests. Very unique!