Dive Review of Bottom Time Divers/Outrigger Keahou Hotel in
Hawaii/Big Island of Hawaii

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Bottom Time Divers/Outrigger Keahou Hotel, Jan, 2008, by Diana Abrashkin, MA, USA ( 2 reports). Report 3944.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	I did one 2-tank dive charter with Bottom Time Divers in Kona, HI (Big Island). The date was January 16, 2008. The hotel I stayed at was the Outrigger Keauhou, which was lovely and luxurious (at least for my humble tastes) and right next to a fantastic snorkeling beach (no coral but plenty of good fish). The dives were pretty dreadful because of the cold. The water was 75 degrees F., and although I had on a full 5 mil wetsuit, I had forgotten my cap, gloves and full booties. Not their fault. The first dive was at 3:30PM, at least that was the assembling time, because all the dives leave from the Harbor and they take you there by van: I know of no Kona hotel with a dive pier right there. (Maybe I'm wrong; if you know of one,I'd be interested.) The dive was mostly over volcanic rubble, though there was an area of coral. The second dive was billed as the Manta Dive and it was really torture. We descended to about 30 ft. and sat down in a circle, immobile. The divemasters got each of us a huge rock and put it in our laps so we wouldn't be buoyant. The drill is to point your divelight upward so it attracts a lot of plankton and hope that the mantas will appear. They had said that "if we don't see any mantas after a while, we'll turn it into a night dive"; but instead we waited there immobile for 25 whole minutes. I was freezing (even though I had added a 2-3mil vest under my wetsuit), and was hoping we'd give up and do the night dive. Finally after 25" one smallish manta showed up and he/she was very nice! But after 15" of watching it, I had thoroughly had enough!!!!!! When we eventually re-boarded, I was a basket case from the cold. When I got back to my hotel room, I left a message for Bottom Time Divers that I was too cold to do the dives the next day and to cancel me. But when I went around to the shop (in the hotel), I was told you need 48 hours to cancel and they wouldn't give me my money back. This seemed unfair since 48 hours prior I was still in Boston! What did I learn from this: that Hawaii is not the Caribbean, and I'll never again travel there in January! The warmest air temperature was also 75F.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	All over the Caribbean, plus Fiji and Tahiti
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm, no currents
Water Temp	74-75°F / 23-24°C	Wetsuit Thickness	0
Water Visibility	50-0 Ft/ 15-0 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Bottom Time Divers/Outrigger Keahou Hotel in Hawaii/Big Island of Hawaii

Bottom Time Divers/Outrigger Keahou Hotel, Jan, 2008,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Bottom Time Divers/Outrigger Keahou Hotel in
Hawaii/Big Island of Hawaii