Dive Review of
Kohala Divers in
Hawaii/Kona-Waikoloa

[Extensive Carribean,Northeastern US,Pacific

Dive Conditions

Max depth limits imposed. On board with 500psi  

Seperate camera bucket for UWP..Plenty of space on boat for personal space.  

Overall Rating

Kohala Divers is located in Kaiwihae shopping center across from the harbor
and boat dock. Kaiwihae is located about 45 mins.north of the airport and
town of Kona. The operation,which is owned and run by Rebecca and Gregg, is
convenient if staying in the Waikoloa area and in the hotel district which
encompasses a 5 mile corridor around Waikoloa. We stayed in the Waikoloa
beach resort in a 2 bdrm condo, found on VRBO.com, and were very pleased
with price ,150 per night, and location, 5 min from A-Bay beach. Dive shop
was 10-15 min ride from door to door. Diving was scheduled at 7:30 am and
boat left pretty much at 7:45 each morning with dive sites determinined by
weather, seas, and who on the boat was a return diver so as to not dive the
same site. We (Wife >300 dives) dove 5 days with the dive crew and was
pleasently surprised by their willingness to keep everyone quite content in
relation to sites and service. One dive was start with a small current and
the entailing swim back was tedious,BUT,according to Robin our divemaster
this was done so that she could locate some palagics for us, which she most
certainly did by finding three eagle rays swimming in formation! Well worth
the return swim. We also dove south of Kohala at 6 caves, Puako point,
Puako 38 and Turtle Dome . Puako 38 is a mooring ball and the site of the
most incredible turtle cleaning station that I have seen. All sites north
of Waikaloa have great fish life and an extrodinary array of lava tubes
which contain fantastic marine life. OK.. some of the fish life seen
through 11 dives besides the eagle rays were Turtles at cleaning stations
and on most dives, white tip sharks,octopus, blue dragon nudibrach along
with two or three others. helmet conch,white mouth eel,pyramid butterfly
fish,rock movers in  juvenile, adolescent and adult stages,flame angelfish,
grouper, schools of black durgeons as well as schools of yellow tangs. I
have missed many others and what Hawaii lacks in soft corals it sure as
heck makes up for in abundent sea life. Water temp and Vis is the best in
Sept and Oct and the tourism has dropped off significantly so the Island is
very manageble when it comes to visiting topside attractions such
as,Volcano National Park,Mauna Kea, Waipio valley ect. Probably the most
disturbing aspect of the trip was when Rebecca and Gregg would point out
the numerous boats at dive sites who were fish collectors literally
collecting thousands of fish for export for salt water aquariums. It was
said that upward of 30 thousand yellow tangs alone are removed monthly. We
went to sites where a frog fish was seen for weeks on end then gone and
other such instances where large groups of tangs would congregate but then
only few remain. These people are making a great living for THEMSELVES but
what brings Hawaii more income,divers who stay at resorts and condos
contributing to the local economy for a week or two at a time or these self
serving individuals who only take from a great resouce and contribute
nothing in return? I only wish the dive operators on the island of Kona
would band together and get legislators to enact some serious restrictions
before the fish are decimated and divers go elsewhere.Now back to the dive
operation Kohala Divers. They run a tight group of employees who make the
diving enjoyable without that "stay in a tight formation and follow
me" attitude. Once you establish that you are a competent diver they
give you the option to wander and hang back doing your own thing. I am a
NAUI instructor and can say that their pre-dive briefings were very concise
along with the boat briefing and emergency action plan .Before I forget
there were also large groups of Dolphin that would follow the dive boat
almost daily.My advice.. go to Hawaii and dive with a great group of
professionals. 

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