Diving in Oahu

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mitchdives

Registered
Messages
22
Reaction score
3
Location
Delaware
# of dives
200 - 499
Going to be in Oahu 4/30 - 5/11. Which are the better dive operators and dive sites? Going with my wife who's only an OWD so nothing over 60 ft.

Thanks!
 
Check out Kaimana and Hawaiian Diving Adventures. If you're staying on the North Shore, though, somewhere like Deep Ecology may be a better bet.

Note that there's a tug in 65' near Pearl Harbor if you're looking for an interesting wreck within your depth requirements. Kaimana visits it with some regularity, while HDA usually has a fuel surcharge to get there because they're leaving from a harbor closer to Waikiki. Most of the other recreational wrecks are between 80' and 120' (YO, Sea Tiger, Corsair, Mahi, various LCUs).

If wrecks aren't your thing, there are a number of interesting shallow reef sites but I strongly suggest a shore dive or several on the North Shore. If you're up for some walking and whatnot, renting gear and shore diving Hanauma Bay outside the rocks is a great way to see hard coral that's about on par with some of the spectacular stuff off the Big Island. Spitting Caves/Sea Cave around the point between Hawaii Kai and Hanauma Bay are also good sites, but are considered challenging drift dives by local operators because of currents/surf, so it's common to try for them but instead wind up diving a boring 40' sand pit of a reef nearby instead.

To the extent possible, I'd avoid most of the shallow reefs outside Waikiki and Hawaii Kai - they're pretty poor examples of what's alive under the water around Oahu. Unless all you want are giant sea turtles...then, right off Waikiki is where you want to be.
 
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+1 for Kaimana--talk to Gabe Scotti. Did four dives with them at the end of March and had a blast. The first dives each day were wrecks that were both between 80' and 100'. The next dives were reefs that were 50' maximum. There was quite a bit of sea life on both Rojo and Horseshoe Reef (sea turtles galore, frogfish, and octopus for starters). On Horseshoe Reef I had a sea turtle swim directly over my head. For my fourth salt water dive ever, I thought that beat the pants off the skittish paddlefish in quarries near me.

[video=youtube;mYbPnvEAq7k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYbPnvEAq7k&list=PLpRtynSxL_eQswI9BQ3qumum 9RijG_E3p&index=13[/video]
 
Thanks for that. We're staying at Waikiki but have a rental car and can go anywhere. I love wreck diving but they're a little out of reach for my wife who has little interest in deep diving. Been to the big island and Maui on a previous trip, also dove lava tubes off Lanai - great stuff. I'll check to see if anyone is going out to the tug. Otherwise we'll check out the North Shore. We'll probably do on boat dive and maybe a shore dive while we're there.
 
Good stuff. For lava tubes, check out the Elevator Shaft entrance at Shark's Cove and then hang a right once you finally exit the maze of tubes extending from the entrance...lots of lava tubes that way.
 

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