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The
entire Kona Coast, a vast stretch from Kailua-Kona village in the north to
Ka Lae Point, the southernmost spot in the United States, is blessed with
a gentle lee that offers warm clear diving water & easy currents, huge
moray eels & Hawaiian sea turtles almost all year round. The hard
corals, lava tubes, caverns & underwater canyons along the Kona Coast
offer some of the best marine critter encounters in all of Hawaii.
One of many examples is the famous "Manta
Madness" dive, in less than 40 feet of water, just off the rocky
coast at the Kona Surf Hotel on South Alii Drive. Here, nearly any night
of the year you'll see big manta rays glide up to you, flapping around
your head & sweeping past like playful sea otters. This is one of the
world's best-known & best-loved manta ray dives, & a venerable
classic of Kona diving lore.
You could dive every day for three months (if
your PADI tables allowed!) & you wouldn't see half of the best dive
sites available on the western shores of Hawaii island alone. That's
because the Big Island offers infinite adventure, which is why some of our
clients return year after year to Kailua-Kona like devotees on an
emotionally recharging pilgrimage. In fact, the only thing that keeps us
from going back to Hawaii island every year is our blinking work schedule!
(By "blinking" we mean, of course: "blankety-blank.")
Eco-Adventures, one of our favorite dive
operations in Hawaii, has a sturdy 43-foot Delta Marine vessel, built in
Seattle, which offers ample deck space for divers to spread out, plus
inside & outside seating, a spacious diving platform, private head,
hot showers, a salon & a galley. This vessel is one of the two largest
& best-equipped dive boats on the Big Island today. Eco-Adventures
also owns the second one. These Eco-Adventures dive boats are just plain
hot rides to sweet visuals; & memorable dive vacations.
The
other vessel at Eco-Adventures, also dubbed "Oceanic," is even
bigger & more luxurious. It's 50 feet long, 16.5 feet wide with a
double hull, two decks, two heads, one hot shower, a galley & huge
salon space with lots of seating. Certified for 92 passengers, the
"Oceanic" will seldom host more than 18 divers, except for
special private groups. Powered by twin Cummins 260 HP Diesels, the vessel
cruises at 12 knots fully loaded. This second Eco-Adventures vessel will
offer a daily barbecue for 2-tank divers. It also has 4 exit gates to
avoid diver pile-ups.
Warren D'Aquin, one of four partners who own
Eco-Adventures, is one of few PADI Course Directors in the state of
Hawaii. Every instructor on his staff carries the well-earned title of
PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer; & four staffers are PADI Staff
Instructors. All Eco-Adventures dive trips have a professional underwater
videographer on board, to capture your adventure on a tape you can buy
right off the boat, after you dive. Yes, the Eco-Adventures videographer
has a fully-equipped studio right on board! Your Kona diving guides each
day will pamper you, rinsing & storing your gear, helping you don it,
helping you back into the vessel if you're lugging heavy camera gear.
Besides training most of the instructors on the Big Island, Warren of
Eco-Adventures is an ace U/W photographer; so he can give you some
excellent camera tips.
Complementing their daily 2-tank morning boat
dives, Eco-Adventures goes beyond services for dive vacations. Eco also
offers many fun side tours, from snorkeling trips, to sea kayaking, to
hiking & biking the mountains, to awesome Blue Water Excursions in
search of rare pelagics & marine mammals, to custom afternoon fishing
charters, to big-fun-on-big-water 3-tank barbecue charters. Beginning to
see why we like Eco-Adventures dive packages? And why the readers of
Rodale's Scuba Diving magazine -- the Bible of the Sport -- have voted
Eco-Adventures as the #1 Favorite Dive Operation in the greater Pacific
region, several times. When Rodale's readers say Kona diving rocks, be
sure that survey packs a truth wallop, compared to the ad-stoked pufferies
of many other diving rag-mags.
