Short version:
I took vacation time on both ends of work trip to Oahu to get some diving in. I was by myself.
I did 11 dives out of Kona on the Big Island with Kona Honu Divers. The daytime dives ranged from mediocre to good, but nothing to write home about for someone whose sole diving experience up to that point has been Guam and Palau. The dive operation was excellent and I highly recommend them, in particular for newer or rusty divers.
I did four dives off Hawaii Kai on Oahu with Waikiki Diving Center. The Corsair dive was spectacular though the next three dives were all the same place. The dive operation put us in the water with one instructor to do drills with three students AND to guide three certified divers, who were told to hang out at the bottom of the mooring buoy until the drills were done. I do not recommend this dive operation. (This portion of the report could probably fit in Near Misses.)
Long version:
Kona
I stayed at Uncle Billy's Kona Bay Hotel, because it was the cheapest one I could find. Conveniently located near the waterfront of Kona and with a large lanai for your wet gear, it's an older hotel with thin walls and free, decent wireless. I highly recommend Jackie Rey's Ohana Grill Restaurant a little south of town for a spectacular meal splurge.
I chose Kona Honu Divers based on a recommendation on SB. There are a number of dive operations that seem to be on good relations with each other, as opposed to what I saw as the absolutely cutthroat nature of the business on Oahu.
They have two large-ish boats with wheelhouse top decks, though only one has an amazing hot freshwater showerhead to rinse off. Small quibble: The procedure to dive on that boat was a little odd in my experience in that you walked to a metal seat at the diving platform, sat down and put on your mask, fins and weight belt and they brought your tank and rig to you. I think the idea was that they were pampering the divers, but I honestly felt far more rushed that if I could gear up at my seat and walk to the back of the boat when I felt ready.
I like my dive guides mellow, friendly and enamored of slightly obscure creatures to an extent that their enthusiasm about searching for it rubs off on you. I was very impressed with the quality of the dive guides (of which four guided me personaly and I chatted with maybe another four or five DMs/instructors on the boat) on almost all my dives. The sole exception was one dive guide who seemed a bit new and raced way ahead of the group for no particular reason that I could see. This wouldn't be worthy of note if he also hadn't bragged topside about how slow and steady he was guiding and then complained a bit about how nobody had pointed out to him some creatures we had spotted, the answer of course being that he was 50 feet in front of the group and not looking back. I also want to give kudos for one dive where I ended up being the only certified diver on the boat (with my own personal guide!) along with a couple in an OW class and a couple doing a refresher course (both with their own instructors). The worst ripping current that the crew could remember seeing at the site came up but the instructors handily got the clients on the trailing line and back on the boat with very little hint that they were in a serious situation.
Most of the clientele seemed to be vacation divers and open water students, with a small number of locals. I commented at some point that we seemed to be staying well within 60fsw on all the dives and was told that the owner of the shop has instructed his guides to stay above 60fsw. This probably makes sense given the large proportion of inexperienced divers on the boat and the fact that the topography of the Kona dives is "wall along coast with occasional lava tubes and arches" next to "flat-ish hardbottom about 30-50 fsw where you spent most of the dives" next to "steep slope going to bottom of Pacific", but I did feel somewhat nannied.
This sameness about the dive sites was largely why I decided to skip another two dives I could have done. Once I started getting used to the sea life that was different from Guam, I started seeing the same stuff over and over on the same type of topography. While there was interesting stuff (trident trumpets, viper morays, lobsters in seemingly every hole, gold lace nudis, larger than expected parrotfish, squads of puffers), at some point I began to wonder why I was spending so much money when I can do dives for half the price on Guam with better coral and more variety of fish. (Yes, I know - world's smallest violin.) I also did the manta night dive twice, since I had heard that there was a chance of them not showing up and wanted to hedge my bets. In the event, I got 20 mantas the first night and 26 mantas the second night. There's an SB thread with some photos by Scott Gietler (scottfiji), when we were on the same boat my first night. I couldn't describe it with any justice, but I will say that it would be foolish for anybody diving off Kona to not do the manta dive. It definitely matches my best ever manta experience.
If I'm ever on the Big Island again, I'm not sure I would do more normal daylight dives. I think I would likely do the pelagic night drift (which I didn't get a chance at), another manta dive, maybe some of the long range "advanced dives" and maybe try to bribe some local SBers with lunch to take me shore diving. I would be happy to dive with Kona Honu again.
