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Dive Review of Ed Robinson's/Marriott Ocean Club in
Hawaii/Maui

Ed Robinson's/Marriott Ocean Club, Dec, 2006,

by Hilary, WA, USA . Report 3156.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 5 stars Food 5 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving 3 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments We did three charters with Ed Robinson's on this trip, and each one was better than the previous. The crew was outstanding both on land and in the water, and we saw more marine life than we've ever seen on previous trips to Maui. This is why we've returned to Ed Robinson's after diving with them earlier in the year. I have to qualify why I put 3 stars for beginners diving with this operator. They tend to dive deeper profiles than other operators on Maui that we've experienced, even on their 2-tank charters. I would say that a diver should be comfortable doing a 90 foot dive and boarding a boat in moderate seas before booking with Ed Robinsons. They frequently do live boat dives and when the trade winds kick up, reboarding the boat can be challenging.

Ironically, our best charter started out with us not being sure we would be able to dive that day. On the way out of the harbor, the boat started overheating and our captain, Mark, had to shut down the engines. Dave quickly crawled into the engine compartment and switched a part out. Mark started the engines and we went for another couple of minutes, only to have him shut them down again as they were overheating again. Dave again crawled into the engine compartment and tweaked something. Throughout this time, Mark was on the radio to the other boat and to the home base letting them know what was going on. When Dave was done, Mark started the engines again and after a few minutes we were underway again. Because the temperature was creeping up again and Mark didn't want to abort the trip, he simply feathered back the ailing engine and let the other one do more work. He also chose S. Maui off-shore sites instead of taking us to Molokini, which none of us seemed to mind.

Our first dive had us dropping in on 5 spotted Eaglerays, all of whom stuck around for the first few minutes of our dive so we could get a good look at them. As if that was an omen for the rest of our dive, we not only heard extremely loud and melodic whale song, but we saw a huge variety of nudibranchs, leaf scorpionfish, Hawaiian lionfish, Commerson's frog fish (2), a huge variety of shrimp, many aggressive damselfish, and some very unique curious pipefish. Of course this is in addition to a large variety of tropical fish and a few turtles. When we got back to the boat, everyone couldn't stop talking about the excellent dive and how we all could have stayed down there for hours.

Our second dive turned out to be just as good, as we immediately dropped down and had a close encounter with a Manta! He was just cruising along and even after we dropped down, he didn't hurry or change course, just kept about his business and cruised on by. We again heard the incredible loud voices of the humpback whales and scanned the blue water for a sighting, but of course never saw one. This dive was as good as the previous one, with us finding the same assortment of marine life, but if possible, even MORE lionfish! Everywhere we looked there were lionfish, various cleaner shrimp, leaf scorpionfish, and we were treated to the appearance of a couple of mantis shrimp.

At the end of the day we were exhilerated at all the amazing creatures that our DM, Dave, found for us. There were a couple of photographers, including my husband, and he did an excellent job of moving the other divers in the group away from the critters to give the photographers time to get their shots. Dave always went at a perfect (slow) pace so that we could find, see and photograph everything possible, and his skill at finding tiny creatures was amazing. :) :)

We dove with Ed Robinson's the next day and although we didn't have the quantity of rare and amazing sightings that we did the day before, we still were treated to whale song, sharks, a close encounter with a Hawksbill turtle, and many, many creatures we had seen during the previous week...just not all on the same dive.

Since we own a timeshare at the Marriott Ocean Club on Kaanapali Beach, we will return to Maui again each year and look forward to many years of diving with Ed Robinson's.

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 51-100 dives
Where else diving Hawaii, Florida Keys, Bahamas, USVI, BVI, Belize
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm
Water Temp 74-77°F / 23-25°C Wetsuit Thickness 5
Water Visibility 50-200 Ft/ 15-61 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Be back on boat with 500psi
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas 1 or 2
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales >2
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 5 stars Large Fish 3 stars
Large Pelagics 3 stars

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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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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