Dive Review of Big Island Divers in
Hawaii/Kona

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Big Island Divers : "Kona Night Diving", Mar, 2015, by Lee Little Haponski , TX, US ( Reviewer 5 reports with 4 Helpful votes). Report 8145 has 1 Helpful vote.
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
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Comments	For our short trip in late Feb/early March 2015, I wanted to revisit the Black Water dive and insisted my husband go with me. We had both done the Manta night dive in 2012 but I went alone for the Black Water. Big Island Divers insisted we had to do a night dive with them before the Black Water so we scheduled the evening reef dive with florescent lights for Thursday and BlkWtr on Fri. Lucky I stopped at the shop as soon as I arrived on Mon., as they had switched the Thur. dive to a manta and we had to go on Tue. for the reef. I also planned this dive to check out how diving with braces on my teeth works. I took a new Trident comfort bite mouthpiece which they happily put on my rental reg even though they use the same mouthpiece on the rental gear. BTW, it works great, I had no discomfort from my teeth. The florescent dive requires the use of a blue light and a yellow filter that goes over your mask. It makes the hard corals glow yellow and green. Unfortunately, the filter also made my old, leaky mask impossible to keep clear so the dive was really just a standard dusk dive with the fish heading into their hiding places and the crustaceans just emerging. At a site just south of the new airport, the corals were reasonably sized though there was still a lot of debris from huricain Iniki - I did watch a spotted eel eat a yellow tang - a first for me. bought a new Scubapro mask at an excellent price from Big Island Divers - I'll order the corrective lenses for it online. But now, to the Black Water night dive! This is a real night dive - we got to the dock around 9 as the manta divers returned and it was 10 before we entered the water. We had the max of 6 divers plus 1 divemaster and the captain. They also require divers have at least 50 total dives so we had 4 of us with many hundreds of dives and one couple still under 100 but well trained. The protocol is 3 divers on each side of the boat - bow, mid and stern, clipped to a 40+' line, each diver enters off the stern, accompanied by the DM. Timed for 45-50 minutes (or 500 psi which almost never comes into play). The hunt is on for the small, deep water dewellers who migrate into the shallower waters at night to feed. I find it a thrill to watch the strange, small, translucent jellies, shrimp and worms floating and zipping around the black waters above the 4,000 - 6,000' deep trench just off the Kona coast. It's definantly unique and I suggest anyone who enjoys night diving should do this dive if they make it to the Big Island of Hawaii. BTW, one guy on the BW boat had not done any other night dive with BID and next time I will insist that I'm fully vetted and can skip the "night check-out dive" since I probably have more real night dives than any of their dive masters! watch the Jacks Dive Locker Black Water dive video on YouTube for a good preview. Sharks often show up just to check out the action. We had a black tip and 1 or 2 grey reefs circle around a few times below us.
Websites	Big Island Divers
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Pacific, Caribbean
Closest Airport	KON	Getting There	Rental car from hotel to harbor
Dive Conditions
Weather	dry	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	70-72°F / 21-22°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	40-50 Ft/ 12-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Clipped to line attached to the boat, Max depth 50' timed for max 45-50 minutes.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals	N/A	Tropical Fish	N/A
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
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]

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

Subscriber's Comments

By report author: Lee Little Haponski in TX, US at Apr 17, 2015 13:28 EST

Surprised to be quoted in the April issue about the black water dive! Only thing, the editor added an am marking to my times both of which were NIGHT times (pm). Guess I'll be more specific in the next report...

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Dive Review of Big Island Divers in Hawaii/Kona

Big Island Divers : "Kona Night Diving", Mar, 2015,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Big Island Divers in
Hawaii/Kona