Marc's Public Blog - Diving

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It had been a while since I had dived in Maui. It's not a bad place, but there are many other places to dive around the world, so I went there too. Things that changed in Maui were:

Maui has become unreasonably expensive, and unfortunately on top of that, they've added punitive parking fees, very short sighted as driving away tourists that are supposed to help rebuild after covid and the Lahaina fire and destructions, isn't really going to work (parking 20mn by Dragon's Teeth was $35, parking in the condo complex just north of Laihana, after already paying a lot to stay there, was another $150. WTF?)

At the time I regretted not staying a few days in Lahaina. Of course, it all burnt down so now it's really not much to look at except expensive resorts and golf courses. This also means there is only one company left diving out of Lahaina. That's better than 0, but 1 means it's a huge mess of total beginners, mixed with advanced divers. Not good...

There are some dive companies that dive out of the pier close to the aquarium in the middle of the island, but it doesn't make sense to stay in Lahaina just to drive back down and then boat up, unless they go to Molokini in which case you should stay in Kihei which is a bit cheaper.

Pro Diver Maui in Kihei

The first 4 days were spent in Kihei, diving with Pro Diver Maui. There are still multiple dive companies that dive from there every morning (06:15 at the harbor, ugh), but not that many that cater to advanced divers or do 3 dives instead of 2. Ed Robinson has moved on of course (he was already old 15 years ago), so I found Pro Diver Maui which do 3 tank dives from time to time, but not the days I was there. However, instead of the 3 tank dive on saturday, they did a special trip to Lanai to dive Cathedrals 1 and 2, which turned out to work great. The crew was professional and did a good job letting more advanced divers enjoy longer dives while the beginners run out of air early.
All the dives ended up being at Molokini frontside (I was told backside is really not that great for fish life and is just a deep wall dive) and the guides did a great job making sure divers of each level got to enjoy the most diving possible. Here are the best pictures:
Kihei Based diving starts before sunrise to go diving before the wind picks up and the conditions worsen:

the harbor can't keep boats but every morning they get put in the water

the lobster had eyes inside it ;)

Lanai Cathedrals with Pro Diver Maui (from Kihei) and Dive Maui (from Lahaina)

I thought the traverse to Lanai would take a lot longer from Kihei, but turn out they had a faster boat and it took a bit over 1H at 20kts or so.

Two days later, I was back with Dive Maui from Lahaina, their boat was slower and the sea was rough, so it too just as long to get there as it did from Kihei, and sadly the smaller boat filled at capacity included some total beginner divers that absolutely did not belong on that boat and ruined the trip for everyone else. I got less than 10mn underwater before we were recalled under water to look for an inept diver that lost the group from the start and did not swim back towards the boat, making us go get her and cancelling diving for everyone else. How is that even possible? :-/

thankfully that dive shop was not damaged by the fires

boats were very filled to capacity, 14 divers

got to hear whales under water and see them

after a bouncy and wet boat ride, got to cathedrals in Lanai

yeah, that was it. 3H trip there and back for less than 10mn in the water :-(

3rd try going to Cathedrals, another slow-ish traverse (more than 1H) but the conditions were good:

Lahaina Jetty with Dive Maui

The rest of the dives were shore dives, especially as the boat trip to Lanai was cancelled on the 3rd day due to rough seas, so I did more shore diving on the 3rd day. Turns out the Jetty dive in front of the dive shop was actually excellent.

swimming frog fish

2 lovely eagle rays

even got a monk seal, which is rare!

After the Lanai trip was cancelled on the 3rd day (sadly 2nd cancellation out of 3 trips), I ended up doing 2 more shore dives that were pretty decent. Thanks to Sean who came back to work to come dive with me:

the Hawaii state fish, a kind of triggerfis

4 eagle rays came to visit!

many turtles

Ending Words: Still Pretty Good Diving, But Less Affordable and Welcoming as Hawaii Used to Be

All in all the diving was pretty good, but I'm not sure I'd consider Maui a top dive destination anymore due to the problems with Hawaii (pricing, and tourist scamming). The diving was decent, but out of Kihei you can only dive in the morning, and out of Lahaaina, you're paying a fortune just to stay there or deal with a 1h-ish drive from Kihei, and once you've done the jetty dive a few times, and it was excellent, you're going to run out of things quickly. The Lanai Cathedrals were good, but a pain to get to, even from Lahaina, and I just can't recommend it as a diving destination given the tough traverse that can cancel the trip, and the currently sole diving company going there daily that mixes totally beginner divers with advanced ones, putting everyone at risk for cancelled dives and everyone subject to the weakest link. Unfortunately there does not seem to be any boat diving locations from Lahaina when the boat can't go to Lanai.
Once you add that Hawaii has gotten way expensive and sharks-like parking companies deciding to screw over tourists (that is you parkling.com, you are blood suckers, GFY), not understanding that they are going to suffer the same fate than Vegas if they continue (i.e. tourists not coming back and warning others not to go). Hawaii, you need to get rid of those blood suckers urgently if you still want people to come back.