The O'ahu Snorkelers and Shore Divers Guide

Rating:
Summary: The only book of its kind
Review: I've been looking for a shore divers guide for any of the Hawaiian islands for years! I was stoked to finally find one. I specifically wanted a book that was user-friendly and DeCarvalho's writing style was easy to read. His maps were simple to understand but detailed. This book is a must for divers of all skills who are lucky enough to visit Oahu, Hawaii. I'm hoping this author will do a guide on other Hawaiian islands.

Rating:
Summary: The only book of its kind
Review: I've been looking for a shore divers guide for any of the Hawaiian islands for years! I was stoked to finally find one. I specifically wanted a book that was user-friendly and DeCarvalho's writing style was easy to read. His maps were simple to understand but detailed. This book is a must for divers of all skills who are lucky enough to visit Oahu, Hawaii. I'm hoping this author will do a guide on other Hawaiian islands.

Rating:
Summary: Very complete
Review: I've been visiting Hawaii for over 12 years and have never read or seen a more complete listing of O`ahu's shore sites. Although the book is heavy on the diving side, the guide was simple to use and what I liked most about it is the author gives you complete instructions, including safety tips and good maps, on each of the sites...whether you want to either snorkel or dive. I even learned about some new sites.

Rating:
Summary: A review
Review: My family and I spent the last two weeks in Hawaii on the island of O`ahu diving mostly on the South Shore and along the Leeward Coast. We stayed pretty much on these shores because of the changing weather patterns, which were accurately explained and illustrated throughout the book. This time of year, big waves begin to hit along the North Shore and Windward Coast making diving somewhat difficult. I really bought this book hoping to find some basic information on where to dive and what to expect and to my surprise, I got a whole lot more. I read the first chapter (Safety and Precautions) on the plane and got a good feeling for what each shoreline would be like. I didn't really pay attention to the other chapters until arriving and was blown away by the detail and usefullness of the site descriptions and accompanying maps. Although there are driving directions in the book for each site, I found it helpful referring to a larger foldout tourist map in which to compare against the maps in the book. This really helped me select the sites we frequented and to get a good estimation on how far the sites were from our hotel. In hind sight this wasn't really necessary, but proved to be helpful nonetheless. We ended up diving at Kahe Beach Park, Electric Beach, Ko `Olina Resort and Makaha on the Windward Coast and Portlock Point and Magic island on the South Shore. Each site was explained in detail, making our experiences just wonderful. Unfortunately for us, the North Shore had some choppy water and four foot waves, so we didn't have a chance to do any diving up there, but according to the book there are some fantastic sites along this coast, so we're planning another trip this coming summer. I'd recommend this book to any diver interested in Hawaii.

Rating:
Summary: A review
Review: My family and I spent the last two weeks in Hawaii on the island of O`ahu diving mostly on the South Shore and along the Leeward Coast. We stayed pretty much on these shores because of the changing weather patterns, which were accurately explained and illustrated throughout the book. This time of year, big waves begin to hit along the North Shore and Windward Coast making diving somewhat difficult. I really bought this book hoping to find some basic information on where to dive and what to expect and to my surprise, I got a whole lot more. I read the first chapter (Safety and Precautions) on the plane and got a good feeling for what each shoreline would be like. I didn't really pay attention to the other chapters until arriving and was blown away by the detail and usefullness of the site descriptions and accompanying maps. Although there are driving directions in the book for each site, I found it helpful referring to a larger foldout tourist map in which to compare against the maps in the book. This really helped me select the sites we frequented and to get a good estimation on how far the sites were from our hotel. In hind sight this wasn't really necessary, but proved to be helpful nonetheless. We ended up diving at Kahe Beach Park, Electric Beach, Ko `Olina Resort and Makaha on the Windward Coast and Portlock Point and Magic island on the South Shore. Each site was explained in detail, making our experiences just wonderful. Unfortunately for us, the North Shore had some choppy water and four foot waves, so we didn't have a chance to do any diving up there, but according to the book there are some fantastic sites along this coast, so we're planning another trip this coming summer. I'd recommend this book to any diver interested in Hawaii.

Rating:
Summary: Oahu diving made easy
Review: One thing I found using Carvalho's book is you can talk informatively to the dive shops when askling about dive sites and rental gear. One shop in particular along my travels wanted to sell me a boat dive out of Wainae Marina to Makaha Caverns. I read the section on diving Makaha and I wanted to try it following the book's instructions, but the shop owner said you couldn't do it from shore. Well, my friends and I did it from shore as the book illustrated and we had a blast. At age 47 I had plenty of bottom time and got a good work out to boot. The north and south reefs were very different, but each provided much to see. One piece of advise in the book on renting gear that was a big help; check all your stuff before leaving the shop. I found a faulty tank valve seal and that would have ruined the dive, especially after driving all the way out on the Leeward Coast.

Rating:
Summary: No other guide like it
Review: There isn't any other O`ahu dive guide like it anywhere. Worth every penny. I'd recommend this book to any diver or snorkeler as it has a lot of information and tips that can be applied anywhere.

Rating:
Summary: Finally a dive guide worth reading!
Review: This book exceeded my expectations! A very detailed guide on what you'd need and want to know to enjoy some great diving and snorkeling while in the islands. I'm waiting for the next, in what I hope to be a series from this author, of dive and snorkeling guides for the other popular islands in Hawaii. The author gives you the simple low down on where to dive and what to expect. Accurate down to the last word on each of the 26 sites. I especially found helpful the many detailed maps and site descriptions. This greatly assisted me in selecting a site equal to my diving skills. I'm stoaked to return to O`ahu to check out more of Francisco's sites. Definitely worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: One very informative guide
Review: We found this book to be one of the most complete and informative diving and snorkeling guides on Hawaii's island of O`ahu. Most other dive or snorkel guides are full of fancy pictures and advertisements and are way short on details, but the author does a fantastic job of giving you the simple low down on selecting a site, how to get there, how to do the dive, and what to expect once you're in the water. Hand's down, this guide's strong point is its illustrative maps and diagrams. Most maps you typically see in a dive guide leave much to the imagination, but every map in this book is overloaded with details. We visited O`ahu last year and wish we had a copy of this guide. The author uses a simple approach to describing the sites and includes many tid bits of helpful information along the way that we thouroughly enjoyed. Almost all of them could be applied to anywhere in the world, not just Hawaii. We'd recommend this guide to any diver or snorkeler heading over to Hawaii. My husband especially liked the book's cover, diving Lana`i Lookout, which definitely inspired his sense of adventure and exploration. This book also makes a great addition to anyone's collection of "aquatica."