Maui in August, need recommendations

[scubadada]

My son & I dived Maui in 2003 but have not had an opportunity to return. We used Lahaina Divers and were generally pleased with the service though it was too supervised for our liking. The boats were not nearly full, contributing to the good experience. The Lanai, Molokini crater, and Molokini backside dives were all quite good, not great.

We're retuning this August. We'll likely be staying in Kaanapali/Lahaina but would be willing to drive to Kihei for something special. The Lanai drift and the Molokai dives Lahaina Divers offers look attractive.

I'd appreciate opinions regarding best operators for more experienced divers and comments about the dives I've mentioned and any others I may have missed.

Thanks in advance for your help, good diving,

Craig

 

[Nikolai]

Hey there,

Well though it is not what I would consider and "experienced" diver oriented boat, I had awesome experiences with B+B Scuba. Awesome crew and truly awesome operation. After our first dive they pretty much let me do my thing without the handholding for the rest of the week. Sadly their sites at the time weren't really advanced at all, Molokini crater and a 2nd site. Can't say enough about their operation though. Great thing about them is their boat (at the time) ran real early and were usually 1st to the site, get in a couple of dives, and back to the harbor by 9am. Awesome if you have non-diving spouse (like me) and don't want to ruin the whole day for them.

For maybe a little more advanced, I also had great experiences with Mike Severns diving. They do a wonderful and quite detailed dive briefing about the marine life and activities you may see during the dive. Definitely naturalist types oriented. Though I had dove Molokini several times before their dive briefing opened up a whole new world and made it one of the most enjoyable dives I had in Maui. Because of their briefing I was able to recognize some cool behaviors, like the jacks and wolf eels working together as a hunting group (Eel chases fish outta the reef for jack to eat, jack scares 'em down to the reef for eel to eat) that I would have never recognized before, very cool. I believe they do more advanced dive sites, though I was stuck with only a particular day to dive with them and as such only was able to sample the location they had scheduled for that day. They were more discerning than the cattle boat type ops and definitely catered toward the more experienced diver. Though as all things "experienced" is relative so.... I'd heartily recommend at least checking them out if you're into the naturalist type experience and a well run boat with a great crew.

Edit:
Forgot to mention, a LOT of people I have talked to have recommended Hawaiian Rafting Adventures in Lahaina. I will be checking them out for sure next time I make the island...

 

[DiveMaven]

We dive with Ed Robinson's Diving Adventures (ERDA) and feel they're geared toward the experienced diver. We also drive from Kaanapali each morning and find it's well worth the drive. If you choose the Adventure or 3-tank charters, you'll find those are definitely for the more advanced diver.

Mike Severns is also highly recommended by many for experienced divers as well.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

The Lanai drift and the Molokai dives Lahaina Divers offers look attractive.

Can't comment on the Lanai Drift charter, as this is the first I've heard of it, and I work for one of the competitors. It would be great if you post a report if you do it.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Well though it is not what I would consider and "experienced" diver oriented boat, I had awesome experiences with B+B Scuba. Awesome crew and truly awesome operation. After our first dive they pretty much let me do my thing without the handholding for the rest of the week. Sadly their sites at the time weren't really advanced at all, Molokini crater and a 2nd site. Can't say enough about their operation though. Great thing about them is their boat (at the time) ran real early and were usually 1st to the site, get in a couple of dives, and back to the harbor by 9am. Awesome if you have non-diving spouse (like me) and don't want to ruin the whole day for them.

For maybe a little more advanced, I also had great experiences with Mike Severns diving. They do a wonderful and quite detailed dive briefing about the marine life and activities you may see during the dive. Definitely naturalist types oriented. Though I had dove Molokini several times before their dive briefing opened up a whole new world and made it one of the most enjoyable dives I had in Maui. Because of their briefing I was able to recognize some cool behaviors, like the jacks and wolf eels working together as a hunting group (Eel chases fish outta the reef for jack to eat, jack scares 'em down to the reef for eel to eat) that I would have never recognized before, very cool. I believe they do more advanced dive sites, though I was stuck with only a particular day to dive with them and as such only was able to sample the location they had scheduled for that day. They were more discerning than the cattle boat type ops and definitely catered toward the more experienced diver. Though as all things "experienced" is relative so.... I'd heartily recommend at least checking them out if you're into the naturalist type experience and a well run boat with a great crew.

