We had a full boat, 6 divers! It was great to only have a small group. It made it a comfortable fun experience. The captain and dive master did a great job handling everything. We saw 12 turtles and 4 eagle rays! read more

Reef Pirates Diving - Dive boat - Scuba Diving Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

I completed my PADI AOW training with Reef Pirates and I had a fantastic time and learned a lot about diving and got great tips on other dive sites in Hawaii and in other parts of the world. Satoshi did all the logistics and admin and was patient in answering my questions. Special thank you to Dray, my AOW dive instructor, for being a wonderful teacher. Thank you also to Brittany, Dan, Noah and Jen for being awesome divers and boat crew. Looking forward to future dives with these folks! read more

Reef Pirates Diving - My fellow divers at the Kahala Barge wreck site. - Scuba Diving Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

This operation is fantastic! They are friendly, knowledgeable, thorough, and available. All three days that I dove with them were peak diving experiences. Noah, our captain was great and the dive masters were calm and experienced. Definitely the best experience you can find on Oahu! read more

Dive crew and captain both local, local. Knew so much about the spots and wildlife. Super friendly. Very safe operation.

My husband came here as part of an excursion on our honeymoon. We both have NO diving experience, and had an absolute blast! Noah was the captain of our boat, while Diamond and Jenn were our dive leaders. They purposefully keep a group of non-experienced divers small, so they can attentively help and educate everyone. We even lucked out since 1 of the 3 couples signed up no-showed. We did 2 dives and felt safe the entire time. Such a cool experience. I never followed through with this, but this experience can even count towards getting your diving certification. Highly recommend if you are interested :) read more

My son went to two dives on two different days during our visit to the island. He is certified and said the workers were super friendly and helpful. He saw white tipped sharks, walls of angel fish, tons of yellow tangs, turtles and even a Hawaiian Monk Seal. The workers said that the monk seal sightings are the holy grail as they are now endangered and very rare. The workers said this monk seal stuck around for about two minutes, which is also supposed to be rare as they usually take off whenever people are around. A special shout out to Stephanie who was super helpful to our son during his dives! read more

My first time diving with dive shop and I booked a morning three tank dive. Everyone was very friendly and helpful. Dive group of 4 plus instructors made this an amazing dive. Ren was an amazing guide. I will book with them again. read more

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If you are having problems finding their location, they are actually located on the left side next to Zippy's. During our diving trip, we did two dives. The first one was a shallow dive at 40ft, and the second one was a deep dive where we saw a plane wreck at around 105ft depth. Both locations had a lot of fish, but the deeper dive was better with more vibrant colors and better visibility. Our guide, a friendly girl whose name I unfortunately forgot, was very helpful. She explained everything before each dive and checked on us underwater. Despite the rain and wind, it was a fantastic experience with good visibility and warm water. I highly recommend them, and I will definitely use their services again. read more

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Planned a dive trip out to HNL with a few friends and knew we'd be heading out to the Windward side of the island as a buddy didn't want to dive the same sites multiple times during the week. Ended up booking 2 days with Reef Pirates, the first as a reg charter and another being a private one. Scheduling the dives was easy and Satoshi provided clear instructions days leading up to our first dive. Reef Pirates is located in a huge strip mall with ample parking. As we arrived a bit early, we grabbed a cup of coffee at Zippy's next door. A few minutes later, we ran into captain Noah and followed him over to the shop. As we waited along the railing, other divers started to show up. Divers took a vote at which dive site to see and we ended up at the Corsair for our first dive. I've probably dove this site about 5-6x in the past but, it was fun to see how excited everyone else was to check it out. During our shallow dive, Stephanie suggested we check out Sea Cave which was a new one for me. It was cool to drop down 40' and head into a cave which ends with a nice wall drift dive. We had such a great 2 dives with captain Noah and Stephanie that we requested the both of them for our private charter 2 days later. Highly recommend the crew at Reef Pirates and will be booking with then on all my future dives out East in HNL. read more

