Big Island Dive Operator Recommendations Sought. Comments sought re Dive Makai too.

[DHGoyins]

My wife and I plan a May 2006 trip to the Big Island. For reference, if it helps in making recommendations that may be based on proximity to our hotel, we will be staying at the Marriott Waikoloa Beach Resort, 69-275 Waikoloa Beach Drive
Waikoloa - Hawaii's Big Island.

PLEASE MAKE ANY RECOMMENDATIONS OF OPERATORS AS YOU HAVE PERSONALLY USED AND WOULD USE AGAIN. Here is our experience level and interests:

My wife and I are not certified. We have had 2 dives, in Aruba, in November, 2005, both from shore. The first was a training exercise. The second for pleasure. Both were one tank dives. We will be PADI certified immediately before our May, 2006 trip to Hawaii. Neither of us will be taking any equipment. All equipment will need be provided by the operator. We are not interested in diving wrecks. We want to dive coral reefs and enjoy the "critters". Diving from a "cattle boat" with lots of people is a negative. Small groups prefered. Operators that take inexperienced divers (as we are now and will be in May), then mix them with intermediate and highly experienced divers, then abandon the novices while the dive masters spend their time with the intermediate and highly experienced divers are exactly the kind of operators we do not want. We do not want to be put in a position of choosing between our personal safety or going well beyond our experience level to keep up with the "big boys". If you are recommending any operator and are working for them or have in the past, please disclose. If you are working for an operator and are not making any comments about your own employer, but are recommending a competitor, that's fine and it's OK that you not make any mention of your employment. Please, however, I would appreciate that no negative comments be made about any operator in competition with your employer, whether or not you disclose for whom you're currently working.

ANYONE HAVE PARTICULAR AND, hopefully, RECENT DIVES WITH DIVE MAKAI?
We have had Dive Makai recommended to us.

As to Dive Makai, the recommendations have been wonderful. Realizing that the operations have changed hands and that the recommendations that were made to us were from people who used Dive Makai before its sale, I am particularly interested in any comments as may be made by people who have used Dive Makai after its change of ownership, and most especially any commments from anyone who used Dive Makai both before as well as after the change of owners. I realize Tom is continuing for a season, how long I don't know. But there may have been one or two significant departures that may (or may not) affect reviews of Dive Makai.

Also, since I've posted our abilities and interests in the first part of this thread, is Dive Makai's current operations consistent with the abilities and interests we have? I'm looking for second opinions here.

 

[cuddlefish]

I am not very familiar with the few dive operators that are up in the Waikoloa area. Most of the dive operators are in Kailua-Kona. It will be a 30-45 minute drive for you (perhaps even an hour as afternoon traffic has been absolutely terrible lately). If you will be doing a sunset/night dive with anyone in Kailua-Kona you should allow at least an hour for driving.

I will send you a private message with some options of local dive centers. As a side note, most of the dive centers in town are friendly competitors. I would never say anything negative about a Kona dive operator unless I had experienced it first hand or it happened to be safety oriented.

Another side note...May is the month during which the Kona Classic photo competition happens. Some of the dive operators in town participate and set aside one or two of their boats specifically for event contestants. I can't remember the exact dates...but I think it's right in the middle of May.

Check your private messages please.

 

[DHGoyins]

Thank you, Cuddlefish, I will be looking forward to your PM.

 

[cuddlefish]

OK, I just spent about 15 minutes writing you a private message. When I hit the send button, the computer freaked out and it vanished! Please tell me you got it. I would hate to have to recreate that "masterpiece"!

 

[DHGoyins]

I have just received it, opened it, and have not yet read it, but, the text is complete and full, so, it did come through. I will reply via the PM as well, assuming that is an option.

 

[friscuba]

My wife and I plan a May 2006 trip to the Big Island. For reference, if it helps in making recommendations that may be based on proximity to our hotel, we will be staying at the Marriott Waikoloa Beach Resort, 69-275 Waikoloa Beach Drive
Waikoloa - Hawaii's Big Island.

PLEASE MAKE ANY RECOMMENDATIONS OF OPERATORS AS YOU HAVE PERSONALLY USED AND WOULD USE AGAIN. Here is our experience level and interests:

My wife and I are not certified. We have had 2 dives, in Aruba, in November, 2005, both from shore. The first was a training exercise. The second for pleasure. Both were one tank dives. We will be PADI certified immediately before our May, 2006 trip to Hawaii. Neither of us will be taking any equipment. All equipment will need be provided by the operator. We are not interested in diving wrecks. We want to dive coral reefs and enjoy the "critters". Diving from a "cattle boat" with lots of people is a negative. Small groups prefered. Operators that take inexperienced divers (as we are now and will be in May), then mix them with intermediate and highly experienced divers, then abandon the novices while the dive masters spend their time with the intermediate and highly experienced divers are exactly the kind of operators we do not want. We do not want to be put in a position of choosing between our personal safety or going well beyond our experience level to keep up with the "big boys". If you are recommending any operator and are working for them or have in the past, please disclose. If you are working for an operator and are not making any comments about your own employer, but are recommending a competitor, that's fine and it's OK that you not make any mention of your employment. Please, however, I would appreciate that no negative comments be made about any operator in competition with your employer, whether or not you disclose for whom you're currently working.

ANYONE HAVE PARTICULAR AND, hopefully, RECENT DIVES WITH DIVE MAKAI?
We have had Dive Makai recommended to us.

As to Dive Makai, the recommendations have been wonderful. Realizing that the operations have changed hands and that the recommendations that were made to us were from people who used Dive Makai before its sale, I am particularly interested in any comments as may be made by people who have used Dive Makai after its change of ownership, and most especially any commments from anyone who used Dive Makai both before as well as after the change of owners. I realize Tom is continuing for a season, how long I don't know. But there may have been one or two significant departures that may (or may not) affect reviews of Dive Makai.

