Long: Kona great dive sites; dive op mixed review

[Middleager]

Aloha.

 

The diving in Kona was great. I'll give the dive op mixed review though.

 

We're still unpacking from our wonderful cruise trip to Hawaii and diving in both Oahu and during our cruise port day in Kona on Fri. Sept. 2/05.

 

We have 3 couples and I'm the only diver while my wife and others are beginner snorkelers. We booked with Torpedo Tours for a 5-hr private charter for my DPV diving certification, my friends snorkeling, with fishing and dolphin watching and lunch in between.

 

After tendering in from cruise ship and getting rental van, we arrived the Honukohou marina at around 9:20am. Nikki and Mike were waiting in their truck, and begin to put the boat in water as they saw us. When we got on boat, Nikki then ordered the lunch sandwiches (I thought it could have been ordered before we got there, and that I already told her before anything's fine, we don't have vegetarians).

 

I asked for Nitrox on both dives. The nitrox tanks had just green tapes with the writing of 36% on them. Nikki said their analyzer is at the shop for repairs, so we couldn't do the air analyzing as the Nitrox course I just took said I need to do. Mike was the DM/instructor who led both of my dives.

 

In Kona, the reefs and coral growth was so much better than what I had seen in Oahu. There was a lot more marine life. The scenery was quite good. Well, not as good or colorful as in the Caribbean (Jamaica, or Cuba especially south shore, Bay of Pigs), but definitely much better than Oahu. Well, Oahu had nice wrechs and the Makaha cavern was quite unique.

 

Very shortly into the water, my DPV stopped working. Mike quickly handed me his DPV and he carried the other one and just kicked. At first I worried that it could be very tiring for Mike to have to kick fast while towing a DPV. But the DPV was not very fast, sometimes I had to kick myself to keep up with Mike's casual kicks.

 

Mike was good underwater, and pointed out many things to me. We saw a lot of different fish species, many in schools. On both dives, Mike grabbed an octopus and made it squirt. The second time he wanted to hand it to me and motioned to do as he does, I just held it and let it go quickly not wanting to make it squirt. We also saw several turtles some fairly large, but too bad my snorkeling friends did not see any turtle.

 

For my wife and friends as snorklers, the visibility was very good, and they could see us diving under. Where the boat is ankered, it was pretty shallow and they could see the reef under. Kona coast has gentle slopes going to the sea. It was interesting to go from a lot of coral reef then not too far sloping away to just sand at about 90'.

 

For my friends, we had to ask for the wet suits and fins (which were in piles). While in Oahu, Capt. Bruce had separate large mesh bags with name tags. Each person had one bag, with the wet suit, fins, socks of their sizes (we all had our own masks and snorkels). So it showed Capt. Bruce being efficient and prepared. It therefore took longer for my friends to get their gears on then to go into water.

 

One thing Torpedo had was noodles, which really helped the snorkelers. They knew they'll float in wetsuits, but are still apprehensive, so having the noodle to hang on to, really made a big difference to being comfortable in water. They were really able to enjoy snorkeling and also saw a lot more marine life.

 

When I came back to boat, Mike fixed the malfunctioning DPV saying it was loose connection. During the 1 hr surface interval, they drove us to see dolphins. I asked about the fishing, Nikki said Mike is setting that up. Well, Mike put one rod up, hooked an orange color rubber fish, let loose the string. Mike didn't say anything about the rod or fishing, did not even look at my friend who was interested in the fishing. Mike just turned around to go back upstairs. My friend and I were a bit stunned, and felt that was quite rude.

 

We saw a few dolphins. I then went upstairs to ask. Mike said further ahead there is a pod of more than 100 dolphins. When we got there, we saw many but did not seem like 100 dolphins, maybe there were mostly underwater. Several spinner dolphins that jumped up and did a few spins. That was amazing. The dolphins were dancing for us.

 

Throughout this surface interval, Mike and Nikki stayed upstairs the whole time, did not come to chat with us at all. We then got back to just outside the marina for the second dive. The coral reef was again quite good. My computer recorded 90' at deepest, and again lots of coral growth near shore, then sloping to just sand. My DPV again went dead very early and Mike again handed me his. We saw an eagle ray sleeping on the sand, but the DPV but the DPV noise probably woke her up and she begain to swim. We went to near beside her and stayed with her for a while. Not having seen an eagle ray before at first I thought it was a manta ray, and was quite excited. (Well, later learned a small manta ray would be twice the size)

 

We saw eels sticking out of sand, a lion fish (smaller than I thought they'll be), several moral eel, schools of baraccuda, lots of other fish, and then eagle ray again. I thought it was the same one but Mike later said it was a different one. The marine life is quite abundant, so much more than in Oahu, also more than any where I've been in the Caribbeans (but the best coral growth I've seen is in Bay of Pigs in Cuba).