One of many factors our clients like about
Eco-Adventures dive packages is this: Warren, Mark, Mike & Amanda, the
partners, have instituted a dress code for their vessel workers, &
they forbid even a hint of the macho bluster that dive masters on some
Pacific islands toss around to badger novices. You'll feel that your
Eco-Adventures dive guide is firm on safety, but friendly & easy to
work with, no matter what level of scuba skill you have. These guides have
about 70 regular dive sites pegged, & every month they explore new
ones for your future enjoyment! No ho-hum dive vacations on Planet Kona,
amigos. Hawaii diving is something we will probably never get out of our
blood; it's addicting in every healthy sense of the word.
Mayor Dive sites on the Big Island
- "OTEC":
(North of Honokohau Harbor at 4.5 miles, 19 min.)
Depth of Dive: 30-60 feet
Skill Level: beginner through expert
Terrain: cauliflower and antler coral, old lava flows provide many
holes to investigate
Marine Life: oval and teardrop butterfly, scorpion fish, eagle rays,
and eels
Common to This Area: Be on the lookout for "Hoover," a
large, mustache conger eel. Pods of spinner dolphins often swim
through the area both over the deep ledge and the shallower coral
reef.
Type of Photography Recommended: macro and video
Things To Be Considered: Currents can occasionally come up without
notice, so stay alert. Good buoyancy control is a must at this dive
site due to the presence of the lush coral growth.
- Garden
Eel Cove (north of Honokohau Harbor at 4.9 miles, 20 min.)
Depth of Dive: 30-60 feet
Skill Level: beginner through expert
Terrain: black sand, coral and lava boulders
Marine Life: spinner dolphins, garden eels, Hawaiian turkey fish,
teardrop butterfly, nudibranchs, octopus and manta rays
Common to This Area: large colony of garden eels in only 50 feet of
water
Type of Photography Recommended: macro
Things To Be Considered: This is a rare opportunity to see garden
eels at such a shallow depth, located in a protected cove. The water
is usually calm and safe for all divers.
- High
Rock: (North of Honokohau Harbor at 2.8 miles, 15 min.)
Depth of Dive: 20-60 feet Skill Level: beginner through expert
Terrain: lava pinnacles and arches
Marine Life: Heller's barracuda, pyramid butterfly, pennant banded
coral shrimp, octopus and turtles
Common to This Area: Wide old lava flow with many pinnacles and
archways to be explored. Main pinnacle comes to within 10 feet of
the surface.
Type of Photography Recommended: wide angle
Things To Be Considered: At times this area can experience 1/4 to
3/4 knot currents. Be careful along the drop off. It's easy to go
too deep!
- Golden
Arches: (north of Honokohau Harbor at 2.7 miles, 10 min.)
Depth of Dive: 30-50 feet
Skill Level: beginner through expert
Terrain: White sand, old lava flows and coral formations
Marine Life: millet seed, tear drop, four spot & ornate
butterflies, potters angels & blue line snapper
Common to This Area: archways and bridges formed of old lava flows
Type of Photography Recommended: normal lens to photograph lava
formations; macro opportunities to photograph coral dwellers.
Things To Be Considered: This is a very open dive site, suitable to
all certification levels. On the south side of the main archway is a
beautiful stag horn coral formation which is great for a
portrait/modeled photograph.
- Pine
Trees Point: (north of Honokohau Harbor at 2 miles, 8 min.)
Depth of Dive: 15-60 feet
Skill Level: beginner through expert
Terrain: steep drop off to swim over, arches, lava tubes
Marine Life: trumpets, coronets and four spots and millet seed
butterflies, sergeant majors, eels and a large school of silver
flag-tails
Common to This Area: pelagic swim by, drop-offs, rich coral beds and
tubes to explore
Type of Photography Recommended: wide angle and video
Things To Be Considered: Moderate currents and surge may be present.
- Suck-Em-Up
Cavern (north of Honokohau Harbor at 1.7 miles, 8 min.)