I can't resist a little anecdote: So my first dive I swim right over a black Oceanic Shadow mask laying on the bottom and figure that the diving gods have blessed me. But the slap strap says "Jack's Dive Locker" and "Instructor", so I grudgingly accept that this is enough information to return it. It turns out to say "Jeff" in marker on the other side of strap. Turns out "Jeff" is the owner of Jack's Dive Locker and a major figure in local diving. Both the Kona Honu boat crew and the guys manning the front desk at Jack's had a good laugh. Finding a dive shop owner's lost mask just makes you feel a little better.
Oahu
In the middle of my two work weeks on Oahu, I managed to meet up with SBer Charlie (cwkline), his lovely bride, and two friends to dive Sharks Cove on the North Shore. I had connected with Charlie through SB on my last work trip to Oahu. As it turned out, we had 10-15 ft viz and 5 foot surge and the two friends thumbed the dive within minutes, which was probably the correct decision. In any case, we later got a good meal from a shrimp truck in the midst of a downpour and I'd happily dive with them again.
So I originally had intended to fly to Kauai after my work ended and do a quick Saturday Ni'i'hau dive with Bubbles Below. Unfortunately, I was the only person on the planet who wanted to go to Ni'i'hau that day and the boat won't run for less than four people. I had been talking up this dive for over a month and, after nursing my sorrows with a drink, decided to save some money and hang out in Oahu. At the last minute I figured I'd do some "easy" boat diving on Sunday. Since I didn't have my work rental car anymore I googled dive shops that picked up from Waikiki. Waikiki Diving Company was the first hit so I called and arranged for four dives on Sunday.
I was picked up from the hotel without a hitch, taken to the shop for paperwork and to get a wetsuit, and then to the boat launch in Hawaii Kai. The small group was all certified divers, including one diver who had hired his own DM. The first dive was to the Corsair wreck, which was easily the most impressive dive site of the trip - 105 fsw in great viz surrounded by a plain of garden eels. However, afterwards the diver sitting next to me asked me how deep we had gone and how long the dive had been, and I noticed he didn't have a computer or timepiece. I have no idea why he didn't know his depth since I assume that he had a console. I shrugged it off since I dove off a buddy's computer for many dives when I first started. (I know. I know.) So the second dive was to Koko Craters, which is a number of shallow sandy holes in a hard bottom with more turtles in one dive than I've seen anywhere but Yellow Wall in Peleliu. it was absurd. But I notice that the guide is racing along with a camera taking pictures of things that he spots but often not waiting to point them out to the divers. It turned out that he had made a side deal with one diver to take vacation diving pictures of the dive, and the diver, for a fee. So I'm not particularly impressed with the operation thus far but am calmed by the fact that dives themselves are pretty good. The dive guide himself was competent and friendly but apparently not very interested in the actual dive guiding.
So I get driven back to the hotel for a break and am picked up later for my late afternoon dives with dive other people. As we're standing on the dock, the guide from the morning dive, who had just completed two more early afternoon dives, gets in the van that dropped us off and leaves. An instructor polls our group to see who are "the referrals". So it appears that three of the group are OW students who did pool work elsewhere and have shown up to do their first ever OW dives. One certified diver is the boyfriend of one of the students and doesn't seem particularly experienced. The other certified diver immediately declares himself to be my buddy, and turns out to have over a hundred dives but hasn't been wet in a year and half. As we're unmooring, I'm totally confused because we have a boat driver, an instructor for the students, but no dive guide for the certified divers. (Smart readers will have figured out where this is going.) So we go back to Kako Craters and are told that the certified divers will go to the bottom of the mooring and wait while the students come down and do drills. Keep in mind that this is a $100 for two tank dive.
Those of you who have heard enough and are already putting Waikiki Diving into your blacklist can stop. Read on for the gory details.
So the three certified divers descend without incident, and wait - because it takes the students 15 minutes to descend the 40 feet along the mooring line. Only two make it to the bottom. One looks fine for an OW student. One couldn't descend, gave up and went back to the boat. I honestly think that the third was in a state of passive panic - rapid breathing, would follow fish that passed in front of him, would get chased and grabbed by the instructor who would try to do skills, and then seemingly get distracted by the blue of the ocean when the other student did her drills and start finning weakly into the distance.
