Big Island Divers — Attraction in Hawaii

Cannot say enough good things about my experience with Big Island Divers. My fiance, his brother, and I did the twilight two-tank manta & reef dive and it was the best diving experience I've ever had. 11/10 would recommend. Would 1000% do this again.

Dive Shop -- Loved the dive shop! Good mix of proper dive gear and dive-adjacent accessories (reusable water bottles, stickers, local art, jewelry, clothing etc). -- Everyone was friendly, knowledgeable, and professional. They sized us early for our gear for the dive and even when they didn't have a loaner size in stock at the store, they assured us it would be there of us on the boat (e.g. I tried on a medium wetsuit and it was a smidge big and they knew a small would fit better and ensured there was one on the boat for me).

The Dive Itself -- Very friendly and warm, and very clear communication and expectation-setting from our divemaster Fernando from the moment we met at the launch ramp. He explained what was going to happen, what we were going to do, what to expect for the trip overall, when he would provide safety/dive briefings, and ensured we all understood before moving forward. Honestly, it's a real skill to keep people informed and on target, moving forward, while also remaining incredibly warm and making people feel cared for and low stress. -- Answered questions on board, provided a clear, focused pre-dive briefing on the plan, what we would be likely to see, what hand signals or other actions he would take under water and what they meant, what we would be doing, what unusual endemic species we might see, and what stops we would be making. Unlike some other dives where this happens while people are getting ready, he bracketed specific time for this so we wouldn't rush past this important information. Answered any questions about the dive, and ensured everyone was comfortable before we suited up and jumped in. -- Worth noting here our dive group was small! There were only 5 of us plus the dive master and the captain, who assisted with the gear and getting into/out of the water. This small group made it especially intimate and focused, and not like some tour operators who are balancing much larger groups of divers and multiple leads giving multiple directions at once. -- Fernando also wore specific unique gear underwater so we could easily identify him if there were other divers around. -- The reef dive before was really interesting and helped all of us get comfortable, check the gear, and get to see some interesting things before the manta dive! We even saw some mantas in the daytime! A real highlight of the reef dive was seeing an octopus during our safety stop and a manta almost as we were about to get back on the boat! -- The captain (Chris) had great snacks for the interval and helped us all with our gear as we got out of the water. During the interval we also got another dive briefing from Fernando on what to expect, what we were going to do, and who are some of the common mantas we might see, and some of their stories-- plus a moray named Frank who has a real personality and made an appearance during our dive! -- The manta dive itself was MAGICAL. The clear plan and communication, and previous dive made this one low stress, even though it was my first-ever night dive. Almost as soon as we settled down, giant mantas came down and began swooping over us. There aren't really words for how it feels to be so close and intimate with these gentle giants. We saw 4+ mantas at a time, and were told afterwards we were visited by 12 different animals. Everyone- including me- was bubbling with energy when we had to surface. More snacks, hot cocoa, and just a frisson of excitement from everyone. -- Both the captain and dive master were so attentive and also expressed such gratitude to share the journey with us. It was a beautiful experience!

I tend to have a lot of anxiety around diving (feel the fear and do it anyway) and Chris and Fernando made me feel comfortable, safe, prepared, and cared for-- not just a number on...