Depth of dive: 30-60 feet
Skill Level: beginner through expert
Terrain: lava tubes, old lava flows and coral growths
Marine Life: Moorish idols, thread fin butterflies, trumpets, parrot
fish, puffers, eels & slipper lobsters
Common to This Area: long lava tube is 100 feet long with fantastic
skylights, lots of different types of marine life inside, shells and
large puffer fish
Type of Photography Recommended: wide angle with strobe and/or macro
Things To Be Considered: The general dive includes Skull Cavern as
an added bonus. These formations are perfect for the first time lava
tubers. However, it is recommended that all novice divers be
accompanied by the Dive Master Guides when exploring the tubes (not
a place to dive during high south or west surf conditions).
- Lone
Tree Arch: (north of Honokohau Harbor at 1.7 miles, 8 min.)
Depth of dive: 20-60 feet
Skill Level: beginner through expert
Terrain: old lava flows, coral heads, sand chutes, rubble, and large
archway
Marine Life: octopi, raccoon butterflies, yellow tangs, puffers,
orange cup corals and coral shrimps
Common to This Area: frog fish, schools of yellow tangs, and great
cleaning stations in and about the rubble
Type of Photography Recommended: macro w/strobe in archway, wide
angle and normal lens
Things To Be Considered: Surge moderate close to shore, (watch your
depth, and enjoy a fantastic sight over the sand chutes).
- Turtle
Pinnacle: (north of Honokohau Harbor at a half mile, 5 min.)
Depth of Dive: 20-60 feet
Skill Level: beginner through expert
Terrain: smooth bottom with rock formations, white sand patches,
coral heads and coral covering the old lava flow.
Marine Life: green sea turtles, wrasses, parrot fish, scorpion fish,
eels and octopus
Common to This Area: green sea turtles are everywhere, especially on
the pinnacle. This is where the close encounters with one of the
gentlest creatures on earth occurs, also one of the best cleaning
stations on the Kona Coast, fish cleaning the shell of the turtles.
Type of Photography Recommended: wide angle and video
Things To Be Considered: The green sea turtles are an endangered
species, protected by federal law. Please do not touch or harass the
animals.
- Eel
Cove: (south of Honokohau Harbor at 1 mile, 8 min.)
Depth of dive: 30-60 feet
Skill Level: beginner through expert
terrain: green coral reef, sand bottom at 60 feet, rocky near shore
line
Marine Life: Eels (yellow margin, white mouth, zebra and dragon
moray). Spanish Dancer egg casings, pennant butterfly fish and an
occasional dolphin.
Common to This Area: eels
Type of Photography Recommended: normal lens and close up
Things To Be Considered: please do not touch the Spanish Dancer egg
casings (sea rose in color, very fragile) and do not tease the eels.
- Fish
Rock: (a.k.a: Ka'iwi Point north of Kailua Pier at 1.8 miles,15
min.)
Depth of dive: 15-60 feet
Skill Level : all
Terrain: variety of corals, old lava flow beds, lava tube,
pinnacles, arches, wall and rubble
Marine Life: flame angels, eel wrasse, reef sharks, manta rays and
an occasional whale shark.
Common to This Area: All types of butterfly fish. Flames, potters
and bandit angle fish, squirrel, triggers, parrots and puffers, etc.
Things To Be Considered: Do not venture too far north and/or west of
this point, as strong currents are not uncommon. Area is marine a
sanctuary: "Look but don't take."
- Casa
Caves: (south of Kailua Pier at 1.5 miles, 10 min.)
Depth of Dive: 15-60
Skill Level: intermediate to advanced
Terrain: lava tubes, lush finger coral, outcropping of pillacles,
staggered 20 to 30 feet apart, sand, and rubble.
Marine Life: white tip sharks, frog fish, soft corals in lava tube.
Invertebrates, eels, octopus, hard corals.
Common to This Area: White tip sharks sleep in lava tube on a
regular basis. Frog fish at base of mooring, octopus, lots of
squirrel fish in lava tube, parrot fish and puffer.
Type of Photography Recommended: macro, wide angle and video
Things To Be Considered: Skill Level is rated as advanced. It is
emphasized, this is a full dive, as there is a lot of ground to
cover.
- Manta
Ray Madness: (north of Honokohau Harbor at 4.9 miles, 20 min.)
