Banzai Divers Hawaii — Local services in Honolulu

WILL GHOST YOU AND NEVER ISSUE A REAL PADI CERTIFICATION! AVOID THIS COMPANY!

Update to my initial review, which, initially positive, is below. DO NOT choose this dive shop if you are seeking an official PADI certification. I signed up for the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Certification and my friend signed up to do her Open Water Certification. Devin told me that they use a hardcopy of the eLearning. He conveniently could not email it to me because “the file was too big,” then conveniently “forgot” to airdrop it to me. Everything seemed reasonable during my dives. I demonstrated all the advanced skills, and Devin told me I had passed.

When I asked when PADI would issue my certification, he assured me they would do so via email and to text him all of my relevant information and a photo. No email ever came, and my PADI account still reflects me as only an Open Water Diver. I texted Devin multiple times with no response and sent multiple emails. No response whatsoever.

My friend (who did her “open water certification” with Banzai Divers) and one of the other girls who also was trying to do her open water certification had the same thing happen.

I also went on the PADI website and realized that, even though Banzai Divers advertises that it is a PADI partner and even lists PADI certification courses, it is not even a dive shop listed on the PADI site. I feel very stupid, since we were considering another shop that IS an official PADI dove shop. Do your homework I guess…but Banzai Divers and Devin purposely misled me, then ghosted.

I do plan on reporting this to both PADI (Banzai Divers uses their trademarks on its site and falsely advertises PADI courses) and the Oahu Department of Consumer Affairs, but I especially wanted to warn other divers so that they do not fall for the scam.

ORIGINAL REVIEW (with edits):

Did my Advanced Open Water Diver certification with Banzai Divers (BUT NEVER RECEIVED THE CERTIFICATION). The crew on the boat were awesome and so helpful and Devin the Dive Instructor was amazing (EXCEPT FOR GHOSTING US ABOUT OUR CERTIFICATIONS) He is particularly adept at spotting the octopuses hiding in their little caves. He made the AOW process very smooth and easy, explaining underwater navigation and using the dive computer and compass to monitor the deep dive (LEARNED THE SKILLS BUT WILL HAVE TO PAY TO REDO THE CERTIFICATION INSTEAD OF MOVING ON TO RESCUE DIVER). They took us to really awesome dive spots and we saw so much wildlife. Whales, dolphins, mantas, spotted eagle rays, sharks owl, octopus, eels. I’m returning for the night dive tonight and super excited. Highly (DO NOT) recommend for anyone doing a certification or just looking for a fun dive (STILL GOOD FOR THIS) or even if you’ve never tried diving before. It was a priceless experience that I will...

I don’t like giving bad reviews. So this review comes with a lot of respect for businesses and sadness that I have to write this. I have 30 years of advanced scuba diving experience. I have scuba dived all over the world with many dive companies as well as solo. Today we chose a shore dive as my stepson has only been diving one year so wanted a nice simple dive before his first boat dive. we went on what was supposed to be a two tank shore dive but only did one tank which we were charged $155 each for.

His equipment was very unsafe and old. Mine didn’t even have a depth gauge. And my two dive buddies had air leaking from their tank connections. His wetsuits had holes in them and mine was full of ants which resulted in multiple bites.

When two people in our group were struggling he didn’t take time to help, eventually it was so bad they surfaced on their own. Devin just sent them back to shore without accompanying them or making sure they got back safely. The little girls fins didn’t fit and were too big. I offered to grab my extra from the car which were her size. Devin said “no that’s not needed once you see the fish you won’t care and if need be i will just drag you along” blowing her concerns off. She was a young child and recently certified and continued to struggle as her fins fell off. Her father’s mask strap kept popping off and filling with water. This ended their dive early. Devin ignored them when they brought this up before and after their dive. His response to the mask was “well that happens when they’re old”.

Our next day with a different dive shop included a two tank boat dive and was $15 cheaper and that included snacks and water.

I do not recommend this dive shop and don’t understand how Devin has so many good reviews. For the prices he charges, he could at least have his equipment in proper working condition.

He had his young daughter on the dive, who was very sweet, but kept digging handfuls of sand and throwing ii around which made for poor visibility at times. It seemed more like he was on a personal dive with his child than a dive...

I was staying at Turtle Bay Resort in the north shore of Oahu and had arranged for 2 days of diving with Bonzai Divers. Due to the time of year there was no diving off the north shore so I called directly to Bonzai Divers almost two weeks in advance to arrange for a wreck dive in the morning and a reef dive the next afternoon. I spoke directly with the dive operator and was clear that I would be driving in from Turtle Bay, about a 90 minute drive, for each of these dives. Bonzai even advertises on the Turtle Bay website so they understand the distance involved for me to drive to Honolulu to dive. I got up at 5:30 to make the drive to make sure I arrived on time. At 7:10, when I was almost to the dive shop, I received a text (not a call, just a text) saying they had double booked the dive that morning and they would have to cancel my reservation, and asked if I could come back the next day for the dive. He didn’t cancel the dives of the people who were lodging right there in Honolulu; nor did he call me early enough to save my drive in to Honolulu. He said he was very sorry, and I am sure he was, but that didn’t change the expense and time I had committed to do this dive. I am sure that if I could have gotten to do the dives I had reserved I would have been very pleased, but I will never know. So I simply cannot rate them any...