In Reply to: Re: Maui Diving posted by tleemay on August 29, 2005 at 14:16:37:

I checked my logs and realized that there is also a really cool
fishing boat wreck about 100 yads off shore from Five Graves.
Also in the area is the "Turtle City" dive site attraction.
The wreck is something like a 40 something wood hull boat which
also has cement filled tires sunk all around it, an attempt of
building an artifical reef in the 1980's according to
Robinson's Captain Danny. Everytime I go to Maui, I always see
a resident frog fish hanging out in the wheel station staying
perfectly still. We have dove the wreck from boat and shore. I
think Robinson's will sometimes use this site as the last dive
of the day when the winds come up. I usually always see a frog
fish on the backside of Molokini (End of the World) at about
120' 1/3 the way around. The "Turtle City" site is so close to
shore it should be a shore dive, but boats end up there as well
towards the end of the day.

Someone spoke of Kahana. Kahana has an awesome cove that has
really cool lava tubes, cliff-like overhangs, and really BIG
eels. We do night dives here that are down-right spooky during
a full moon with your dive light off - coooool. Our place is in Kahana Sunset, so it's really easy to night dive there for us.

Black Rock at night is great too. Hook up with a local Hotel
employee and they will golf cart you and your gear to the North
side of the rock at the beach. Jump in, swim around the rock to
the hotel's beach facade and climb out. Rinse off in their
showers and take the elevator back up to the top. Get out and
walk the 150' or so to your parked car in the visitor's section. Make sure you tip the hotel guy $5 each (usually a
bellman or grounds maintenence person) for helping you out. At
Black Rock, I always seem to see those fuzzy hawai'ian
lobsters, a small shark or two, and free swimming nautilus.

If you are really adventurous, take an entire day and drive the
Hana Highway. About 5 miles before Hana, about two miles past
Keanae, there is a protected cove down the cliff that is
accessed by a private, but open road to the water. If you ask
very politely and are very quiet, the people who own the houses
and horse stables will let you dive from the beach there. Jump
in and head East along the coast. Lot's of fish life and an
occasional black tip reef shark can be seen in the shallows. One
of my local buddies on the island says he has seen a manta ray
in that cove more than once. The problem with diving this cove
is self evident, it's on the exposed West side of the island, so
it's got to be a really calm day to do it.

One of the most dove spots that's in the Lahaina/Kahana area
is called "Airport". It's where Maui Dive Shop takes their
students for shore diving. Not great reef structure to speak of,
but if you sit in one of the sand bowls surrounded by small
rock structure, you might get a chance to see a passing manta
or spotted eagle ray as it cruises by the bowl looking for food.