Dive Review of Ed Robinson Dive Adventures/Hyatt Regency Maui, Ka'anapali in
Hawaii/Maui

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Ed Robinson Dive Adventures/Hyatt Regency Maui, Ka'anapali, Sep, 2007, by James A. Heimer, TX, United States ( Contributor 15 reports). Report 3509.
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	This was our first trip to Maui, so we chose our dive operator, Ed Robinson Dive Adventures, on the recommendation of Dive Makai on the Big Island and the indispensable guide, Maui Revealed. They go out of the Kihei Boat Ramp on West Maui, as do many other dive operators. Unfortunately for us, this is an hour drive from the Ka’anapali resort, where we were staying, and due to the afternoon trade winds, everyone starts diving at 6:30 in the morning so as to be back before the seas pick up. A 5:30 stop at the Lahaina Safeway for coffee and donuts to go became part of the routine. ERDA has two 30' aluminum boats on trailers at the boat ramp (every other dive operator does the same), onto which gear can be loaded before parking nearby. When the boats are launched, you hop aboard. Your BC and regulator will be on a tank, with fins, booties, mask and wet suit neatly stowed nearby, courtesy of the two member boat crew and two dive masters on board. Each boat takes a max of 12 divers, and for diving are divided into two groups of six with a dive master guide for each. Each of our three-day two-tank dives started at the Molokini crater, about 15 minutes from the harbor. We did two drift dives with current and blue water safety stops around the tips of the crater, then – on the specific request of my wife with a view toward macro photography, did one “no-current” dive with the boat anchored on the Mid Reef dead center on the crater. These dives might go as deep as 100 feet, and the second dives each day were done at a near shore site, though at 65 feet, we usually were limited by bottom time, not air. The visibility at the crater was in the 100 foot range, and we saw white tip sharks in groups, eels, frogfish, a flying (or helmet) gurnard, and schools of the more common (in Hawaii) Millett, Pyramid, and Racoon Butterfly fish, plus wrasse, squirrel fish, spotted grouper, and more. On the shallow dives with lower visibility, we encountered large, approachable turtles, leafy scorpion fish, cleaner shrimp at work on eels, and – on one memorable dive – spinner dolphins at the start of the dive and a lone, curious bottlenose at the end. The one criticism we had of the operation is that the dive masters tended to overestimate the abilities of the divers in an attempt to offer them the most interesting diving opportunities. This resulted in one diver making her first open ocean dive and first dive after certification a drift dive in 80 feet of water and a 2 knot current with a “blue water” safety stop required prior to recovery at the end. We doubt she will ever put fins on again. On the flip side, when we had very specific requests to accommodate photography (e.g., no current, boat at anchor), they spent time at three different sites evaluating conditions before picking one that turned out to be the best dive of the trip, and they would have done the same for anyone with specific interests (who made them known to the crew).
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Hawaii, Tahiti, Indonesia, Malaysia, N & S California, E & W Mexico, Gulf of Mexico, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Bonaire, Aruba, St. Thomas, Australia (Barrier Reef and Coral Sea)
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm, currents, noCurrents
Water Temp	78-82°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-100 Ft/ 9-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Followed dive master guide, but allowed to complete dive under boat subject to bottom time and air restrictions
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	Schools	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		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Plastic tubs to store cameras under seats and rinse bucket on boat. No facilities on shore, except to use hose at boat wash down area.

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Dive Review of Ed Robinson Dive Adventures/Hyatt Regency Maui, Ka'anapali in Hawaii/Maui

Ed Robinson Dive Adventures/Hyatt Regency Maui, Ka'anapali, Sep, 2007,

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 Ed Robinson Dive Adventures/Hyatt Regency Maui, Ka'anapali in
Hawaii/Maui