The current was significantly stronger than during the morning dive at this site. The instructor indicated that we were to follow him to another crater, where he proceeded with skills drills with the two students. I didn't ask but assume that this was done as part of the "dive guiding" for us certified divers. A few minutes later I was pointing out a viper moray in a hole to my buddy when I heard a shaker ringing and looked around to see the instructor in a flat sprint with the male student back towards the mooring buoy while the female student and her boyfriend struggled to keep up. We were now finning directly into the current, which had picked up still more. About halfway back to the mooring line the male student goes OOG and on the instructor's octo and is largely being dragged through the current by the instructor. My concern at this point is the other student, who is clearly stressed - one arm outreached toward the mooring line in the distance as if she can will herself there - and who I have not seen check her gauge. Her boyfriend was the stronger swimmer and got to the line much before her, while I check and notice my "buddy" is bringing up the rear. In any case, she didn't need my help to get to the surface and nobody was injured, but I really really hate being put into a (thoroughly preventable) situation where I have to think about who I'm going to have to save first.
So we get back on the boat and the crew announce that we will be staying at Kako Craters for the second dive. Rather than throttle the crew on the spot, I decided to be constructive and started composing this trip report in my head. Same deal - certified divers go down first and wait for skills drills, though this time there isn't even a pretense that there will be any dive guiding. Instead the dive will last as long as the drills, then the instructor will take a pretty picture of everyone next to the turtle that hangs out next to the mooring as a souvenir and then end the dive. The students still took 15 minutes to get down the line but this time the third diver who hadn't made it past the surface managed to get to the bottom before panicking and being brought back to the surface by the instructor. I and my buddy had been doing increasingly larger loops patterns from the mooring buoy for a good 40 minutes at this point and building up a mental picture of the site. On my way back in from one loop I ran into the instructor who had finally finished the drills and seemed irritated that we hadn't just sat and watched OW drills the entire dive. After taking the pretty picture with the turtle we got back on the boat.
Teaching a class and guiding are incompatible tasks, imo, and no instructor could have pulled them off well even if things went perfectly. In this situation, the situation was far from perfect. Someone in a management position in Waikiki Diving Center looked at the roster of students and clients on the boat that day and decided that giving responsibility to one staff member was appropriate. In my opinion, that decision unnecessarily endangered the divers, in particular the students, and made it impossible for the certified divers to get their money's worth. I strongly discourage anyone from patronizing Waikiki Diving.
I took vacation time on both ends of work trip to Oahu to get some diving in. I was by myself.
I did 11 dives out of Kona on the Big Island with Kona Honu Divers. The daytime dives ranged from mediocre to good, but nothing to write home about for someone whose sole diving experience up to that point has been Guam and Palau. The dive operation was excellent and I highly recommend them, in particular for newer or rusty divers.
I did four dives off Hawaii Kai on Oahu with Waikiki Diving Center. The Corsair dive was spectacular though the next three dives were all the same place. The dive operation put us in the water with one instructor to do drills with three students AND to guide three certified divers, who were told to hang out at the bottom of the mooring buoy until the drills were done. I do not recommend this dive operation. (This portion of the report could probably fit in Near Misses.)
Long version:
Kona
I stayed at Uncle Billy's Kona Bay Hotel, because it was the cheapest one I could find. Conveniently located near the waterfront of Kona and with a large lanai for your wet gear, it's an older hotel with thin walls and free, decent wireless. I highly recommend Jackie Rey's Ohana Grill Restaurant a little south of town for a spectacular meal splurge.
I chose Kona Honu Divers based on a recommendation on SB. There are a number of dive operations that seem to be on good relations with each other, as opposed to what I saw as the absolutely cutthroat nature of the business on Oahu.
They have two large-ish boats with wheelhouse top decks, though only one has an amazing hot freshwater showerhead to rinse off. Small quibble: The procedure to dive on that boat was a little odd in my experience in that you walked to a metal seat at the diving platform, sat down and put on your mask, fins and weight belt and they brought your tank and rig to you. I think the idea was that they were pampering the divers, but I honestly felt far more rushed that if I could gear up at my seat and walk to the back of the boat when I felt ready.
I like my dive guides mellow, friendly and enamored of slightly obscure creatures to an extent that their enthusiasm about searching for it rubs off on you. I was very impressed with the quality of the dive guides (of which four guided me personaly and I chatted with maybe another four or five DMs/instructors on the boat) on almost all my dives. The sole exception was one dive guide who seemed a bit new and raced way ahead of the group for no particular reason that I could see. This wouldn't be worthy of note if he also hadn't bragged topside about how slow and steady he was guiding and then complained a bit about how nobody had pointed out to him some creatures we had spotted, the answer of course being that he was 50 feet in front of the group and not looking back. I also want to give kudos for one dive where I ended up being the only certified diver on the boat (with my own personal guide!) along with a couple in an OW class and a couple doing a refresher course (both with their own instructors). The worst ripping current that the crew could remember seeing at the site came up but the instructors handily got the clients on the trailing line and back on the boat with very little hint that they were in a serious situation.
