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Ron
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Ka’anapali Beach, Maui

Thu Dec 07, 2017 6:42 pm

The wife and I managed to finagle in a boondoggle before Christmas to Maui. We managed to get in dives at Ka'anapali Beach, and Mala Wharf. Both of them were shore dives with tons to see, and a max depth of 40 feet. The water was 78, which is literally 30 degrees warmer than my last dive at home.
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I used the Argonaut Kraken with just an SPG, a rental 80, and a Kam-EZ pack from USD. Cressi mask and fins, a USD knife, and a USD weight belt rounded everything out. Anna used a USD NAVCON VI, a VDH SPG, a VDH weight belt, and a USD Mariner pack. She wore original Espadaon Jet fins. There is nothing like diving in shorts with no exposure protection and no BCD. We were cruising.

BTW, Herman made a set of threaded adapters so I could use my Kam EZ pack with aluminum 80s when I flew somewhere to dive, and it works really well that way. If you need a set I’m sure you could bribe Herman into some. The original Kam EZ pack only works with steel 72s the way it came. Allan makes a travel harness that is great as well. Perhaps we could convince him to make a Kraken red one.
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The above two shots are of Mala Wharf, which is a fantastic dive site on Maui full of white tip reef sharks and sea turtles.
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Also, as is requisite for such things, log books were done with Old Lahaina, which is the locally made rum. It's quite good with some coke and a couple of ice cubes.

We ran into a gentlemen who retired from the Marine Corps and his wife, and I was in a rush so I don't recall his name. He and his wife were both super nice though. Hopefully he is a forum member, because he was pretty excited to see an original series one kraken. If you read this, it was a pleasure to meet both of you.

As usual, the Kraken proved its world class adaptability. I took my drysuit hose, BCD hose, octo, etc off of it, threw it in a suitcase, and beach dived the snot out of it with only an SPG. A far as doublehoses go, it's the most configurable regulator ever made in my opinion. Last week it was diving icy cold water with a drysuit, and this week it's beach diving in Maui with no redundancy other than your own skill.

Now we have to go back to Seattle...where it is 38 degrees. I think I'm going to need more rum.
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Bryan
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Re: Ka’anapali Beach, Maui

Thu Dec 07, 2017 8:39 pm

Hawaii is awesome except for the price of everything!
Did you take any underwater pictures?

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Ron
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Re: Ka’anapali Beach, Maui

Thu Dec 07, 2017 9:07 pm

Apparently my little underwater camera has a depth rating...which I exceeded at Lake Crescent when I took it to 150 feet.

Flashlights and gopros I break like a champ.

Funny that you mention prices. I just bought some Kona coffee at 26 dollars per pound. I think drugs are cheaper than Kona Coffee now.
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SurfLung
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Re: Ka’anapali Beach, Maui

Tue Dec 12, 2017 12:46 pm

- Hey, it's great to see Ka'anapali Beach mentioned here. My wife and I dove there a few years ago directly in front of the Whaler and Ka'anapali Beach Hotel. We're going back this year to the same place and I've been saving up my money for the expected high cost of fun. This year I've been looking into bringing my Twin 38s and spending 10 days of diving the way I want to, with the equipment I want to dive with, right in front of the hotel. Our end of the beach is bracketed on the right by Black Rock point. You can swim, snorkel, and scuba out 200 yards from the beach and its only 20-25 feet deep. Sometimes whales come as close as 200 yards... I never encountered them diving though. Here's a video I made with the help of a nephew as cameraman. The video shows me diving my Phoenix on the broken off keel from a sailboat.

