Any Scuba divers out there?

[AngryAndy]

Hello Hawaii.........

I need to plan a vacation in the future....and it MUST be scuba-based in nature....All my vacation time in the last two years has been 4-wheeling....

So my next vacation will be either Hawaii, or Mexico. I have a timeshare in Cancun; and speak pretty fluent Spanish. So Cancun/Cozumel is pretty high on my list...but I have been there 3 times already, and done most all there is to do there. I dont mind RE-doing it again, but would rather experience something new.

When I got married, my EX-wire and I honeymooned in Kauai. Awesome time, but it was about 4 months after Hurricane Andrew (what a coincidence....it should have been Hurricane Angry...)........so shit was still tore up on the island. We still had a good time though, and the diving there was very good.

Anyway...if there ARE any divers out there, WHERE should I go IF I did come to the islands???? Which island??? We picked Kauai because we read that was the best diving spot out of all the islands...

I wanna steer towards HI because flying from California will be a lot less expensive then flying from CA to Cancun.

And then where do I stay???? I might be able to swap some timeshare time, but not sure yet.....

I would need at least a week over there, cause when diving, you lose a day on both sides...so a 7 day trip only gives me 5 days of diving....and I'm not sure I wanna dive EVERYDAY....

Thanks for any and all info....

[ONEWAY]

Was your first trip in '93? That was actually hurricane iniki :D. Anyways, I'm not a scuba diver, but I can say that while Oahu is nice, The other Islands like Kauai, Maui, and the Big Island, also have beautiful beaches. From my experience, there are also a lot more fish to see on those islands because the islands are less populated (Maui is gettin there). I am not sure, however, about the scuba tours. As far as where to stay and depending on when you come, on Oahu, there are decent affordable hotels in Waikiki, not sure about the other islands. Sorry I couldn't be more help :(.

[HawaiiBuilt]

Oahu would be my first choice but only because there's a lot of things you can do when you're not in the water. But as far as the diving goes, if you want more fish, you need to go Molokai or Maui. Molokai is not soo much of a tourist attraction island. Most people who fly there, are going to either fish/dive/hunt. Dont get me wrong, Oahu does have fish but there are soo many divers now days, its unreal. Being that you scuba, of course you'll see fish in deeper waters. I'm a freediver/spearfishing but a coworker of mines has a buddy who runs a scuba tour here on Oahu. I never did dive on Kauai so I cant give my opinions. Depending on what time of the year you'll be coming, will determine what spots on the island you'll go due to waves. Winter = North swell...Summer = South swell.

[reefah]

maui has some nice spots. i dont think any other place can compete with molokini regarding water clarity. the fish density is ok, but loaded with tourist. my suggestion would be to do a drift on the back wall. some REALLY big stuff do cruise by. oh, and there was that little great white picture thing taken over there.... lol! if you prefer shore dives, there are a bunch of caves at 5 graves. white tips and turtles always in the area. bubble cave, etc.

hawaiianbuilt, i freedive over here on maui. what spots on oahu do you usually hit?