Most of the clientele seemed to be vacation divers and open water students, with a small number of locals. I commented at some point that we seemed to be staying well within 60fsw on all the dives and was told that the owner of the shop has instructed his guides to stay above 60fsw. This probably makes sense given the large proportion of inexperienced divers on the boat and the fact that the topography of the Kona dives is "wall along coast with occasional lava tubes and arches" next to "flat-ish hardbottom about 30-50 fsw where you spent most of the dives" next to "steep slope going to bottom of Pacific", but I did feel somewhat nannied.
This sameness about the dive sites was largely why I decided to skip another two dives I could have done. Once I started getting used to the sea life that was different from Guam, I started seeing the same stuff over and over on the same type of topography. While there was interesting stuff (trident trumpets, viper morays, lobsters in seemingly every hole, gold lace nudis, larger than expected parrotfish, squads of puffers), at some point I began to wonder why I was spending so much money when I can do dives for half the price on Guam with better coral and more variety of fish. (Yes, I know - world's smallest violin.) I also did the manta night dive twice, since I had heard that there was a chance of them not showing up and wanted to hedge my bets. In the event, I got 20 mantas the first night and 26 mantas the second night. There's an SB thread with some photos by Scott Gietler (scottfiji), when we were on the same boat my first night. I couldn't describe it with any justice, but I will say that it would be foolish for anybody diving off Kona to not do the manta dive. It definitely matches my best ever manta experience.
If I'm ever on the Big Island again, I'm not sure I would do more normal daylight dives. I think I would likely do the pelagic night drift (which I didn't get a chance at), another manta dive, maybe some of the long range "advanced dives" and maybe try to bribe some local SBers with lunch to take me shore diving. I would be happy to dive with Kona Honu again.
I can't resist a little anecdote: So my first dive I swim right over a black Oceanic Shadow mask laying on the bottom and figure that the diving gods have blessed me. But the slap strap says "Jack's Dive Locker" and "Instructor", so I grudgingly accept that this is enough information to return it. It turns out to say "Jeff" in marker on the other side of strap. Turns out "Jeff" is the owner of Jack's Dive Locker and a major figure in local diving. Both the Kona Honu boat crew and the guys manning the front desk at Jack's had a good laugh. Finding a dive shop owner's lost mask just makes you feel a little better.
Oahu
In the middle of my two work weeks on Oahu, I managed to meet up with SBer Charlie (cwkline), his lovely bride, and two friends to dive Sharks Cove on the North Shore. I had connected with Charlie through SB on my last work trip to Oahu. As it turned out, we had 10-15 ft viz and 5 foot surge and the two friends thumbed the dive within minutes, which was probably the correct decision. In any case, we later got a good meal from a shrimp truck in the midst of a downpour and I'd happily dive with them again.
So I originally had intended to fly to Kauai after my work ended and do a quick Saturday Ni'i'hau dive with Bubbles Below. Unfortunately, I was the only person on the planet who wanted to go to Ni'i'hau that day and the boat won't run for less than four people. I had been talking up this dive for over a month and, after nursing my sorrows with a drink, decided to save some money and hang out in Oahu. At the last minute I figured I'd do some "easy" boat diving on Sunday. Since I didn't have my work rental car anymore I googled dive shops that picked up from Waikiki. Waikiki Diving Company was the first hit so I called and arranged for four dives on Sunday.
I was picked up from the hotel without a hitch, taken to the shop for paperwork and to get a wetsuit, and then to the boat launch in Hawaii Kai. The small group was all certified divers, including one diver who had hired his own DM. The first dive was to the Corsair wreck, which was easily the most impressive dive site of the trip - 105 fsw in great viz surrounded by a plain of garden eels. However, afterwards the diver sitting next to me asked me how deep we had gone and how long the dive had been, and I noticed he didn't have a computer or timepiece. I have no idea why he didn't know his depth since I assume that he had a console. I shrugged it off since I dove off a buddy's computer for many dives when I first started. (I know. I know.) So the second dive was to Koko Craters, which is a number of shallow sandy holes in a hard bottom with more turtles in one dive than I've seen anywhere but Yellow Wall in Peleliu. it was absurd. But I notice that the guide is racing along with a camera taking pictures of things that he spots but often not waiting to point them out to the divers. It turned out that he had made a side deal with one diver to take vacation diving pictures of the dive, and the diver, for a fee. So I'm not particularly impressed with the operation thus far but am calmed by the fact that dives themselves are pretty good. The dive guide himself was competent and friendly but apparently not very interested in the actual dive guiding.
