Been to Maui many times....
Been to Maui many times....
Not many places I can think of that have a better combination of top side and underwater sights. Been to Hawaii, Cayman Islands, and Bahamas.
On Hawaii, I've dove with Five Star Scuba, Kapalua Dive, Maui Dive Co, and Lahaina. Lahaina is a very good dive co however, year after year, they visit the same sites as do probably all other companies. Molokini Crater is wonderful and visibility second to none (I've always had 100-150ft). For an unusual site, ask for St. Anthony's Wreck. They don't visit it often and I was lucky... The site is home to 10-15 giant turtles living on or around the wreck. Just awesome. Kapalua Dive co has a great kayak dive up the coast (saw 2 pods of dolphin swim over us) and the bay is very calm. Great for intro and also night dives. Five Star is located at the sheraton maui, KOR, and a few other hotels along Ka'anapali has good shore diving with access to the key places for shore diving including, the Sheraton, another great night dive location. Maui Dive isn't bad. We used them for shore diving at other sites but you drive your own car there. They're boat dives used to be on Lahaina Divers, so if the intent is boat dives, book straight with Lahaina. If you dove with Lahaina before, something different. Year after year, we dive atleast one day with Lahaina (mainly out of convenience) since there aren't other boat companies on the West end.
I've heard positive things with Pacific Dive as well in Lahaina and great things about Ed Robinson also.
For beginner u/w photographers, try the generic manufacturer housings good to depths of 100-130 ft. Canon, Sony, Olympus all have them. They'll run you about $200 (look for a local camera store who's prices are generally lower than best buy/MSRP) and have some fun. Beats the $1-2K you's spend for top of the line housing alone. I've got a Canon S50, Canon housing, Sea & Sea strobe (fiber optic cable), Inon Wide Angle and Macro lenses. With a little reasearch, you can connect just about anything. Ultralight, Sea & Sea, Inon, all excellent co's to deal with and have knowledge of each others parts. Never had any issues with the housings and have wonderful pics as a result. You can pick up dive equipment insurance if you're worried about flooding the camera. It's a bad habit once you start.... Enjoy.
Been to Maui many times....
Not many places I can think of that have a better combination of top side and underwater sights. Been to Hawaii, Cayman Islands, and Bahamas.
On Hawaii, I've dove with Five Star Scuba, Kapalua Dive, Maui Dive Co, and Lahaina. Lahaina is a very good dive co however, year after year, they visit the same sites as do probably all other companies. Molokini Crater is wonderful and visibility second to none (I've always had 100-150ft). For an unusual site, ask for St. Anthony's Wreck. They don't visit it often and I was lucky... The site is home to 10-15 giant turtles living on or around the wreck. Just awesome. Kapalua Dive co has a great kayak dive up the coast (saw 2 pods of dolphin swim over us) and the bay is very calm. Great for intro and also night dives. Five Star is located at the sheraton maui, KOR, and a few other hotels along Ka'anapali has good shore diving with access to the key places for shore diving including, the Sheraton, another great night dive location. Maui Dive isn't bad. We used them for shore diving at other sites but you drive your own car there. They're boat dives used to be on Lahaina Divers, so if the intent is boat dives, book straight with Lahaina. If you dove with Lahaina before, something different. Year after year, we dive atleast one day with Lahaina (mainly out of convenience) since there aren't other boat companies on the West end.
I've heard positive things with Pacific Dive as well in Lahaina and great things about Ed Robinson also.
For beginner u/w photographers, try the generic manufacturer housings good to depths of 100-130 ft. Canon, Sony, Olympus all have them. They'll run you about $200 (look for a local camera store who's prices are generally lower than best buy/MSRP) and have some fun. Beats the $1-2K you's spend for top of the line housing alone. I've got a Canon S50, Canon housing, Sea & Sea strobe (fiber optic cable), Inon Wide Angle and Macro lenses. With a little reasearch, you can connect just about anything. Ultralight, Sea & Sea, Inon, all excellent co's to deal with and have knowledge of each others parts. Never had any issues with the housings and have wonderful pics as a result. You can pick up dive equipment insurance if you're worried about flooding the camera. It's a bad habit once you start.... Enjoy.