Reef Pirates Diving - Scuba Diving Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Our scuba instructor Jen was great with making sure my friends had a good time and felt comfortable scuba diving for the first time. The entire crew was super friendly and helpful! read more

Highly recommend Pirates Reef Diving! Jake and his crew, Lauren and captain Troy are awesome!! We had booked a dive earlier in the week with a different company and we so wish we would've found these guys sooner. Jake was our instructor and showed us so many awesome things we never would have seen without him. He made sure we were comfortable at all times. We got to see a couple eagle rays, an eel, octopus and turtle. Such an awesome experience!! Definitely check them out if you're looking for a great dive! read more

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Great diving company! We have gone out with them a few times now and keep going back because of the small dive group size, great people, and quick/easy access to great dive sites. read more

We did our advanced diver course with them while visiting and had a great time. Jake was very informative and thorough while training us. Captain Troy was amazing as well. He made us feel safe and comfortable the entire time. We even got to see some whales up close while heading back in. Great diving experience. Thank you, George J read more

Safest and nicest company out there!! You won't go wrong by booking with them :) they follow PADI standards and always make sure everyone has an amazing time. It's very nice to dive with a company that takes you out of Waikiki where the sites are overcrowded. 100% would recommend read more

They had to cancel my open water course for a day due to poor visibility, and I was worried about not finishing the course on time since I had booked another dive that required an open water certificate. However, thanks to Satoshi and my instructor Dray, they managed to secure a spot for me on another boat at a different location. We were able to complete the course, and I got my certificate just in time! I understand that nature can be unpredictable, and I am super thankful to both of them for making sure I could finish the course on time. Additionally, my instructor Dray was incredibly friendly and helpful. I had an amazing experience diving with him and highly recommend him! read more

This is probably a gateway to my obsession with scuba diving so if you are ready for a juicy review, keep reading! How to get there: They are located at the shopping plaza (will get an email stating how to find it). But in case you are like me who got lost still, you want to put Sophie's pizzeria in the address and then park anywhere since it's an open lot. Then you have to walk back to where the bay is and there will be a small shop with reef pirates. We arrived at the plaza early but ultimately ended up being late since we had to circle around to find it. Communication: Satoshi (owner) is very responsive, despite being so busy with others when we arrived. I didn't speak with him personally because he was preoccupied but he seems like a nice person. Grouping: We were in a group of 8 people, I read some said they do groups of 6 but maybe that has since changed. Nonetheless, quality of care was still great. Instructor/Captain: Joey and Hannah were our instructors. They are very informative and provided great instructions for us and made my first dive really enjoyable (and less anxiety inducing). They are really easy to talk to and cared for us to detail underwater to make sure we are OK () underwater. Our captain, Chris, was very nice and always helped us out. From when we jumped into the water to when we got up from the surface. Those tanks and scuba gear are heavy and getting out of the water with them might be a struggle to some. Amenities: They provide wet suit (for scuba and snorkeling), diving/snorkel masks, as well as snacks for the ride. One thing to note is that they don't have water on board but they do have a bubbler at the shop that you can refill your water bottle to bring along the ride. They will also have a GoPro and will help take photos for you during the dive (will attach below). What we saw: lots of celebrities houses, the only seaside Costco, oh and the sea animals. There were dolphins, sea turtles, and a good amount of fish. I felt like I was aqua man reincarnate when the fish swam close to me. Time: Our reservation was 12p-4p, with the first hour being waiting for others to arrive, paperwork, and pre-quiz to make sure you know your stuff before getting into the water. Then we spent the next couple of hours or so to dive. This is a group activity so it's one person jumping in then the next. With competencies in the water as well to really make sure you will be prepared when you go deeper. Final verdict: Would recommend going and will go again if I ever visit Hawaii again. read more

