Maui - Molokini Crater diving?

[Peter Guy]

Just for the record, I've had very pleasant dives, many times, with B & B in Kihei. My parents used to live in Kihei so I went there pretty often and always rented my tanks/weights from B & B even if I didn't always go out on their boat. My wife, TSandM, and I have done a lot of shore diving and B & B people couldn't have been nicer or more helpful.

I've also sent my students to B & B for checkout dives and their reports have always been positive.

 

[grassyknoll]

I would say Molokini can be a great dive, it all depends. I have dove there a few times and on one memorable dive we had a manta spend almost the entire dive somersaulting through our bubbles.


I dove several days with B&B and would highly recommend their operation. The early morning diving is great, there is a very different feel as the reef awakens in the morning. Sort of the creatures of the night shift giving way to the day shift. Also getting two dives in and being back at the hotel in time for breakfast with the misses made her feel less like a scuba widow


Also, I wholeheartedly recommend Shaka Divers (Shaka Doug), great guy and I was lucky enough to get a day in diving with him while in Maui.

 

[jellyroll02]

Thanks for info on B&B guys - much appreciated!

 

[geoff w]

To second, third and fourth what everyone already said, Pauline at Mike Severns Diving is great! They are a smaller operation and tend to book up, so make reservations far enough ahead. The last we were in Maui, we only got to dive with them a few days, and the rest of the time dived with Scuba Shack. Charlie has the fastest boat to get to Molokini and we thoroughly enjoyed them, but he rubs some people the wrong way. If you're renting gear, he has the newest, and usually turns all rental gear over every month. Maui Dreams is a great group, although we've never dived with them

The backside of Molokini can be absolutely spectacular, and it definitely helps to have guides to point out some of the more interesting critters. Look out into the deep blue as well as at the wall, because you never know what will swim by. The second dive is usually chosen based on conditions and what guests on the boat have not done. The wreck of the Saint Anthony can be boring, but we've also seen two male octopus fighting in the open over a female, with the victor dragging his new mate away, we've seen baby octopuses being born, and also have seen pelagic mantas swim by. Red Hill can be really great. If you're in to turtles, you won't be disappointed at many of the sites; we've dived with so many turtles in Maui they get to be a nuisance

I've heard mixed reviews about B&B (never dived with them), but when I've gone into their shop, never felt like they are particularly customer friendly. We dove with Ed Robinsons one trip a long time ago and they were good too. Pro Diver Maui has a very good reputation too, but we never dived with them; they have a smaller boat than most of the others. Given how competitive the Maui dive market is, it's hard to find a bad dive operation.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I personally wasn't too impressed with Red Hill. I liked the walls on Molokini. I did go with Ed Robinson. Overall, I liked it with one exception: one of the guides digging an octopus out of the ground.

 

[DiveMaven]

I have to correct that ProDiver has a smaller boat than others. Their boat sunk last year and they have a new boat, which is actually an old Maui Dive Shop boat. It's too big to keep at their house any longer and they take more divers.

Wow, surprised that you didn't like Red Hill, Wetb4! We've done that site at least 50x in the past 10 years and rarely have not seen an abundance of creatures. In one dive it isn't unusual to see: multiple frog fish, many different types of nudibranchs, leaf scorpionfish, turtles, devil scorpionfish, Mantis shrimp, Hawaiian green lionfish, false scorpion fish, octopus, many different eels, including dragon eels, and sharks, not to mention many different types of fish. On an excellent day, you could also be treated to a Hawaiian Sting Ray, Manta Ray, or Eagle Ray (or all of them), and at one point there were Harlequin Shrimp in two places.

Guess every site has a bad day now and again though, and sometimes you don't get the best guide either. Bummer, wish you could have been there on a better day, it's really a special dive site IMO.

 

[jellyroll02]

Thanks, all, for the great info - we're hoping that weather conditions will permit us to get to the back wall. Having only been diving in Cozumel and the Caribbean we'll be pretty happy to see some new critters ;-)