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#294
 Headed to the Big Island of Hawaii
Painkiller - 2/11/2013 12:38 AM
Category: Travel
Replies: 7
There is this place called Kona Honu Divers that does a manta ray night dive.
Has anyone been or know anyone else that has been on a trip with this shop?
I’m heading there in a bit and it sounded good to go. Just wanted some feedback.
Thanks!
#10632
m_grieco - 2/11/2013 11:12 AM
read my article, you’ll get lots of info about diving on the Big Island.
#51878
Greg - 2/11/2013 12:20 PM
Here is a direct link to his article:

http://www.divebuddy.com/blog.aspx?BlogID=10204
#10346
sk290 - 2/12/2013 11:36 AM
Beware of the cattle ops in Kona. The scuba shack is a good outfit. Their prices are cheaper than most of them and the staff are pretty nice and competent. I rented some equipment from them a couple of years ago for some shore diving. They also came highly recommended by local divers as well.

http://www.hawaiianscubashack.com/rates/rates.asp

Have fun. Kona is a great place to hang out!

Sandra
#642
MaryW - 2/12/2013 1:58 PM
We did our AOW cert through this dive op. http://www.konadivingcompany.com/

We also did the manta night dive, and they are the last dive op to go down and the last to come up. Kerry’s brownies are worth noting :-), there’s a hot water shower on board, and the instructors/dive masters were all great!

Marina, the lady who takes the video of the dives was the one who caught that awesome footage of the diver assisting the dolphin that just recently went viral. If you haven’t seen it, just go to youtube and search for it. Amazing!

We rented a condo that I found through vrbo.com . The entire trip was perfect from start to finish!

Have fun!
#1753
Laura - 2/18/2013 11:21 AM
Kona Honu Divers is pretty good. I did the manta night dive with them and they were pretty safety conscious and provided appropriate environmental messages (i.e. don’t touch the mantas). The manta dive consists of all the divers from all the dive boats circling up around a set of lights on the sea floor (the "campfire"). And then you sit and wait until they come in to suck up the zooplankton attracted to the light. And then you sit and watch until the divemaster decides time is up and you return to the boat.


Jack’s Dive Locker is another safety and environmental conscious operator with a good record.
#264
CallieJax - 2/21/2013 11:56 AM
Dove there last September there is a dive shop called Kona Dive Shop. They were awesome boat was full but not over crowded. They took care of everything for us.And if your lucky they have a spot where they go and you can see what they called a friendly Tiger Shark!
#294
Subscribed
Painkiller - 2/22/2013 7:21 PM
Thanks for all the reply’s!
Just got back and did end up diving with the Kona Honu guys (right around the corner was the Kona dive shop mentioned before) after I spoke with someone I met that had just dove with them where were lodged at.
Had a fantastic dive both day and night. The guys on the boat were great and gave a very good brief about the marine life and some of the history of the area.
I’ve done a few night dives before but I really wish this could have been the first one I had done just because it was so easy!
Thanks again for all the reply’s and if you ever have the opportunity to DIVE WITH THE MANTA’S! It’s incredible!