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Great shop to dive with. It's nice to have a smaller group to go out with. Steffani and Noah were great! Knowledgeable about the area and made the trip enjoyable. Will definitely be using them again on my future trips to the island. read more

Reef Pirates Diving - Scuba Diving Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Great experience, wonderful dives, awesome crew who took care of everything. Did the 2 shallow dives and it was like diving in an aquarium of tropical fish. Crew really knows the good places, saw big turtles and lots of fish, beautiful conditions. Highly recommend, fun trip, nice people! Best part is it's not in crowded Waikiki. read more

My wife and I went on a three-tank boat dive with Reef Pirates on a Wednesday morning, and it was one of the best dive experiences we've ever had. Natasha (our instructor) made sure we had the right equipment and that everything fit properly. She constantly checked everything and prioritized safety first. My wife was a little hesitant to go to 100 feet to see the Corsair wreck dive, but Natasha was right there with us, making sure we were having fun, and, most importantly, safe. We had a blast. Noah the Boat Captain was also excellent. Trust me, all these five-star ratings don't lie -- Reef Pirates really is that good. When we come back to dive in Honolulu, we won't go anywhere else. read more

Awesome activity! Kaylee and Troy were the best team I've had in years. I come out at least twice a year and this is the 1st with outing with Reef Pirates in a few years. Awesome activity! Kaylee showed us many of the "little things" other outfits rush on by. She even shared photos that she took of us. I would recommend #reefpiratesdiving @ReefPiratesDiving to everyone! read more

Reef Pirates Diving - Scuba Diving Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Bottom line up front: YES, go diving with these guys. We've been diving for about 3 years and have been on charters and groups in Florida, the Carribean, and even Great Lakes. This was - without a doubt - the best charter experience we've ever had. It's very small (only 6 people) and there was no rushing like there usually is on the bigger cattle boats. The entire staff was very friendly and we felt like part of their family. Finding the place wasn't difficult: park in front of Zippy's and walk between the buildings to the dock. We arrived and got down to the dock/shop. Once the boat was ready we were able to go ahead and board and start setting up our gear at a very relaxing pace. The shop dog hopped on board to greet us and do a little sunbathing on the deck while we were getting ready. We got to the first dive site and we had a little problem with weights (my fault - I had some brand new gear) and had to climb back on board to fix it. They didn't let this cut into the dive time. Their policy is that they stay at each site until everyone runs out of air (so if you go through air quickly, you might be hanging out on the boat for a bit waiting for the other divers) We changed tanks on the way to the next dive site (again, there was no rush to get it done). After the second dive we started heading back. We spent probably another hour at the dock shooting the breeze while cleaning/packing our gear. Oh, and if you have anything you don't want to leave in your car (cause theft in Hawaii!) they're more than happy to lock it up in the shop for you. read more

Reef Pirates Diving - A sea turtle that came up next to the boat (he was running late, so we didn't see him on the dive) - Scuba Diving Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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We got to dive with Reef Pirates Diving for an incredible 3 days with 6 days. Noah our boat Captain and Dray our Instructor were both great and we had a wonderful time. We got to get our AOW. Saw Sharks, turtles and plenty of fish. The best part was hearing the Humpback whales that were only a few hundred yards away, underwater read more

Our PADI, Greg was very nice and professional. It was my first time diving and I had little knowledge about this sport (sort of a spontaneous idea in my trip) He answered all my questions carefully and patiently before onboarding to make sure I fully understood the equalization of ears and signals etc. During my first dive, he held my hand swimming with me closely and constantly reminded me to equalize and asked me if I was good which really made me feel very secure and relieved. For the second dive, since I had already dived comfortable in the first time, he let me swim independently but still carefully watched my BCD and oxygen metics. Our captain was very nice as well especially helped me get onto the boat since it was so heavy in the wet dive suit and carrying the cylinder when climbing the ladder! I felt so proud and accomplished of myself for overcoming the fear and expanding my limit after this first diving experience! Explorations to be continued and to get licensed for the next goal! read more

