Hawaii - Lava Tubes

[dannygoesdiving]

Hi there,

Has anyone any experience of diving lava tubes in Hawaii ?

I am looking for advice on dive centres/individuals to arrange the diving through and any recommendations of particular dive sites.

Hope you can help

Danny

[FOX]

Have you spoke to Scott our boat skipper, he grew up in Hawaii, Liz may know a bit too!

Ian

[dannygoesdiving]

Don't worry I will be picking their brains (!) aswell - but the more info the better.

Mini Golf on Sunday ?

Danny

[J.D.]

I dived in Hawaii a few years ago, but I didn't do this site - which Island are they off?

I'd recommend Maui Dive Shop in Kihei, Lahaina, Ma'alaea and a few other places on Maui (theyve got a great day boat that goes from Ma'alaea), or Kona Coast Divers on the Big Island.

I dived Molokai, a submerged volcanic cone off Maui, and a few reefs off the Big Island including a turtle cleaning station, which were all great dives. I also planned to dive Lanai with Maui Dive Shop, which has some lava formations/arches etc but that was canned due to bad weather. It looked like a great dive too so may be worth some more research

Hope that helps,
James

[Sparky]

When I was out on Oahu I did some diving with a british guy called Alex who runs AAA diving he was very good. Hawaii Scuba Diving with AAA Diving Hawaii

I haven't dived the lava tubes but there are a couple of dives on the south side of Oahu that I liked one is the corsair fighter plane and the other was a sea cave.

[Quero]

I've dived several lava tubes in Hawaii recently.
On the Big Isle (Hawaii proper) is where there is the largest number as this is the newest island. You can dive one called Long Lava Tube on the Kona side--it's about 100 feet long, not deep, and okay for recreational divers. There are several shorter ones, too, mainly just swim throughs, but this is the best known of the extensive ones. Suck-Em-Up is another long tube, about 65 feet in extent, but this one has skylights that cause some washing-machine effects with the surge. Quite a ride! It's near a site known as Pinetrees (though there aren't any pines there that I know of).

I also dived the 'Cathedrals' at Lanai island, departing from Maui. This isn't really a lava tube dive, but the cathedral rooms are actually intersections of lava tubes where they form a kind of chamber.

I would personally stay away from the big ops on the Kona coast of Hawaii. They take so many different levels of divers on one boat that they won't generally go to the advanced sites. Instead, find smaller ops and negotiate the dive sites you want to visit. I had a great trip with Capt. Mike, the owner of Pirate Charters and plan to go out with him again on my next trip to the Big Isle (to visit my son who lives there).

On Maui, I've been out with several ops. My favorites are B&B and most especially Ed Robinson's.