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Dive Review of Jack's Diving Locker/Rental house in Kona in
Hawaii/Big Island

Jack's Diving Locker/Rental house in Kona : "Many Mantas and Shrimp on a Salp", May, 2016,

by Joel Horie, UT, US (Sr. Contributor Sr. Contributor 22 reports with 14 Helpful votes). Report 8939.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations N/A Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude N/A Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling 4 stars
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 5 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments Our second vacation visit with Jacks. Did three 2 tank morning dives, the 2 tank Manta night dive and the Pelagic Magic.

Had our new diver adult sons, we had our own group of 4 on the day dives. Really enjoyed our DM Carlos. Great at pointing out small things. Max depths were normally in the 60' range and Garden eel cove at 70'. Sites were from the "new" airport, down to Redhill. Lots of tropical, morays, Nudibranchs. Flame angels, yellowtail Coris, juvenile rockmover wrasse, long nose butterfly (one pair in yellow and black phase). Dolphins.

Manta night dive. Afternoon dive, had the usual, plus a few Mantas cruising by at the end of the dive. Night dive, we had at least 12 Mantas show up immediately. It was almost too much. I had my goPro on a tray with a dual light setup. After about 30 minutes, I turned off one light, just to reduce the cloud of plankton I was attracting. I was getting almost too much Manta attention. If you have a Gopro, without a light setup, there is plenty of ambient light from all the flashlights of the other divers and snorkelers. If you are new to Gopros, just do video. Very light surge, so go a little heavy on your weights, if you feel like it. You either kneel or sit on the bottom sand at about 40 feet. Also, you are relatively static. You might feel a little cooler than usual. It's exciting, but try to be good on your air consumption and camera battery use. The Manta portion lasts about 45 minutes or so. If you group has enough air, you can head over to the reef by the garden eels. Ask you DM. It's a nice night dive in itself. Saw a big Moray hunting with an Ulua following him. The Manta dive is great for mixed groups of divers and non divers. The snorkelers will have fun too.

Pelagic Magic. We had 7 divers. Normally max of 6, but another group cancelled. They were going to run 2 boats that night. Met at the shop at 6 pm (sunset was 650 pm), had about a 30 minute briefing and then a 5 minute van down to the Kailua Pier. Short 15 to 20 minute boat ride straight west. They put out a big sea anchor, before you enter. 40 foot weighted down lines with 5 foot sliding tethers. Enter the water with your tether on the BC and then just clip onto the down line. The down lines were spaced evenly around the boat. Keep looking around as things come and go. Look up, down, left and right. Shrimp riding a long swimming salp! DMs Flipper and Chris, traded off, cruising around the boat. One diver got a little tangled in his tether, but Flipper was there immediately to untangle him. End dive at 700 psi, then a safety stop. Surface individually. They briefed 80 minutes max, but let my son (he was in a 5mm) stay 87 minutes, before they reminded him. I missed the big school of squid that showed up at the end. Watch the videos on Jack's website. Too much to describe. Wished I had a Macro on my Gopro. Water temp was 82F and I was comfortable in a 3 mm one piece for 70 minutes. Things generally float to and past you. If your buoyancy control is good, you activity level will be low.
Websites Jack's Diving Locker   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 51-100 dives
Where else diving Hawaii, Belize, Grand Cayman, Socal, Bonaire
Closest Airport KOA, Kona International Getting There We flew Delta from SEA and came back through LAX

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm
Water Temp 82-82°F / 28-28°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 60-100 Ft/ 18-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile no
Enforced diving restrictions Stay with the group. DM got us back to the boat so the lowest person had 700 psi. Head up for 3 min safety stop at 700 psi. Rest of group could stay with DM until they got to 700. Could surface individually, if you liked.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas Squadrons
Dolphins Schools Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 1 stars
Large Pelagics 5 stars

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

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 5 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 5 stars Shore Facilities 4 stars
UW Photo Comments On the Kea Nui(Newton 46), two large rinse cans(Rubbermaid trash cans) near the aft ladders. Center table in the covered area. The table did get used during lunch/snack break, but had plenty of time to swap batteries after first dive. On the Pelagic Magic dive, had a smaller rinse tank, maybe 10 to 15 gallons.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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