Reef Pirates Diving - First shallow diving - Scuba Diving Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Shout out to Satoshi, Steph and Jonathan.. thank you for this very wonderful dive and i truly recommend this folks.. I had a very wonderful dive and company with them. They are making sure that every one is safe and you are comfortable enough specially underwater. They will really take care of you.. Till next time.. i will definitely go back to this crew and explore more.. read more

Reef Pirates Diving - Scuba Diving Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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This place is amazing!! We wanted to see sea turtles and beautiful reefs so we did the uncertified dive with Reef Pirates. The locations were stunning and the dive masters were calm, fun, experienced, and so helpful! The small dive group made it feel really comfortable and easy. We got to see everything we had hoped for and they even found an octopus that we got to get a good look at. I highly recommend this place. One tip: the ocean is more calm on the surface in the morning. (It doesn't make much difference once you get down below the surface but the boat ride can be choppy.) If you get sea sick, go in the morning. We signed up for a morning dive but agreed to be bumped to an afternoon dive when one of their dive masters had an emergency come up and had to miss the morning dive (we appreciate them bumping us for safer numbers in the group) but I was sure I'd be sea sick on the choppier afternoon waters. I was sea sick but that was the most beautiful view I've ever seen while "letting it out" over the side of the boat. I'd try a morning dive next time I'm there. read more

Reef Pirates Diving - Scuba diving, reef, fish - Scuba Diving Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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This review is from August 2022. The boat captain at Reef Pirates (Dan) was great, and the dive sites were beautiful but I cannot recommended this dive shop to anyone. Both Natasha and the other female guide showed zero respect for marine wildlife throughout both dives. At multiple points on the dive they touched and harassed wildlife - including trying to force an octopus out of its hole by poking at it (I heard from another diver that this also happened on their trip), hanging on to the reef, grabbing/touching coral. This behavior is both terrible to see and sets an awful example for any beginner scuba divers. It should not happen EVER - let alone multiple times across two dives. Natasha's buoyancy control and trim was poor, and in only slight surge she was hanging on to the reef, and grabbing on to the sand. I will not dive with this shop again until they hire guides who respect the ocean and its inhabitants. Both of these guides should be truly ashamed of how they interact with nature and take a long hard look in the mirror as to whether they should be representing instructors in the water. read more

Everything about this experience screams top notch, personalized and absolutely unforgettable. Joe and Chris took us out to Corsair wreck (the deepest dive we've ever done) and Sea Cave (the first drift and cave dive we've done!). Exhilarating! The crew was super professional, patient and explained the scope of each dive to a detail. There were 6 guests on board, ranging from super experienced to newly certified and our instructor Joe made it work for everyone! Thank you again for such an amazing day, we'll never forget our time in Oahu! read more

Reef Pirates Diving - Corsair plane wreck at 107 ft - Scuba Diving Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

It was my first time diving and my friend recommended we go with Reef Pirates and to request Natasha, so we did. Natasha was awesome from start to finish with explaining everything, answering all my questions, and always checking on us throughout both dives. I was really nervous at first but I overcame my fears and felt really comfortable the entire time diving with Natasha. She made sure to check on everyone quite often which made us feel more secure, especially the first time. we saw a turtle, an octopus and lots of beautiful fish! troy and Dre were also with us and were both wonderful! I loved that it was a small group. the only thing I'm upset about is not going sooner otherwise we would have went more and gotten certified! I can't wait to do it again. Thank you everyone for a wonderful experience. read more

Reef Pirates Diving - Scuba Diving Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

I've gone on several dives with Reef Pirates and have truly enjoyed the experience immensely! What I love about them is they only take out 6 divers max per charter so you really feel taken care of by the instructors and it feels like the safest experience I've had! Other companies pack their ships full of divers, which feels unsafe and wastes precious dive time, and Reef Pirates does the exact opposite! If you're new to diving, the discover diving class charter is also fantastic! I can't recommend enough if you're local or visiting to go out with Reef Pirates :) read more

