Hawaii

pattimegdiver

I will be taking my honey to the Hawaiian Islands for a belated birthday present. Need to know about what islands have rebreather facilities. I have read about how great Kona is, but would like to know if anyone has been to any of the other islands.
Ron and I like walls and wrecks, I just finished my normoxic trimix class so now I would like to explore more territory.

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Patti Meg Diver


Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk

trob09

A couple of years ago I spent a week on Kona and a week on Kauai. I started my research about 6 months before the trip.

Konaquatica on Kona is rumored to have full-service facilities for rebreathers. They weren't yet in business when I went. I dove with jack's in Kona, they provided a fine cattle-boat, BOW style service. That's not a criticism, it's just that "technical diving" in any form was basically unavailable. I had signed up for one of Jack's "advanced" trips with depths "up to 130 feet", but that was cancelled as I was the only one who signed up. I had heard that Dive Tek Adventures would provide technical dive services, but they never returned any of the phone calls or emails that I sent to them.

On Kauai you'll have a hard enough time finding Nitrox, let alone sorb and O2, although Fathom Five divers was talking about having Dolphins for use. I don't know what happened with that.

In the end, I did a bunch of single-tank OC dives and wasn't all that impressed with the diving. I hope you have better luck than I did.

t

onetime

Went to Kauai in October of last year for my honeymoon and tried to find out info at the last minute on sorb and O2. Unfortunately George @ Fathom Five was away when I tried contacting them and I was told that he was the only one that knew about the Rebreather side of things. So I decided not to lug the RB and went OC while there.

When I got back I found an email from him that said they do in fact have sorb and O2. They could only pump to 2400psi for O2 but were expecting to get a booster the first of this year.

He was definitely interested in getting into the tech arena and apologetic that they didn't have better offerings.

Give him a shout at george@fathomfive.com to arrange things.

Kauai is beautiful. Haven't been to any other islands but I'd wager that one might, at best, be equal to it no way better.

Since my visit they had a major flood which wiped out the road that leads to the northern area of the island. Not sure if it's fixed yet but you might want to find it out.

If you go, do the helicopter tour it's well worth it.

--Paul

Edmund

Oahu doesn't have much support for rebreather divers. Last I've heard, most rebreather divers take care of themselves. I buy my sorb through the mail and fill O2 out of my apartment. I've heard Kona has a shop that can help you out.

caveseeker7

Patti, try gkndivebum, he and his wife live in HI, Kona I belive, and both dive CCRs. They should be able to point you in the right direction. You can also find him under that name on Yahoo ! Messenger, his wife is 'drvicky99'.

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Stefan



"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority,
and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media,
which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.!"

sddiverrob

I just got back from Kona and took my YBOD with me. I brought sorb with me, but got tanks, and O2 from Konaquatica. Did some shore diving then went on 2 of their charters. Jim has a great fill station, tanks and sorb. My wife dives OC and had a great time as well. I was supposed to go out on a "technical" charter but the other group flaked so it didn't go, but Jim can set you up with everything for trimix Rebreather diving including a charter. Send him an email at dive@konaquatica.com , he might have some suggestions for Rebreather facilities on other islands. If you end up in Kona make sure you do the Manta dive, it was awesome.

Rob

(I am in no way associated or compensated with Konaquatica, just a very happy customer)

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"Tech divers are the same all over the world..."

pattimegdiver

thanks for all the info

__________________
Patti Meg Diver


Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk

hoppyinca

B&B Scuba on Maui.

Brad and Blesi, GREAT,... BEST people. Always an early boat! If you want out of the way places/ dives you should contact them early…

http://www.bbscuba.com/

Can not say enough good things about B&B…

Hoppyintx

UWSojourner

Hi Patti,

Was on Maui in January. B&B was not useful, at all. I ended up getting O2 fills from a resident of Maui who owned a YBOD. I couldn't find helium anywhere. But, very nice of her to fill the O2.

FWIW, my favorite island is the Big Island. Hope you guys have a great time.

teksimple

I am happy to accomodate any rebreather diver who comes to Kauai. I have a metric f*ckton of sorb, and what sorb I don't have, George at Fathom Five does. I have a booster, helium, and oxygen, and can do fills of anything to 3200 PSI.

Since I am the only one on the island who does either closed circuit or trimix, I dive solo from my modified Waverunner. Fathom Five promised to accomodate closed circuit divers on regular charters as soon as I write a standards outline, which I am working on. Probably only recreational depths with the exception of say, Deep Pinnacle, which is a black coral encrusted seamount at 180'. That would require a custom charter, which is very reasonable.

For now the deep walls off of Kauai, Niihau and Lehua are all mine!

Definitely more technical oriented charters at Konaquatica or B&B Scuba.