- There are two dive trips I'd like to plan when I get there. The Hula Girl catamaran yacht has a midday snorkel/scuba trip for about $150 each. They take you up the shore past Napili to a cove where Sea Turtles have cleaning stations. The trip includes cooked-to-order gourmet food in the "salon", scuba and snorkel gear, and a dive guide. This is pretty easy diving and fun for beginners as well as me... A large part of it is 6 hours of a luxury yacht cruising... Fun for both of us. :)
- The second trip I'd like is one of two. There's a big red inflatable with huge outboards that takes a snorkel trip around the island of Lana'i. It can be bad if the waves are rough. But I'd heard of excellent free diving sites and even dolphins swimming within touching distance at the bow. If THAT trip can't be made, I'd like to do something with one of the dive boats like a wall dive or wreck dive.
- Trips get pricey though. Diving right off the beach is cheap, easy, and unlimited.
- Gotta get me some of that LaHaina Rum... I've got 2.5 months to get psyched up for Ka'anapali!
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The Freedom and Simplicity of Vintage Equipment and
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Re: Ka’anapali Beach, Maui

Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:31 pm

Eben, we stayed at the Marriott Ocean Club right there at Ka'anapali. What a fantastic place. The little Tiki Bar down the beach walk had the best Mai Tais too, and they were made the old way with lime juice. Once we see Lanai, we're going back to Ka'anapali for sure.
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ScubaLawyer
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Re: Ka’anapali Beach, Maui

Tue Dec 12, 2017 10:28 pm

SurfLung wrote:This year I've been looking into bringing my Twin 38s and spending 10 days of diving the way I want to, with the equipment I want to dive with, right in front of the hotel.
Hi Eben, i'd be really interested in how you get your 38s to and from Maui. Airline transport of tanks can be very expensive. Also, would you just rent tanks and fill your 38s with a whip or is there a local dive shop that would accommodate your vintage fill needs? Mark
"The diver who collects specimens of underwater life has fun and becomes a keen underwater observer. .. seek slow-moving or attached organisms such as corals, starfish, or shelled creatures." (Golden Guide to Scuba Diving, 1968) :D

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SurfLung
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Re: Ka’anapali Beach, Maui

Mon Dec 18, 2017 11:04 am

- I haven't looked into getting the tanks down there yet. They're about 40-45 lbs and if I could secure them in a suitcase with the valve open, it might be as easy as an extra $25 luggage fee. Otherwise, I'll have to risk shipping them to the hotel and hope they don't get lost or returned by confused desk clerks.
- Yes, my plan is to fill them by Cascade from rental tanks.
- The more I think about it, the less of a good idea it seems like. I can be bringing along any diving equipment I want and dive right from the beach. Having to use rental tanks isn't all that big of a compromise. I rented single 63 cf tanks on the last trip and they were pretty similar in weight and buoyancy.

Ron, what did you do for tank rentals. I called all the beach hotel dive services and they only sell $150 guided dives. I rented from Maui Dive Shop in the past but I have to drive into LaHaina to rent one tank at a time. A few years back I rented 5 tanks when I arrived and just used them up during the week. But now they don't let you hang onto the tanks without a daily charge. I haven't checked the other dive shops.
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Re: Ka’anapali Beach, Maui

Mon Dec 18, 2017 8:59 pm

I rented tanks from Maui Dive Shop. They were super helpful. They rented me hard lead weights, a float, and either AL80s or AL63s. They are only 4 miles away from the Marriott Ocean Club so the wife and I just went each morning, grabbed a coffee, and changed out tanks. They were super nice to me. They are a diver's dive shop for sure. I think I got away for like 50-75 bucks for the whole week of diving for Anna and I, which was great.

