Diving with Jacks Diving Locker/Fairway Villas - Waikoloa in
Hawaii/Kona in 2003/11:
an Instant Reader Report

 Cozumel, Hawaii, Palau, Solomon Islands, Australia, Bahamas, Cayman,
Bonaire, Fla Keys 

Dive Conditions

Dive own profile with computer. 3 min safety stop  

Kona has very good visability, excellent for photogs. Jacks boats all had
camera rinse tanks. Infact the dive staff took video and digital stills on
every dive.  

Overall Rating

Jack's Diving Locker is one of the cadillacs of dive operations. Service is
great.  You meet everyday at the dive shop which is about 3 blocks from the
pier where you board the boats. They take and setup all your gear for you.
Each diver has a numbered bag which is controlled by computer, so they know
each day what boat (if you do multiple days) your gear goes to. When you
get to the boat, gear is already setup. They shuttle divers to the pier
with vans. On the boat, which is well setup, you basically go to the back,
they put your gear on for you, and you jump in. After the dive, they take
your gear and setup new tanks, at the end of the day, they wash it all for
you and take it back to the shop for storage. Plenty of good scubapro gear
and wetsuits are available for rental.
  The nicest thing about the two large boats, is HOT showers. both large
boats have hot showers, and onboard heads. They supply lunch on the two
tank dives - good sandwiches, plus drinks and fruit juices. The advanced
trips have breakfast fruits and pastry as well.
  The brand new dive shop is well setup for training. They have their own
pool on site for the pool work.
   The staff is very freindly and helpfull. Keller Laros takes some great
digital video, and Doug Farr takes digital still photos which they sell
after the dives. 
   They are well setup and staffed to do shore dives, we actually did a
guided shore dive to check out our gear onthe first day - something Jack's
readily supported, wheras some other operators did not.
   Water temp in early nov was 78-80. Visability was excellent - 100ft+ on
some dives. Most of the sites are close in shore, so boat rides are short,
as there is no real shelf on Kona side, and it gets very deep, close to
shore. We saw sharks (white tip reef), one manta, plenty of turtles, eels,
jelly fish, normal tropicals etc. Dive guides are very good at pointing out
all the critters, and briefings are thorough and informative. the guides
are very familiar with the fish life of hawaii. 
   Diving in Hawaii is expensive though - as is everything. $95 for two
tanks, $135 for advanced. Jack's gives discount if you do multiple days
with them.
   We stayed in a condo in Waikoloa resort that was excellent, called
Fairway villas. Food wise, most restaurants are very expensive, especially
the hotels north of the airport,as you are basically a captive audience. If
you are in a condo, shop at the new costco and you can save a bundle on
food for a weeks stay (as opposed to eating at hotels every day). 

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