So I get driven back to the hotel for a break and am picked up later for my late afternoon dives with dive other people. As we're standing on the dock, the guide from the morning dive, who had just completed two more early afternoon dives, gets in the van that dropped us off and leaves. An instructor polls our group to see who are "the referrals". So it appears that three of the group are OW students who did pool work elsewhere and have shown up to do their first ever OW dives. One certified diver is the boyfriend of one of the students and doesn't seem particularly experienced. The other certified diver immediately declares himself to be my buddy, and turns out to have over a hundred dives but hasn't been wet in a year and half. As we're unmooring, I'm totally confused because we have a boat driver, an instructor for the students, but no dive guide for the certified divers. (Smart readers will have figured out where this is going.) So we go back to Kako Craters and are told that the certified divers will go to the bottom of the mooring and wait while the students come down and do drills. Keep in mind that this is a $100 for two tank dive.
Those of you who have heard enough and are already putting Waikiki Diving into your blacklist can stop. Read on for the gory details.
So the three certified divers descend without incident, and wait - because it takes the students 15 minutes to descend the 40 feet along the mooring line. Only two make it to the bottom. One looks fine for an OW student. One couldn't descend, gave up and went back to the boat. I honestly think that the third was in a state of passive panic - rapid breathing, would follow fish that passed in front of him, would get chased and grabbed by the instructor who would try to do skills, and then seemingly get distracted by the blue of the ocean when the other student did her drills and start finning weakly into the distance.
The current was significantly stronger than during the morning dive at this site. The instructor indicated that we were to follow him to another crater, where he proceeded with skills drills with the two students. I didn't ask but assume that this was done as part of the "dive guiding" for us certified divers. A few minutes later I was pointing out a viper moray in a hole to my buddy when I heard a shaker ringing and looked around to see the instructor in a flat sprint with the male student back towards the mooring buoy while the female student and her boyfriend struggled to keep up. We were now finning directly into the current, which had picked up still more. About halfway back to the mooring line the male student goes OOG and on the instructor's octo and is largely being dragged through the current by the instructor. My concern at this point is the other student, who is clearly stressed - one arm outreached toward the mooring line in the distance as if she can will herself there - and who I have not seen check her gauge. Her boyfriend was the stronger swimmer and got to the line much before her, while I check and notice my "buddy" is bringing up the rear. In any case, she didn't need my help to get to the surface and nobody was injured, but I really really hate being put into a (thoroughly preventable) situation where I have to think about who I'm going to have to save first.
So we get back on the boat and the crew announce that we will be staying at Kako Craters for the second dive. Rather than throttle the crew on the spot, I decided to be constructive and started composing this trip report in my head. Same deal - certified divers go down first and wait for skills drills, though this time there isn't even a pretense that there will be any dive guiding. Instead the dive will last as long as the drills, then the instructor will take a pretty picture of everyone next to the turtle that hangs out next to the mooring as a souvenir and then end the dive. The students still took 15 minutes to get down the line but this time the third diver who hadn't made it past the surface managed to get to the bottom before panicking and being brought back to the surface by the instructor. I and my buddy had been doing increasingly larger loops patterns from the mooring buoy for a good 40 minutes at this point and building up a mental picture of the site. On my way back in from one loop I ran into the instructor who had finally finished the drills and seemed irritated that we hadn't just sat and watched OW drills the entire dive. After taking the pretty picture with the turtle we got back on the boat.
Teaching a class and guiding are incompatible tasks, imo, and no instructor could have pulled them off well even if things went perfectly. In this situation, the situation was far from perfect. Someone in a management position in Waikiki Diving Center looked at the roster of students and clients on the boat that day and decided that giving responsibility to one staff member was appropriate. In my opinion, that decision unnecessarily endangered the divers, in particular the students, and made it impossible for the certified divers to get their money's worth. I strongly discourage anyone from patronizing Waikiki Diving.
