Underwater Adventures

Allison and I have officially started our SCUBA certification process! Consequently, we thought now would be a good time to start talking about all the fun water-based activities we could do in Kona! Getting the bad news out of the way first, Allison and I were originally planning on doing the Black Water night dive through Big Island Divers. Unfortunately, that dive requires 15 logged dives, which Allison and Matthew will probably not have by that time. However, there are lots of other things that we can do!

To begin with, we are still planning on doing the Manta Ray night dive on Wednesday the 18th. I highly recommend that everyone check out the videos at the bottom of the link above. They are pretty cool, even if you decide not to do the dive. The dive will take place at night and the divers will be going down to the ocean floor to watch the manta rays come out. The cool thing about this one is that snorkelers are welcome as well! The mantas apparently come right up to the surface and are very friendly. I think this would be an awesome one to do together, so if you're interested, leave a comment below. I have currently reserved a spot for the five divers: Allison, myself, Steve, Mark, and Matthew. We can easily add more people. However, in order to complete the reservation, I will need to know what equipment you will need to rent. For both divers and snorkelers, if you do not have your own wetsuit, I will need your height and weight to complete the reservation. I will need this information relatively soon, as our reservation is currently on hold.

 
For the SCUBA divers, I would also really like to do a two-tank morning dive through Big Island Divers on either Sunday or Wednesday morning. I have not reserved anything yet, but I would like some input on when the best time to do that would be.

Big Island Divers also has a Snorkel with Dolphins tour. The trip will probably begin very early in the morning (keep in mind that it will be much later Texas-time) and last for around three to four hours. These tours run on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, so if you would like to do this, we have a couple of options for dates. We will probably need to make our reservations relatively soon, however, as they do have limited availability.

 Another snorkeling possibility could be Kahaluu Beach Park, which is right next to St. Peter's Church, where the wedding will be held on Monday. Several of the sites I have seen have called it the best snorkeling site in Kona. An upside here would be that we could do this on our own time table, as we would not have to reserve a tour.

Another idea that Katie brought up, which I have never tried, is SNUBA. SNUBA is a bit like SCUBA diving, except your air hose is attached to the boat, rather than a tank. You do not have to be certified for SNUBA, and it is said to be much easier than SCUBA. There are a couple of places that I have found that do SNUBA tours, though most of them do shore dives, rather than reefs. I will continue to research this one.

So, what do y'all think? Is there anything specific that you would like to do that I left off? What sounds good to you? Sound off in the comments!