I would do Marriott Reef for a shakedown, then Black Rock, Airport Beach, and Mala Wharf. All within 3 miles and all great dives. I love that place. The Tiki Bar right up the beach walk has great Mai Tais too if you like a recipe with lime juice in it. 8)

Water was 78 when we went, so we just went in swim suits. I had to wear a lot of sunblock because I look like a damn vampire from living in Seattle.
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Re: Ka’anapali Beach, Maui

Mon Mar 26, 2018 11:06 am

Eb's Ka'anapali 2018 Report -
- Well, Jill and I brought all of our dive gear along but I only ended up using it for one beach dive and we both just rented gear for a second dive from a catamaran cruise. The surf on our beach was running high enough for the locals to actually ride surfboards in front of our hotel. I found the new location for the Maui Dive shop up in Kahana and rented a tank. I got all suited up and got into the water without getting bashed by the waves. The bottom was moving back and forth with the surf/surge and the visibility wasn't the best. But that wasn't the worst of it. I started getting sea sick if you can believe it. All of the back and forth and up and down. Anyway, it wasn't much fun so a came in after about 20 minutes. This was diving with my Argonaut Kraken. It worked great of course. I took it apart when I got home and rinsed all the parts with fresh water.
- There was one day when the surf was tame enough for the catamarans to pick up passengers so we went on the Hula Girl for a luxury 6 hour snorkel/scuba cruise. We used the on-board equipment and had a very nice dive of about 50 minutes. The dive master took this picture of us...
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- The big attraction of the Hula Girl is the luxury sailing experience. They wait on you hand and foot and let you order fancy treats and meals cooked up in the gourmet galley. The galley is the size of a mobile home and takes up the entire starboard hull. The port hull houses the bathrooms (head) and crew quarters. The salon and bar is between the two hulls and is all teak wood. Then there is an upper deck where the captain drives the boat and approximately 10 guests can sit at tables to eat and drink. Everything is alacarte... cooked/made/arranged to order. So I had two cruises, two scuba dives, two morning sweet rolls with coffee, two gourmet lunches, two cheese cakes, two T-Shirts, MORE than two fancy tropical drinks, etc... A VERY expensive day but lots of fun. :)
HulaGirl2.jpg
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Re: Ka’anapali Beach, Maui

Wed Feb 08, 2023 3:00 pm

Reviving an old thread here I remember reading years ago. I'm heading to Maui next month and thought I'd look into diving again, the last time I was there was back in '05. Since then, boy have things changed. There seems to be 10x more snorkle tour boats, the dive flag rules are ambiguous reading what constitutes "freediving" vs "snorkeling" (I even talked with the department that oversees that "rule" and STILL couldn't get a 'yes' or 'no' on whether I have to tow a flag to snorkel along the coves) and the dive boat fees have QUADRUPELD for 2 dive sessions. One outfit is charging $400 for 2 dives on Lanai, that's NOT a typo. I understand the covid thing really messed the industry up and the boats are doing half loads (some) but man did I get sticker shock when I started calling different shops about getting on a boat. Shore diving still seems reasonable with tank rental between $7-$10/day and weights @$5 out of Lahiana (I used Lahiana Divers back in '05). The last time I was there shore diving was all I did but this time I'm staying the NW of the island in Kapalua and won't have a car so might just stick with what I would call "freediving" but could pass as "snorkeling" in the 3 coves up there. Ron, the Dive Maui outfit no longer has shops where you rented your stuff apparently and seems to only book charter stuff now on boats for snorkeling, diving and dinner cruises (?), they did say there's an outfit called Maui Snorkel and Dive or something rather up around where you stayed. From the phone work I've done so far it seems the $$$ gravey boat is in booking the snorkle boat tours and cattle dive boat stops at Molokini, I saw more on a shore dive in Makeana than I'd dsee on those. I would like to do the Lanai cathedrals but I'm not paying $300-$400 to dive in lava tubes, I can do that off the shore.

So there it is, prices have gone way up, quality of dives offered seems geared to the Cruise Boat crowd, and shore diving still seems to be the "locals way to dive" on the island.

Mahalo for the post Ron, it helped me look for options.

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SurfLung
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Re: Ka’anapali Beach, Maui

Tue Mar 28, 2023 4:46 pm

I just returned from Maui and for those interested I'll give my impressions...