 

I also got a little daring and did a loop with the DPV. A lot of time I tried to hold the DPV with just my left hand, but it also gets fairly tiring. Using DPV is quite easy and doesn't really need a certification, but doing the certification comes to almost the same price as two dives both renting DPV, so it was an easy choice to do the DPV certification. Using DPV and nitrox, both dives came to 45-46 min, so they were pretty good.

 

Near the boat I saw the snorkelers again, waved at them and they waved at me. After I surfaced, I stayed in water and swim around my friends for a few minutes. It was evident they enjoyed what they were seeing.

 

A few minutes after I got on the boat and was rinsing my gear, Mike/Nikki turned the boat engine on. I remembered Randy at Capt. Bruce at Oahu saying he has a 42' jet boat and we did not have to worry about being shredded by propellers with a jet boat. But in this case with Torpedo tours, I was a bit concerned about the propellers. A few minutes later everyone got on boat. My wife also wondered if it could be dangerous.

 

We got back to the marina and then off the boat just before 2pm. Another group (3rd group of the day) was waiting to get on the boat. My friends were able to really enjoy snorkeling from a boat, in sea water where they could not stand up. I was able to enjoy diving Kona in the beautiful coral reefs. But my friends all felt comparitively, Capt. Bruce in Oahu was quite attentative while Mike/Nikki kind of ignored us on boat. Maybe they just thought my friends did not speak good English and no need to bother speaking to them. I would definitely recommend diving in Kona, but not with Torpedo Tours.

[bruce-r]

Thanks for taking the time to write a report about your experiences. I've never heard of this operation, and I did a lot of research about diving before we went to Hawaii last summer. Where did you find out about them?

 

I asked for Nitrox on both dives. The nitrox tanks had just green tapes with the writing of 36% on them. Nikki said their analyzer is at the shop for repairs, so we couldn't do the air analyzing as the Nitrox course I just took said I need to do.

This shows lack of interest in safety. Definitely not good.

 

On both dives, Mike grabbed an octopus and made it squirt.

This is also very bad. harassing marine life is never acceptable behavior.

 

A few minutes after I got on the boat and was rinsing my gear, Mike/Nikki turned the boat engine on. I remembered Randy at Capt. Bruce at Oahu saying he has a 42' jet boat and we did not have to worry about being shredded by propellers with a jet boat. But in this case with Torpedo tours, I was a bit concerned about the propellers. A few minutes later everyone got on boat. My wife also wondered if it could be dangerous.

Boats do have transmissions, so even if the engine was running, it doesn't mean that the props were turning. Still, it might make one uncomfortable if you were still in the water to hear the engine start up.

 

I would definitely not want to go out with this operator. Your description makes them appear irresponsible and perhaps a bit unpleasant.

[Middleager]

When I was searching for Hawaii diving ops, I found

http://www.wanna-dive-kona.com/

which also listed other dive ops in Kona. It was classy of this op to be listing others even though they are competitors. I was curious to try out a scooter that's why I went with the Torpedo tours. Next time I would not.

 

On the other hand, there were lots of good comments on this Wanna-Dive ops and Capt. Steve, so next time I'd definitely consider them.

[sjbowler]

For those of you looking for a good dive operation in Kona we would strongly recommend Kona Coast divers. We had the pleasure of diving with them for an entire week for the recent Kona Classic in May. They were wonderful. They also handle excursions for the cruise ships that come to kona.

[Middleager]

There are always the pros and cons of going through the ship for the dive excursions. One thing I didn't like was the ship excursion's description that the deep dives for certified divers goes till the limit of 60'. All the "deep" dives I've been to in Oahu or Kona are 90-100' range. I wouldn't want to be restricted to 60'.

 

When going through the ship, usually it is with a bigger dive boat, more peope. Many Kona dive ops take max. 6 divers and gives better attention.

 

Of course it also costs more to go through the ship, in exchange for the comfort of knowing the ship won't leave without you. So it depends on what's important to the diver.