Best Honolulu dive sites

[teog]

Hello all,
The wife and I are going to Honolulu in Feb 08. Based on recommendations from here we have narrowed down to 3 dive companies. I actually would like to know what are some of the best spots to dive off of Oahu. Does Oahu have any signiture dives? ie Kona has mantas. We are both AOW divers.

Thanks for all the help

 

[justleesa]

Aloha!

Here are some reviews of popular local sites...might help you get your bearings

 

[teog]

Justleesa-YGPM from earlier in the day.
Thanks

 

[rdbean]

teog,

For February, the North Shore will almost definitely be out :-( the surf will be way too much. You may get lucky on a good day and be able to get on the east side.

Best bests are West Side and South Shore, although just make sure you get the surf forecast.

Most operations that do not own their own boat are stuck going wherever they can book a seat, so there's no real guarantee you can get to where you want to dive.

I'd look at a dive center with a published schedule of dives so you know where you're going in advance. Here's an example of a good operation and they know where the boat is going. There's also a surf report and a lot more info on their site.

Have a great trip! Cheers and Safe Diving,

Rich

 

[eman79er]

hey teog. I myself am planning a trip to Honolulu, but I haven't been able to find any friends with a reliable reccomendation for dive shops. Do you mind if I ask which three you have narrowed it down to and why?


Any body else with a suggestion?

Thanks, I

 

[SuzukiGirl]

We were just there and wanted to dive a few days but there are so many dive ops on Oahu it can be daunting. Since we had no specific schedule to keep, we stopped in to a few places to ask questions & get an impression. We ended up going with Aaron's and were very pleased. The boats were small & nice and the captains were great. There were very small groups and less than 10 people on the boat. Our youngest was a little hesitant about the ocean but all the staff were very wonderful with him and he had a blast. (I knew a large "cattle boat" would've scared him off altogether.) Since this was our only diving experience on Oahu I can't compare it to any other company but I wouldn't hesitate to go dive with Aaron's again. The Mahi was unbelievablely cool.

 

[pickens_46929]

Hello all,
The wife and I are going to Honolulu in Feb 08. Based on recommendations from here we have narrowed down to 3 dive companies. I actually would like to know what are some of the best spots to dive off of Oahu. Does Oahu have any signiture dives? ie Kona has mantas. We are both AOW divers.

Thanks for all the help

I dove with Island Divers (http://www.oahuscubadiving.com/) in January '05 and hired Drew (http://www.scubadrewvideo.com/) to video a couple of the trips. Had a blast!

How experienced are you? Looks like you have some number of dives under your belt.

I particularly enjoy the Sea Tiger and could have easily gone back for a 2nd... 3rd... 4th dive. Yes it was that good... depth range, wreck-wise and even wild life-wise it was super.

Other dives I particularly enjoyed were the Sea Cave. Which we dove twice. Lots of amazing life and we hit one of the days just right as vis was probably 80 to 100 ft. Not so lucky on the other Sea Cave dive but it was still teaming with wildlife.

Baby Barge and Shark (Turtle?) Ledge near by were also a good dive. We were lucky enough to have Drew along that dive to show us the Ledge and film us with the sharks and turtles -- up close.

Never got to the Corsair due to conditions. We did the Kewalo Pipes after one of the deeper dives. Wasn't spectacular but was decent and had some life.

We did Angler's / Koko Craters and it was better sea life wise than the Pipes were. Same depth just more life. Lots of rock fish and things. A couple octopi too.

As they said, North Shore really isn't possible during the winter due to conditions.

We skipped Hanauma Bay but I wish I had had more time, because I would have at least snorkeled.

Have Fun!

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Best bests are West Side and South Shore, although just make sure you get the surf forecast.

Most operations that do not own their own boat are stuck going wherever they can book a seat, so there's no real guarantee you can get to where you want to dive.

I'd look at a dive center with a published schedule of dives so you know where you're going in advance. Here's an example of a good operation and they know where the boat is going. There's also a surf report and a lot more info on their site.

Yes, many dive op's on Oahu don't own their own boat, but proper prior planning will often result in better dives with those op's because they are not tied to the location of their boat. If this different system did not work well, it would not still be in existence.

As for OC, they are such a good operation, they recently lost their contract on the local military base. Please do an Ocean Concepts search in the Hawaii O'hana before you make contact with them. Their local fans are far and few between.

 

[rdbean]

Helemano,

Dude relax, as I said, there are many good operations and I was voicing an opinion.

If you notice, I also said that both systems do work well. Nor was I bashing anyone in particular. As as for the military base contract, check your facts before making such a broad statement.

Don't be a hater...I'm aussuming you're a professional diver right?

Cheers and Safe Diving,

Rich

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Helemano,

Dude relax, as I said, there are many good operations and I was voicing an opinion.

If you notice, I also said that both systems do work well. Nor was I bashing anyone in particular. As as for the military base contract, check your facts before making such a broad statement.

Don't be a hater...I'm aussuming you're a professional diver right?

Cheers and Safe Diving,

Rich

Helemano is the name of a Jawaiian Reggae musician (Butch) and a military complex. Halemano is the name of my web site.

Where did you say both systems work well?

Other than current and past OC employees, I only need a few fingers to count the local dive professionals that have not been rubbed the wrong way by OC.

IMHO, an opinion is properly prefaced by something like IMHO. Your wording was somewhat different. All I encoraged the poster to do was search for OC info. Here is an example of what I'm refering to

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=187562&highlight=ocean+concepts