Depth of Dive: 20-40
Skill Level: beginner through expert
Terrain: rounded boulders with occasional coral heads
Marine Life: garden eels, squirrel fish, goat fish, invertebrates,
sleeping butterfly fish, moray eels and most of all MANTA RAYS.
Common to this area: Some of our customers have described their
Manta dive experience as something right out of the movie,
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind." But this close
encounter takes place in inner space and the flying saucers are
alive. KCD is the only dive facility that provides over 500 watts of
underwater lights placed on the bottom to attract plankton for the
Manta Rays to feed on. We can boast a 90% Manta sighting encounters.
Type of Photography Recommended: wide angle and video
Things To Be Considered: This dive has been rated as one of the top
10 in the world. See "National Geographic" December 1995.
ALFRED'S MANTA RAY:
"HAHALUA" (Manta Alfredi) a.k.a. Prince Alfred's Manta
Ray. This Ray is a large species and quite closely resembles the
other Manta Rays, with widened pectoral fins and the two horn-like
cephalic fins projecting forward from the head on each side of the
mouth and whip-like tail (no spine on tail). Its color is slate gray
or black on the top side, and the lower surface has irregular
black-gray markings and spots. These groups of markings make it easy
to identify each individual. As in the photo above, the cephalic
fins unfurl in the feeding mode. This Ray will often reach a width
of at least twelve feet. In the photo below, the horn-like cephalic
fins are projecting forward and furl up like a cork screw for high
speed flight. They are named for Prince Alfred Ernest (1844-1900),
the forth child of Queen Victoria of Great Britain. The name
"Hahalua" is Hawaiian for Manta Ray.
MANTA RAY MADNESS: A lone manta ray,
with a wing span of 12 feet, found his way into a small bay between
OTEC (the ocean technology and research center) and the Kona
Airport. Perhaps due to the ambient light coming from both these
places, he came into contact with millions, tens of millions, of
swarming plankton (thumbnail-sized larval fish, octopus, lobsters,
and microscopic mysids, shrimp-like animals). It was so incredible!
He was surprised and amazed to find all that food in one small area.
As he made one of his loops into that glow of light collecting
plankton, he relished in this new-found underwater supermarket. Loop
after loop, he gathered his meal of plankton. This was too easy; he
was full in about an hour. It would have taken a full day to collect
that plankton by swimming the whole Kona Coast. "Got to tell my
friends about this," he thought, and that's how the word got
out. Today he and his friends gather almost every sunset to feast on
the tiny snacks which gather at this one spot on the Kona Coast
- Long
Lava Tube: (south of Kailua Pier at 9.7 miles, 30 min.)
Depth of dive: 25-45 feet
Skill Level: intermediate through expert
Terrain: old lava flows, lava tubes, finger and hard coral formation
Marine Life: small schools of a variety of tropicals, wrasse,
snapper, butterfly and angel fish. Lava tube life: cowries, crabs,
pipefish, coral shrimp and a few lobsters
Common To This Area: The longest lava tubes on the Kona Coast- 120
feet long with beautiful shafts of light coming through the ceiling
openings.
Type of Photography Recommended: normal lens, wide angle and strobe
for inside of the lava tubes, also macro if you have time.
Things To Be Considered: Bring a dive flash light to see the many
creatures and lava formations inside of the tubes. Moderate surge
may be present during some parts of the year.
- Amphitheatre:
(south of Kailua Pier at 9.8 miles, 30 min.)
Depth of dive: 35 feet
Skill Level: intermediate to expert
Terrain: old lava flows covered with coral
Marine Life: a variety of small reef dwellers
Common To This Area: large lava cavern
Type of Photography Recommended: wide angle and normal
Things To Be Considered: Divers must be able to make a moderate
underwater swim to enjoy this dive. Not a diveable spot when the
surf is up and coming from the west.
As of this date there are about 200 Hawaiian
endemic fish known. On our dives you can count on seeing about 75 percent
of them and if that is not good enough, there are at least another 420
non-endemic species around our Kona Coast reefs For
more general information
on Hawaï, go to: |
