Island Divers Hawaii — Local services in Honolulu

Overall a great experience.

I booked the 3-tank wreck dive, and a single tank dive to do with the rest of my family's snorkel charter.

I want to start by saying their staff is outstanding, and very accommodating.

For the wreck dives, I asked about bringing my sidemount rig out since I wanted to penetrate, which they said wouldn't be a problem as long as I am certified (I am). They lent me some tank rigging, but it took some ingenuity to get everything to where it would work with my rig.

We got some bad weather, and I got sea-sick for the first time ever, so that was fun (but obviously at no fault of theirs). But, again, their staff was phenomenal in making sure I was as comfortable as possible. We opted to mothball the other wreck dives due to weather, and move into shallower waters to do some reef dives. I ended up not wanting to fuss with re-rigging a new set of tanks for the additional dives due to how I felt, plus the fact we weren't doing anymore wrecks. My guide, Jen, set up an extra BC and regs for me, and did her best to get me back in the water ASAP upon arrival at the next sites, since I immediately felt better once in the water. In hindsight, I should have just brought my regular recreational backmount BC.

All in all, I had a great time. I saw a ton of wildlife including turtles, octopus, multiple eel species, a giant pufferfish, and an enormous school of triggerfish, what looked like a tiny 5-inch or so needlefish, among a multitude of various species of fish.

On the snorkel charter day, the entire family had a blast. Willow was highly praised by the entire group, as well as Charles. We saw a TON of turtles. Again, I got to dive, this time with the dive guide Aaron. We had a phenomenal dive. We saw a giant eel, a few more octopus, and even a big flatfish!

By now you're probably wondering "If the experience was so great, why 4 stars instead of 5?"

Logistics.

After my initial booking, I called back to arrange transportation ($20 cost) through the company for both days. During that phone call, the lady I spoke with on the phone (I forgot her name) told me the pick-up time for the 3-tank wreck dive would be 0630 in my hotel lobby, and 0830 on the day of the snorkel charter.

Apparently, the 0630 reservation was never input, or technology failed as it can. Either way, I was sitting in the lobby at 0635 and had not yet heard anything from them that the driver was even on the way. I called, and luckily they picked up, as it was before their opening time. They apologized for the inconvenience, and said they'd hold the boat for me while I ordered myself an Uber.

On the night before the snorkel charter, I made sure to call and confirm that my party of 9 would in fact be picked up at 0830 in the hotel lobby, which was confirmed.

0830 came and went, again, with no contact from the company, driver, anyone. I called at 0838, and spoke with a lady who said she'd look into it and call me back. She called me back at 0853, apologizing, stating the driver was not notified of the pickup. She said he would be there to get us around 0915.

The driver eventually showed up, asking if we were his 0915 pickup. We may have interpreted this incorrectly, but this lead us to believe that the reservation was never made with the driver until I called asking where our transportation was on the day of.

They were apologetic, and informed us that they JUST started offering transportation, and we were one of the first people they've tried it with. I can be understanding of growing pains, but in all honesty, the ball was dropped a bit here as well.

I can't say enough positive things about Island Divers, however. I WILL be back to dive with them again, and would still recommend them to anyone. I hope they iron out the logistical issues ASAP in regards to offering transportation, as that was the only blemish on mine and my family's otherwise amazing experience with them.

Mahalo...

