Lahaina Operator's/recommendations

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SpartanLaw

Registered
Messages
15
Reaction score
1
Location
Grand Rapids, MI
# of dives
200 - 499
I am going to be staying at the Sheraton Maui Resort and Spa the first week of March and wondered if anyone had recommendations regarding any specific dive operators to use. I am an intermediate/advanced diver (350+ dives and Master Diver certified) and would like to find something less likely to have in initial certification dive going on at the same time.

Any recommendations?
 
IMO it will be in your best interest to get up early and take the 45 minute drive down to the Kihei boat ramp to catch a boat to Molokini and S. Maui sites. The most often recommended here are Ed Robinsons, Mike Severns, and B&B.

I think if you want pretty much a guarantee that beginners won't be on the boat, you'll want to consider booking either Ed Robinson's 3-tank charters on Tuesdays and Fridays, and/or their Adventure charters which are Sundays and Wednesdays. Both charters are marketed to the more experienced and independent diver and the dive sites/profiles typically reflect that.

A big caveat would be that if Ed Robinson's doesn't have enough divers to send 2 boats out on Sundays or Wednesdays, they will often combine their regular charter and Adventure one, so it's not a bad idea to check a day or two before if that would bother you.

Regardless of whom you choose, you'll find that most operators do a good job of trying to separate their divers into like groups, so although you might have a new diver on the boat, you won't be likely to have them in your dive group unless you're the only experienced diver on the boat!
 
One of the Lahaina options would be Lahaina Divers, Scuba Dive Lanai, Molokini, Molokai, and Maui. If you go on their Lanai drift dives or the Molokai dives, there won't be beginners.

Another Lahaina option for guided shore diving is Tim Rollo at Tiny Bubbles Scuba, Tiny Bubbles Scuba - Maui Hawaii, Maui Scuba Diving, Maui Dive Instruction, Maui Dive Locations. Tim knows West Maui very well and will definitely point stuff out to you that you would have missed otherwise.
 
Lahaina Divers is a lot more convenient......and I have dozens of dives with them, they are a cattle boat operation, but I have never seen any cert dives going on with there charters.....ever......
 
I went with Extended Horizons when I was in Maui in 2008. Nice operation, not to many people on the boat.

Didn't feel like waking up at 4 and diving a bunch before I dove.

Jeff
 
Lahaina Divers is a lot more convenient......and I have dozens of dives with them, they are a cattle boat operation, but I have never seen any cert dives going on with there charters.....ever......

+1 on this if you like the convenience factor. Get to the shop at 7ish, cup of coffee, quick walk to the boat, and away you go at 8, and back for lunch. If you talk with them ahead of time and "demonstrate your ability" you'll get some leeway. I've done 1hr dives with them (first in, last out). I'm going back in May and can't wait to get back to Molokai- last time I went we had 8ft seas and 30ft viz. Still saw hammerheads, but they were more silhouettes than real sightings.
 
If you will be diving for 3 or more days, then I recommend using one day to do a trip to Molokini from the S. Kihei boat ramp.

If you are prone to seasickness, then I recommend the larger Lahaina Divers boats for the trip to Lanai from Lahaina. The late morning/early afternoon return from from Lanai to Maui can be a bit bumpy when the trade winds are blowing.

Otherwise, my recommendation is the 12 passenger Extended Horizons boat from the Mala ramp in Lahaina.
 
Lahaina Divers is a lot more convenient......and I have dozens of dives with them, they are a cattle boat operation, but I have never seen any cert dives going on with there charters.....ever......

We did our OW and AOW with Lahaina Divers and did all of our certification dives off of the boats. They typically do their OW training and Discover Scuba dives in the afternoons, so not to Lanai or Molokini. However, they'll put their AOW divers on the Lanai and Molokini charters...since that's where we did them!

We have nearly 50 dives with Lahaina Divers, mostly to Lanai and they are our preferred operator to Lanai for exactly the reasons Charlie99 states.
 

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