Snuba question?

[CUPOLA]

What is snuba? I understand it is a combination of snorkleing and scuba diving. Is it hard to do? Royal Carribean canceled our Molikini Crater snorkleing excursion and in its place now is a snuba excursion to the crater. I was just wondering if someone who has done it could tell me about it.

 

Captain Jackie Sparrow of the POI DEPLOY (10-21-07):p

[DebWentworth]

Yes, I'm just back from Hawaii and did snuba there. It's basically scuba diving - except instead of having the airtanks on your back, they float above you on little rafts. There is a 20 foot long tube between the regulator (the breathing apparatus) and the airtanks. In our group, there were 2 people per raft.

 

It's fun. It requires a short instruction period, but no certification.

[DebraDot]

Yes, I'm just back from Hawaii and did snuba there. It's basically scuba diving - except instead of having the airtanks on your back, they float above you on little rafts. There is a 20 foot long tube between the regulator (the breathing apparatus) and the airtanks. In our group, there were 2 people per raft.

 

It's fun. It requires a short instruction period, but no certification.

 

Deb, sounds like you had a good set-up with only two people per raft. Was this a ship's excursion? If so, which ship and which island? If not, which vendor did you choose for this trip?

[mlprahl]

We did SNUBA, too, at Molokini Crater in February 2007. I'm scuba certified - my wife isn't - so this was a way my wife could test the waters so to speak, to see if scuba would be something she'd want to do in the future. We had a blast.

 

We booked through Activity Warehouse 2 weeks before our PoH sailing, so this was an excursion we did on our own. We booked the Pride Charters aboard Leilani for $49.95 pp for snorkeling and then paid $47 pp to do the snuba at the crater (they offer you a discounted rate if you want to snuba again at "turtle town"). Anyway, we ended up being bumped up to the Pride of Maui instead of the Leilani. Had a blast and would definitely do it again. If you do a morning tour (which is highly suggested due to afternoon cancellations and weather changes), they include free beverages (open bar on the way back to the dock), and a BBQ lunch with chicken and hamburgers.

[DebWentworth]

That is similar to our experience with Fair Wind. It was booked as a morning Molokini crater tour, but despite it being an AM trip, it was too windy the day we went out & they substituted a more sheltered location. Snuba was spprox. $45 more than the snorkelers on board paid, and lunch was included (hot dogs, grilled chicken, hamburgers, veggie burgers). The captain was a hoot!

 

We also are certified scuba divers, but did snuba so our teenage daughter could join us. (It freaked her out, and after a short attempt, she gave up.) I actually enjoyed it more than scuba; it's freeing, not having the heavy tanks on your back, and I found it comforting to have a raft over my head that I could hold on to in case of an adverse event.