First time I went there was 2013. I went directly to Maui Dive Shop and rented 5 scuba tanks to use out front of our Whaler apartment on Kaanapali beach. I used those tanks all week and had a great, simple and cheap diving experience.

The next time I went, Maui Dive Shop wanted 5 days rent for each of 5 tanks OR I had to drive over and rent a fresh one every day... So the convenience was gone. I ended up only diving out front a couple of times and once from the Hula Girl snorkel cruise yacht.

Next time I did Scuba on the Hula Girl Snorkel cruise and they took us to Honolua bay... I saw two seals underwater plus turtles and fish and coral. I also tried the Maui Divers cruise to Molokini... Molokini was so over used... mostly dead coral.

The shore diving off Kaanapali beach was without a dive flag originally. But when the Cruise Catamarans are picking up and letting off guests on the beach they have to worry alot about swimmers and snorkelers... who seem oblivious and will swim right in the path of these big boats that are trying to deal with crashing waves at the same time. It seems like there are more and more people and catamarans at Kaanapali. I think if I dove there again I would tow a flag voluntarily.

This time I wanted to make a point of doing a REAL dive trip so I booked a 2 tank dive to the Carthaginian wreck with Lahaina divers. This was a few weeks before the trip. I practiced using a BCD setup with my Kracken in the local pool, got my weights all set up and packed everything in a 50 pound dive bag. Getting closer to the trip I saw they rented a regulator, BCD, and weights for only $23 plus the $239 dive trip price. So I decided to leave my gear home. Once in Maui, I got an email with an 8 page waiver document I was supposed to sign about 36 times that really put me off. Then the dive got cancelled anyway due to weather wind and wave conditions. I had two Hula Girl cruises that also got cancelled but I finally DID get to take the Hula Girl snorkel trip and they let me Scuba dive. And THAT, my friends, was a heck of a lot of fun. They took us to the Lahaina pier... Which is actually an old collapsed pier. I saw so many turtles I lost count... best estimate was 60. I saw two sharks. The divemaster said they were not nurse sharks but they were reef sharks with black tips... I saw schools of fish. In short, I once again had a great time on the Hula Girl sailing yacht.

So, it's no where near as convenient to shore dive as it was for me that first year. Maybe I'm getting too old to put up with the bother... :oops:
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Re: Ka’anapali Beach, Maui

Wed Mar 29, 2023 2:32 am

My wife and I were in Kapalua a few weeks ago and I was fairly disappointed. It was an ok trip, we didn't have to pay for any of it so I'm not out any gold over it. It was essentially like being back home in San Diego, although the water was a bit warmer for this time of year at DT Fleming beach than it is at the La Jolla Cove. I wouldn't do it again, there are better south pacific islands to visit if you are willing to fly a bit longer and looking for good winter WARM diving while avoiding the instaf8kgram family spring-break vacation crowd Maui seems to attack. It also feels too mainland for my taste now (thank you Oprah, Zuckerburg and Bezos). The weather was iffy (winter in Hawaii is always a crap shoot, especially on a La Nina winter) so I left my dive gear at home, glad I did because we essentially had 1 maybe 2 days when the weather and water was nice enough to actually be in it. We stayed up in Kapalua and unless you golf and have a trust-fund burning a hole in your pocket (I don't golf) I'd stay away from that area for lodging, it's pretty isolated from all the good stuff as far as diving, good local food (not even a L&L up there) etc. I'd stay in the south part of the island if you want a better Hawaiian experience rather than the Haole Golf Hospitality Kapalua offers; the Mākena area is a better choice for solid shore diving I'd say. One highlight of the trip however was the zipline we did in Kapalua on the old pineapple farm above the resort we stayed at, that was really fun. Unfortunately this trip was not the local's Hawaii experience I was hoping for, but it was incentive business travel to a "T" and it was paid for by my wife's employer because she's awesome at her job so I can't be too bitchy about it. Next year it will be Saint Kitts and Nevis...

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