5 stars across the board. I usually don't bother to write reviews but the service and our experience was and is worthy of a glowing review. Lets start with the reservations process. I had quite a complicated set of circumstances, 3 of us diving while my son was working on his open water certification all over the 4th of July week. Katlyn, was amazing putting together options that works for us and their schedules and making it happen. Communication on dives, expectations, payment, need to check in and get my son's open water referral (he did is class and pool work in Arizona) was crystal clear and super easy. We had planned to check in the day before our first dive, but our plane ended up landing late, I was of course very stressed by this but they were super accommodating and able to arrange an earlier meet up on Friday morning to get paperwork handled before our 8 am dive. First set of dives on Friday were great! We went to Lone Tree & Turtle Pai. Kona is known for its great diving but diving with Big Island divers made the dives extra pleasant. Briefings on dive sites where very thorough, atmosphere on the boat was super relaxed but professional. We had a small group on Friday just the 4 of us and one additional diver. Our dive master Bree was delightful and I did mention they were very knowledgeable. My son had Jon for his DM for his open water certification. My son was a little nervous, but Jon put him right at ease. Now I know what you see when your diving is sometimes just the luck of the draw, but on my son's first dives, he saw a Frog Fish, a ton of eels, and got to swim in the middle of a bait ball. I have been diving for 30 years and I have never had that experience. We then finished my son's second set of open certification dives on Monday (after the weekend), while me, my husband and daughter dove with Haley. On dive 3 my son saw his first shark, and octopi among other amazing sightings. He completed his open water certification with no problems! Woohoo. As reward, we all joined Big Island divers again on Wed night for their single tank Manta Ray night dive. My mom joined as a snorkeler. Again, super professional, very knowledgeable and a spectacular experience. We had Katlyn for our DM on the last dive, in which we had 2 newly certified divers (my son being one of them). Katlyn, did a great job of making sure the new divers were comfortable with their first night dive (a special one at that). On the night dive there were significantly more snorkelers than divers, yet I never felt rushed or forced to the snorkelers schedule. (i.e. they got in before us and out before us). Our boat captain's (Chris on Friday, & Chad on Monday and Wednesday) where very helpful and friendly. All in all, diving with Big Island divers was an exceptional experience, I wish all dive outfits operated as this high level of excellence. We would dive with them again in a heartbeat. I only have one small suggestion for them, for snacks you need more than 1 Hawaiian Pineapple between dives, they are so good and a few of the kids I know ate almost off of it themselves, leaving hardly...

We really enjoyed the 1 tank manta ray night dive with Natalie as our dive master and it was a magical experience!

We had a front row seat to the manta rays as they swooped in over the fire circle (large spot light pointed up to attract plankton) and came right up to us with their mouths wide open before flying right over our heads and turning around to get more plankton.

The manta rays are graceful gentle giants as they flap their fins. There are so many, we saw 20+, that they do almost run into each other and perform evasive evasive maneuvers going above and below each other, going up or down belly to belly, or even doing underwater somersaults.

You should absolutely do this dive, its different from any other!

For more details on what to expect feel free to continue reading.

We checked in at the dive shop in morning and got fitted with our wet suits and BCDs.

We met at the boat in the harbor at 5 pm and left the harbor around 5:30 pm to a cove near the Kona airport. We stayed on the surface for a dive briefing and learned fun facts about the manta rays.

A couple of divers were nervous since this was their first night dive and Natalie and the captain made them feel at ease. It's not a night dive like any other and its the brightest night dive you'll ever see.

The fire circle at the bottom is lit up prior to entering the water with a forward stride. It consists of an inner rock circle with a large spot light and an outter rock circle where you rest on the bottom propped up on one of the large rocks with your hands. If you've never night dived before you are not entering dark water, the water is lit up, you have a flashlight, and light on the back of your tank.

The dive started at 7:00 pm and after getting in the water with the dive master you do a weight check to make sure you can sink, you follow the bouy line in front of the boat to the bottom of the ocean about 35 ft. Then Natalie checked that everyone is okay and leads you to the fire circle and directs you to your "seat" for the show, large rock to prop yourself up on, like a movie theatre usher.

The manta rays were already feeding when we arrived and the next 40 minutes was an enjoyable show with the dive master monitoring us behind us.

We saw so many manta rays including Big Bertha and several other large manta rays who's size was way larger than the others.

After 40 min, Natalie got our attention, shook a crate near the center spot lot and Frank the eel swam briefly up into the light.

During the dive a flounder swam up to my rock and rested right in front of me, then swam to my neighbors rock, and then his neighbors. Be sure to look for other animals closer to you in the darkness during the main show.

Then we headed up to the surface with lights pointed up and boarded the boat.

The dive was over by 7:40 pm and the boat took us back to the harbor. We enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate on the ride back and the night sky was unbelievable with no light pollution on the water you could see tons of stars including the milky way.

By 8 pm we were back at the harbor...