Also, since I've posted our abilities and interests in the first part of this thread, is Dive Makai's current operations consistent with the abilities and interests we have? I'm looking for second opinions here.

Hi there,

I am an operator in Kona, that said I am not in the habit of promoting or cutting down any local operator on this board since most operators get along well and do a good job. There is an operator, Red Sail I believe, operating out of Waikaloa, but I don't know much about them. The Kona operators generally run out of Honokohau Harbor, which is roughly 30 (could be longer) minutes south of the Waikaloa resorts.

As far as Kona info goes... You will find boats carrying anywhere from a max of 6-20 or so divers operationg out of Kailua-Kona. Pretty much ALL of the operators here service mixed levels of experience and are pretty good at it. My guess is the average diver coming to Kona has fewer than 15-30 dives and on any given day a boat may have a boat load of relatively new divers or a mix of experience levels. You are very unlikely to find anyone who lets their DMs abandon the new divers. It's relatively easy for an experienced DM to give a good dive that leaves both experienced and new divers happy.

It's had to go wrong here. My bet recommendation on picking operators is to check on how many passengers they carry, size of the boat if that makes any difference to you, typical length of dives or restrictions, the size of tanks they use, whether they cater to a US or Japanese clientele and such. If you like their phone personalities, you likely will like their crew.

There are no wrecks here onf any real note. Pretty much all of the operators here offer gear. Expect to pay anwhere from 10-20 dollars or so extra to have rental gear provided on a charter.

hope this helps,

 

[DHGoyins]

Thank you, Steve. Yes. It helps.

 

[chepar]

Given that Steve mentioned Red Sail, I will comment, since I did a couple of dives with them this past August.

We were staying at the Hilton Waikoloa over a long weekend and I went with Red Sail specifically because I did not want to make the drive into town twice on such a short trip (I drove into town to do the manta dive). I will candidly admit that I was not expecting much, having read some so-so reviews on them.

That being said, my experience with Red Sail was very good. I've read some complaints about the length of the walk down the beach to the boat - while it is an approximately 50-75 yard walk, it's not that bad. Since you won't be hauling gear, it's not really an issue at all.

I did 2 dives on a Saturday morning in August, which is probably a pretty busy time for them. I'm thinking that there were about 10-12 divers on the boat - still lots of room for everyone. Funny coincience is that the boat we went out on was one that I used to dive off of all the time on Oahu - it was one of my favorites. Experience level of most divers on the boat was minimal. They pretty much assigned divers to groups based on experience.

Anyway, we did two shallow reef dives (the type I prefer) - and everything was great. If you needed it, the DMs were there to assist you any way they could. If you didn't need their help (checking gear, weighting, etc.) they were respectful and didn't insist on doing it themselves.

I chose not to bring my gear with me on such a short trip (except my mask and a hooded vest) and I found that their rental gear was in good condition and well maintained. The cost for a 2 tank trip was pretty comparable to the rates in Kailua-Kona (or here on Oahu, for that matter) - but the gear rental cost was a bit higher.

All in all I was very happy with my experience.

 

[MildlyDamp]

I've been diving with most of the operators in Kona over the past few years. Dive Makai has always been great; I didn't know that they had changed hands, but as long as Kendra is still involved, you're in good shape with them.

Pacific Rim is another superb operator, on a par with Dive Makai. I'm going out with them four times over the next three weeks (Dive Makai didn't happen to have the dates I wanted).

Aloha Dive is also good, although somewhat less responsive than the others, and their boat isn't as comfortable. But, they know their stuff and will take extremely good care of you.

Jack's Diving Locker is also fine; I haven't been with them since they bought Kona Coast. They take a lot more people, and a lot of newbies, so sometimes it takes a while to get the group moving. But, they care and they treat you right; it's not a cattle boat.

Bottom line: my top choices are Dive Makai and Pacific Rim.

 

[itziar]

I have recently dived with Dive Makai. My husband and I have been
visitors to the Big Island for some time, and we have dived with
other operators in the Kona Coast before too (Big Island Divers and
Jack's Diving Locker).

All three are good, but if you are into critters, my experience has
been best with Dive Makai. We went with them under the
recommendation of a friend who has extensively dived with DM when
Tom was the owner. Everything that he told us about this operator
came into realization: we had long briefings about the animal life
and behaviours we were about to see, and they did their best to find
the critters we were interested in. They showed us
frog fishes (my request), and we visited a turtle cleaning station
-- very very cool!

DM seemed to be very safety conscious and very accommodating to
people's requests. My husband and I have ~150 dives, and we were
very comfortable with the freedom they allowed us to have during our
dives -- we could do whatever we pleased, basically. In our boat we
had other less experienced divers, fresh from certification, who
were coached by one of their dive masters. I think that if you state
your level of experience you will find a good level of support from
them, and they will not risk your safety to accommodate more
experienced divers.

Having said all this, we dived with Big Island Divers two years ago,
and we also had a very knowledgeable crew and enjoyed a personalized
attention like the one we enjoyed with DM. BID operation is posher
than DM: they give you towels and they include a good lunch in their
prices. They are a bit more expensive too. The rental equipment of
BID is much better than that of any other shop I have used -- I
believe they change it every year (at least they did 2 years ago),
and they also rent regulators which are ot the basic entry-line
model. I saw Dive Makai's rental equipment and it seemed well
maintained to me, so I would have been happy to rent from them -- but
I brought my own.

Would I dive again with Dive Makai? Definetely!

Please let me know if you have any more specific questions.

Cheers,

Itziar