I went diving with Island Divers two days in a row. I want to give the three stars to all of the staff on the first day I went out. Mark and David were the dive instructors and they executed very thorough and educational dive briefing. Unfortunately the boat was over booked on Wednesday when my friend and I were out but thanks to the staff .We all were grouped properly and the dives went smoothly and felt perfectly executed. Great energy from the Captain and crew even though it was crowded the staff was still very positive clearly they enjoyed their jobs. On the same note, Max and Joe were also a need to have on the boat with their laughter and their hot pours for everyone on board. Brett was also a great asset to the team with his buddy Sam (his dog) and his extreme help getting everyone in and out of the water. Thanks for making Wednesday such a positive experience, Mark David, Max, Brett and Joe. Unfortunately our second day was not nearly as positive. Our Dive instructor, Davy was short and in fact rude. Talking to us as if we were children, and giving us a scattered hardly audible dive briefing. Maybe if the wind and the engine were not drowning it out but either way the briefing was disorganized and scattered. Once in the water she completely ignored us and started picking in the sand. Thankfully my buddy and I are advanced and can dive sufficiently on our own but we paid for a tour. Well I guess not everyone is as thorough and put together as Mark and David but there was a substantial difference in people aboard which should have in fact made it easier to monitor divers. Another major difference was the entire atmosphere on the boat, which should have been more energetic and less, I hate my life let’s hurry up and get this done attitude with less people. How miserable can your life be you work on a boat in Hawaii? Overall I still would have given 4 stars if it were not for having to wait nearly 2 hours to be brought back to town, the ad and the main man working the shop Jeff said we would be back in time to use the rest of our day the latest 1 pm. Understandably this did not happen day one but they told us all that before we left the dock that we would be running until at least one because we had so many people. Once we were back on Wednesday we got our logs filled out as the crew cleaned up the boat and then we were shuttled back to town within 30 minutes of being back at the dock. This did not happen Thursday I was told to go get lunch and come back in an hour because the guy doing the drop offs was on the other boat. Trying to be easy going I did not complain until an hour and thirty minutes went by and the other boat was still not back. I think that there would have been plenty of time for me to get a ride back to Waikiki in the van I was picked up in with plenty of time to have it back for the other boat if they were going to take another 2 hours. Instead of bringing me back as soon as we got in I waited around for the other boat to come in, unprofessional and put a bad taste in my mouth being treated like an inconvenience. This ensured that I will not returning without special requesting anyone but Davy. I do not like to end on a negative note so I will say that having minty hot towels to end both days of diving is a great touch to wiping the salt off your face. And again big thanks to Mark and David and the rest on Wednesday for making my first day so much fun like a Hawaiian...

I was in Hawaii on business but I flew in a few days early to spend some time on the beach. A friend of mine had heard that I would be in Honolulu and he recommended I book a dive, time permitting. He had just been out with Island Divers Hawaii on his last visit to the island and had a great experience so I decided to go for it. I booked a single day, three dive, diving trip about a week before my first day in town (bonus points for having a shuttle that would travel me to/from my Waikiki hotel) so, bright and early Sunday morning, I was on my way to the shop. My guide that day was David (bonus points on the guides being instructors or vice versa). I have to say, I love David. Not only is he easy going and charismatic but he's also exceptionally skilled and was able to assess our abilities right off the bat which allowed for better diving experiences for everyone. I had told David that morning that I wanted whales, sharks, and turtles. By the end of the third dive, we'd gotten to see all that and more! While nobody can control the wildlife, Dave knew where certain critters hung out and he took us there and that's half the battle. We swam with sharks, turtles, a monk seal, eagle rays, eels, tons of fish, you name it! We didn't get to swim with whales but we did get to see them on one of our surface intervals! I'll take it! I had such a great time on Sunday that I decided to book another day of diving with Island Divers the next day, on Monday, with a guide named Bruce. To my surprise, the next day I went back out with David. Bruce had called out. I was incredibly happy about the change (not to discredit Bruce) simply because there's a comfort in repeat diving buddies. Anyway, the second day was just as incredible as the first. Because Dave and I had already done three dives together the day prior, he knew my skill level and it just made everything so much better. After we got back to the shop, I just couldn't help myself...I booked a third day. I was having such a great time that I knew I needed to spend my final free morning going back out with these guys. On Tuesday, I did a two dive trip with an instructor and guide named Kevin. Upon my exit from the first dive on Tuesday, my GoPro leash broke and Kevin (thankfully) was still in the water, saw my camera plummeting to the ocean floor, and grabbed it before it went 100' down. Kinda bummed that it wasn't recording at the time. Oh well. Thanks Kevin!! Both dives on Tuesday were different locations than I had done on Sunday and Monday and I was truly grateful that these guys went to such lengths to make sure my dives weren't redundant. I also want to give a shout out to Tim who was running the shop all three days I was there and Captain Joe who took us out all three days. Everyone I met at the company made my experience special in some way and I can't recommend this company enough. If you're looking for a fun and safe time diving in Hawaii,...