Dive Review of SeaSport Divers - Poipu in
Hawaii/Kauai

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SeaSport Divers - Poipu, Jun, 2009, by Marta Arensberg, WA, United States ( Sr. Reviewer 7 reports). Report 4968.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	My dive buddy and I met up on Kauai specifically to dive Ni'ihau, off the southwest coast of Kauai. We booked ahead with SeaSport Divers in Koloa, for their Tuesday and Friday boat trips, which they only do two days a week from late April through September. This trip is for experienced divers, those who do not get seasick. The crossing is three hours over, and three hours back, doing three tanks between the long boat trip each way. We were lucky on Tuesday and had relatively calm seas over and mild chop coming home. But on our Friday outing, the return ride was extremely choppy, and a couple of people were ill from the chop during the dives so they didn't do all three dives that day. Kind of an expensive trip if you don't get all three dives in. Tuesday our first dive was Key Hole - a drift dive. We saw spotted eagle rays, bluefin trevally, black giant trevally, several gray reef sharks, a white tip reef shark, pennant butterfly fish, pyramid butterfly fish, amber jacks, a banded angel fish, and a coronet fish. At our second dive, Vertical Awareness - a pinnacle, we encountered two Hawaiian Monk Seals, a fabulous orange frog fish, several nudibranch, mackeral, a red stripe pipe fish, and an indigo dart fish. A fantastic deli lunch was ready when we surfaced from our second dive - sandwich cold cuts, cheeses, chips, fresh cut fruits, pasta salads and bottled water and juices. Our third dive was Ni'ihau Arches, which sports swim-through arches formed by lava. We spotted some ghost shrimp, dragon wrasse, a sponge crab, and much more. Friday the water was much choppier. We dropped in at Vertical Awareness, hoping to find the orange frog fish we had spotted on Tuesday. Every diver was looking for it without luck, but I finally found it towards the very end of the dive, sitting in exactly the same spot it had been at on Tuesday. One other diver, and the dive master were still looking, so I got to share the find with them. The two Hawaiian monk seals were with us most of the dive, as well as the many fish we had seen before on Tuesday. Our second dive was a drift - from Pyramid to Lehua Rock, and we spotted yet another Hawaiian monk seal, marybar goat fish, and tinkerbell butterfly fish. After our final dive at a site called Puu Muu, we surfaced to very, very choppy water, which made reboarding the boat in interesting event. The ride back toward Kauai was more like a continuous slam, slam, slam. Many divers, myself included, laid down on the dive deck floor on thin mats that were available. You couldn't move around without holding onto something, or you would get tossed to the floor. The crew stowed all gear before we took off for home, anything loose would end up on the dive dive too. The usual 3 hour cruise back to Kukuiula Boat Harbor would have ended up at closer to 4 hours, so the crew pulled the 48 foot Anela Kai into the harbor at Port Allen, where SeaSport had a van waiting to wisk us back to their dive shop in Koloa. The Anela Kai and her crew were great both days of our trip. Capt's Andrew and Ryan were on board both trips, and both are a pleasure to dive with. The entire crews attention to safety procedures both above and below the surface are appreciated. This isn't a trip for beginning or inexperienced divers, or divers uncomfortable with lots of boat movement. The day is long, starting at 6:00 am at the dive shop check in, and ending whenever the boat gets back. On Tuesday we were back to the shop at about 6:15 pm, and after being driven back from Port Allen, we got to the shop at 6:40 pm on Friday. Long, long dive days. But the diving off Ni'ihau was spectacular, and worth the cost and the time.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Cayman Islands, Palau, Fiji, Kona, Belize, Papau New Guinea, Kauai.
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	78-80°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	50-80 Ft/ 15-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	depth limits, guided dives.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of SeaSport Divers - Poipu in Hawaii/Kauai

SeaSport Divers - Poipu, Jun, 2009,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of SeaSport Divers - Poipu in
Hawaii/Kauai