Absolutely incredible! First visit to Hawaii and was unfamiliar with dive shops here. I did my own research and selected Reef Pirates because they're smaller, only 6 people booked on the boat at a time, and they leave early! It was definitely the right choice. I was on the boat with Captain Noah, and Stephanie (instructor) as our guide. From the welcome, to each dive site briefing, to the customer service and friendliness is was nothing short of perfect! As an instructor myself, this shop will have my business for years to come!! Thank you Reef Pirates, Noah and Stephanie for an amazing day of diving. It was a pleasure to make bubbles with you all. read more

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I did both the online course and open water PADI certification. I was able to do this over a weekend course for the open water and online the month prior. Everything was super simple to set up and well organized. My instructor was Dre and boat captain Troy. They were both absolutely fantastic. Dre is incredibly patient and very clear. He's a fabulous instructor and I felt very safe despite significant personal anxiety. I really cannot have imagined a better instructor for learning and I now feel so much more comfortable moving forward. I picked this company based on online reviews and am so glad that I did. I highly recommend it for anyone considering PADI certification. read more

These guys are awesome! Super chill and not "big business." Never seen more than 6 clients on a boat dive. I've done all my training and certifications with them. read more

After doing extensive research and looking at reviews, I thought this diving company was going to be amazing. Unfortunately I did not have that kind of experience. I signed my fiance and I up for the 2 day open water certification course. We already completed the coursework and the skills in the pool and now we just needed to complete the skills on open dives. We arrived at noon for our noon dive (since that's what the confirmation email told us to do) and we were told we were going to have a woman named Jess as our scuba instructor. She was nice at first but once going out on the boat, quickly developed a "get things done quickly" demeanor. As someone who is new to diving and can get anxious in certain situations, she was not a kind or patient instructor at all. She made a point of saying how long she'd been out on the water already that day and it seemed like she just wanted to check the boxes for our skills and be done with it so she could go home. Her hand signals weren't always clear, which caused some confusion, and resulted in me inhaling/swallowing a lot of salt water during one of the skill checks. It really triggered my anxiety and I got scared. She didn't care one bit and actually seemed to be annoyed. I got back on the boat to try and calm down before trying again and the boat driver was more encouraging and helpful than she was. My fiance tried talking to her about her methods and her response was for us to either get private lessons so I could experience someone with patience or to get to class earlier (? again, we arrived when the email told us to arrive). During the actual shallow reef dives, she harassed aquatic life on multiple occasions (jabbing a metal poker down into holes to try and get octopus to come out, only for them to ink repeatedly and try to swim away). This was incredibly distressing and awful to witness. She also kicked coral repeatedly and didn't seem to have much regard for the ocean and the life in it in general. The only reason this isn't a one star review is because Satoshi and the boat driver were both nice and seemed to care. I'm sure it could've been a much better experience had they been the ones in the water teaching the course. read more

After hearing so many wonderful things about Reef Pirates, I was able to finally dive with them my second time back in Oahu! Our group of 8 divers (3 newly certified and 5 varying experience divers) ambitiously booked back to back dives in one day. We booked a morning dive from 11am to 3pm and then a night dive 5-9pm. We all had an amazing time and in large part was due to the The Reef Pirates crew. Booking the dives was easy, communicating with Satoshi (the shop owner) was fast and he was great with making sure our group would enjoy our dive experience. The dive shop is located in a plaza so parking is a breeze. It's also located near some great restaurants and shops so you can grab food before/after). At the shop we met our boat captains (Chris and Noah for our morning dives and Joe for our night dive) and dive masters (Jake and Lauren). They were all fantastic! So if you have the pleasure of diving with them, you're in luck :) Jake and Lauren managed our group 8 while prioritizing our safety, showing us all the cool things, taking awesome videos and pictures, and making sure we all had a good time. Their charisma and passion for diving was very infectious and reminds me of why I got certified for scuba diving. Our captains were also great and we had a fun time chatting with them in between dives and after. It was an amazing experience and I highly recommend diving with Reef Pirates for your dives. Their night dives are especially spectacular since you get to watch the ocean turn dark. Even though they're located in south shore, they also do dives in north shores as well! I'm definitely going back to book more dive trips with Reef Pirates in the future! Also extra shout to Lauren for taking kickass pictures of us while diving and making us look super cool and sharing some of her amazing underwater photography. She also gave our boat a recommendation for a go-pro mount we can find at a local dive shop that I'm going to use forever! read more