B&B's 5:45 AM check-in is a major reason I am not a fan. I like a little sun for my Molokini photography at 80 fsw.

I am relatively sure there are no wolf eels in Hawaii (99.9%).

Could you elaborate a little more on your "cattle boat type op's" comment? Which Maui cattle boat type op's have you been out to Molokini with?

Here is something to think about; on B&B's Molokini scuba dive charters web page the first information is Dive Boat Details:

B&B SCUBA INC. runs an American Eagle 38 ft. custom dive boat. While the boat is certified for 16 divers, we only take 12 max.

It is very likely as many as 9 out of the ten Maui charters that take 13 customers or less are certified for 16 divers, maybe all of them. Crew that dive count, so if B&B sometimes puts 4 crew in the water their above statement seems somewhat disingenuous.

Most of the dive boats working Maui County waters take 12-13 divers (8). There are two that only take 6 divers and four that take up to 24 divers (Dominion & Dauntless - LD, Maka Koa - MDS, Maui Diamond II - MDDS). MDS also has the Kai Anela; a 24 passenger snorkel boat.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

so if B&B sometimes puts 4 crew in the water their above statement seems somewhat disingenuous.

well that's a stretch by anyone's standards. Too many DM's in the water??? Would it have been more honest if they only took 12 paying customers with no DM's in the water? LOL

B&B is a fine dive op that does not advertise or have any time shares to share to make ends meet yet keeps it's boat full. That word of mouth thing has served them well.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Just seems like boasting about something that really isn't worth boasting about. Kind of like how I often boast about being the black sheep in my family...

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

LOL well ok then.

Pretty silly by My standards. v

 

[scubadada]

We dive with Ed Robinson's Diving Adventures (ERDA) and feel they're geared toward the experienced diver. We also drive from Kaanapali each morning and find it's well worth the drive. If you choose the Adventure or 3-tank charters, you'll find those are definitely for the more advanced diver.

Mike Severns is also highly recommended by many for experienced divers as well.

Where have you gone on the 3 tank adventure dives?

Thanks, Craig

 

[DiveMaven]

Where have you gone on the 3 tank adventure dives?

Thanks, Craig

Usually the first dive on the 3-tank charters goes to the deeper sites, like The Apartments (110'), Shark Condos (130'), deeper backwall, 85, Battleship drift to The Apartments, etc. The dives on the 3-tank and Adventure charters are usually live boat dives, and often on the Wednesday Adventure charter you'll get a 3rd dive by going to a smaller site for your 2nd tank, cutting it short (since you're done exploring anyway), and using the rest of your tank at another shallow/smaller site. Like doing Three Anchors, coming up with 1500psi and doing Hellcat afterward. Both sites are easily explored in 20-30 minutes and not too deep. Or doing Third Tank and Red Hill each for 1/2 tank of air.

It is important to be able to reboard a live boat in sometimes rough conditions, be experienced going deep, and be good on air to do these dives, which is why they're advertised and limited (as much as humanly possible) to advanced divers, and really try to keep to that.

For example, we had a young guy (18-20 years old?) on a 3-tank charter a few years ago that came up with his Suunto computer going nuts after the first dive. Not only had he gone into deco, but he had ignored the required stops, as well as blowing through the safety stop. The crew was understandably unhappy with him, and they wouldn't let him dive the rest of the day, even after his computer had cleared (the darned thing beeped for over 10 minutes!!!). The guy argued with the crew for the rest of the charter, very upset they wouldn't let him dive at least his 3rd tank after his computer stopped beeping (I was told later though that it's likely the Suunto had him locked out anyway, but I don't know).