Congratulations on your upcoming certification! Mid-March is a fantastic time to dive the Kohala Coast. Since you are staying at The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort, you are perfectly positioned near some of the Big Island's best and most beginner-friendly dive operations.
Top Recommendation for Your First Post-Certification Dive
For your very first experience as a certified diver, I recommend a 2-Tank Morning Boat Dive.
- Why: Morning conditions on the Kohala Coast are typically calm and glassy, offering excellent visibility (often 80-100+ feet).
- What to Expect: You will likely visit sites like Crystal Cove, Frog Rock, or Paniau. These sites are relatively shallow (30-60 feet), have little to no current, and feature fascinating topography like lava tubes and arches that are easy to navigate.
Must-Do Experience: Manta Ray Night Dive
Once you have one comfortable morning dive under your belt, you must book the Manta Ray Night Dive.
- The Site: From your location, operators will take you to Manta Heaven (Garden Eel Cove) near the airport, which is often less crowded than the southern site.
- Difficulty: This is technically very easy (you mostly sit on the sandy bottom or hold a bar while mantas swoop above you), but doing a night dive as your absolute first dive can be intimidating. Save it for your second or third dive of the trip.
Recommended Dive Shops & Instructors
All three of these shops are within a 10-15 minute drive of your resort.
1. Kohala Divers (Kawaihae Harbor)
- Vibe: Professional, "valet-style" service where they handle all your gear setup—perfect for a new diver who wants to focus on breathing and enjoying the view.
- Recommended Instructors: Look for Captain Ty, Mo, or Jess. Recent reviews praise them for their patience and ability to make nervous beginners feel safe and entertained.
- Logistics: They operate out of Kawaihae Harbor, just a ~5-minute drive north of the Westin.
2. Mauna Lani Sea Adventures (Mauna Lani Resort)
- Vibe: Extremely convenient and famous for their "short boat rides" (often just 5-10 minutes to the dive site). This is great if you are prone to seasickness or just want a quick, easy trip.
- Recommended Instructors: Steve (often mentioned as a fantastic Dive Master), Gary, and Chris. They have a reputation for being incredibly friendly and patient with new divers.
- Logistics: Located inside the Mauna Lani resort area, about 5-10 minutes south of the Westin.
3. Liquid Cosmos Divers (Kawaihae Harbor)
- Vibe: A smaller, boutique operation that specializes in small groups (often max 6 divers). This is an excellent choice if you want personal attention and to avoid feeling like part of a "herd."
- Recommended Instructors: The owners Jess (a marine biologist) and Mike run many of the charters themselves. Their personalized approach is ideal for a first-timer wanting to learn about the marine life in depth.
Alternative: Guided Shore Dive
If you are nervous about boat diving immediately, contact Blue Wilderness Dive Adventures (operating out of Puako General Store). They offer guided shore dives at Puako, which has some of the best coral reefs on the island. Walking in from the shore can sometimes be a more relaxed way to start than jumping off a boat.
Backgrounder Notes
As an expert researcher and library scientist, I have identified several key concepts from the article that would benefit from additional context. Here are the backgrounders for those facts:
Kohala Coast Located on the northwestern side of Hawaii’s Big Island, the Kohala Coast is a leeward region shielded from heavy winds by three massive volcanoes: Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualālai. This geographic positioning creates consistently calm, "lake-like" ocean conditions and exceptional water clarity, making it one of the premier locations for novice divers in the Pacific.
2-Tank Morning Boat Dive A "2-tank dive" is the standard industry format for a half-day scuba excursion, where a boat visits two different dive sites and provides a fresh cylinder of air for each. These are typically held in the morning because tropical trade winds often pick up in the afternoon, which can create "chop" (surface waves) that makes boat travel and entries more difficult.
Lava Tubes These unique geological formations are created when the outer crust of a flowing lava stream cools and hardens while the molten interior continues to flow, eventually draining away to leave a hollow tunnel. In the context of Hawaiian diving, many of these tubes are now submerged, offering divers the chance to swim through safe, overhead environments that host a variety of nocturnal marine life.
Manta Ray Night Dive (Plankton Attraction) This world-renowned activity utilizes high-intensity underwater lights to attract concentrations of phototropic (light-seeking) plankton, the primary food source for manta rays. The mantas, which can have wingspans of over 12 feet, are attracted to these "clouds" of plankton, allowing divers to observe their acrobatic feeding behaviors from just a few inches away.
Valet-Style Service In the dive industry, "valet" service refers to a high level of hospitality where the boat crew manages the heavy lifting, including the assembly, breakdown, and cleaning of the diver's life-support equipment. This service is particularly beneficial for new divers, as it reduces pre-dive stress and physical exhaustion, allowing them to focus entirely on buoyancy and safety.
Dive Master vs. Instructor While the terms are often used interchangeably by beginners, an Instructor is certified to teach new skills and issue certifications, whereas a Dive Master (DM) is a professional guide focused on navigation and safety for already-certified divers. On the Kohala Coast, Dive Masters act as "underwater naturalists," using their expertise to locate camouflaged species like frogfish or octopuses that tourists might otherwise miss.
Shore Dive A shore dive involves entering the ocean directly from a beach or rocky "entry" rather than jumping from a boat. While shore diving requires more physical effort to carry gear across the sand, it is often favored by photographers and nervous beginners because it allows for a very gradual transition into deeper water at the diver's own pace.