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our Dive Instructor, Natasha, was absolutely amazing! she was patient, informative, and gave clear instructions. It was our first time scuba diving and by the second location, we felt like pros! I hope to experience scuba diving here again because of her phenomenal customer service! thanks Natasha! read more

Reef Pirates Diving - Me and my husband getting down the line. - Scuba Diving Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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I think if you have previously scuba dived you'll have fun. if you are brand new, based on my experience it is learn quick without a lot of guidance or explanation if you want to actually dive. I was having trouble getting comfortable with the regulator at the first dive site. On the second, I was much more comfortable with the breathing but I was instructed to pull off my regulator vs using the purge button which I didn't initially understand why. So when I did, I breathed out but inhaled a little water and surfaced up. The instructor Natasha was getting frustrated with me and rightfully did not let me dive. What I did not like, was her tone. I also did not like being left unsupervised near the front of the boat holding onto the rope while the rest of the group dived for 20 min. I was told to stay there and keep the regulator in my mouth. I was not given the option to return to the boat at that point. Afterward, Natasha did apologize and encouraged me not to give up which was nice. But obviously I did not have fun at all. I actually felt ignored considered the other two divers were much more experienced and didn't need the patience and 1:1 instruction I needed. Overall, not a good experience for me and I can't recommend Reef Pirates for anyone who has never scuba before. read more

Reef Pirates were great!! They made booking easy and were so flexible on the day of our dive with figuring out where to go as the winds had added some strength to the waves and currents. Dive master (Stephanie) and boat captain (Noah) were a great team to work with. read more

Did three shallow dives and three deep/wreck dives with the Pirates and completed our AOW -- what a great experience!! Shout out to our friend Satoshi for being beyond understanding and accommodating! One of our planned dive was canceled after we got out there due to the poor visibility that day. Satoshi used his magic so we got to complete our course as planned Hannah was always a joy to have on your boat. So sweet, so helpful, so knowledgeable, and always ball of positive energy !!Although we know she might work with dozens if divers like us every week. But she still made us feel we made a friend !! Joe was our diving master, and yes he is!! We felt very safe with his detailed briefing, clear communication style, and beyond patient with all the silly mistakes we made. No doubt, he is there to help us grow and learn. It was our first every deep dive when we did the Corsair, 107ft sounded scary at first. But Joe really made it smooth, exciting, and memorable !! We are very thankful! We will be back for sure ! read more

Outstanding dive experience, I was just a single diver showing up while in town for work. Joe got me all set up and was a pleasure to dive with! Great info, well thought out briefings on what to expect. I really appreciated the details as it had been around two years since I have been in gear. The wreck of the corsair was amazing, absolutely worth the trip down! The time down there flies by so be sure to get some pics and get a good look at it - which is pretty easy since the water is remarkably clear. The boat captain Chris (I believe that was his name) was on point too and got us right where we needed to go right on time. Professional yet personable bunch. Thanks again guys!! read more

Reef Pirates Diving - Scuba Diving Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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An incredible experience! My family and I went on the discovery dive with Jake and Lauren as our instructors. We were taught the basics and safety and provided all the necessary gear then went on two dives. This was an experience that I will never forget and I recommend this to anyone visiting. read more