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There are several places that offer great diving on Oahu. Are you looking for boat diving or shore diving?
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Wanna do three days boat dives, and get like 3 days of shore diving in...... Any recommendations as per preferred dive shops doing Yo-257, Sea tiger, and open for any other option. Living in Aruba we have had the please to see and dive them all. specially Bonaire..... But for the lady of the house, Sharks, seals, and giant turtles, and great wreck diving will make her smile.....
But still did not book our boat dives as there are so many dive companies and still looking for opinions. Will be staying in Waikiki beach front area.
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I would recommend Island Divers Hawaii as a dive shop for boat dives. They are one of the few dive shops in the state that actually own their own boats, most other dive shops just lease space on someone else’s boat. I have been diving with them since February and have been very happy with their service.
The YO-257 can be done just about any morning on the Sea Fox that is docked at Island Divers Hawaii Kai shop. They can even have a van pick you up in Waikiki. The Sea Tiger is only done on Sunday mornings from their Hawaii Kai dive shop because of the wrecks location, but I believe it can be done on other days from their Hickam Air Force Base location which is closer to it.
Those two wrecks are quite a distance away from each other, so you will more than likely use both the Hawaii Kai and Hickam dive shops to dive them. Thats one good thing about Island Divers Hawaii, they have 3 dive shops on the island.
As for shore dives, basically we have two really good locations, depending on the surf conditions. Electric Beach on the South-West side of the island and Sharks Cove on the North Shore. We dove Sharks Cove on Saturday and saw a Hawaiian Monk Seal and several Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles on that dive. There are a few photos from that dive on my blog: http://hawaiiscubaadventures.com/2013/06/29/adapt-improvise-overcome/
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daz88 - 7/04/2013 9:15 AM 
The YO-257 and the Sea Tiger wrecks are actually quite close together. (less than 10 minutes apart) They are not too far out and basically kind of straight out from Waikiki Beach. So hopefully you’ll be staying somewhere on the Westside of the island. If you are staying in Waikiki it will be an easy trip for you. And most of the dive shops in the Waikiki area will come pick you up from your hotel.
I use AquaZone when I dive in Waikiki. Been using them for about 6 or 7 years now, couple times a year. They have a Boat in Kewalo Basin (fisherman’s warf), right off of Ala Moana. About a 10 minute ride from Waikiki. From this marina the Sea Tiger is maybe a 15 minute boat trip and the YO is another 5-10 minutes past that. Both are cool dives. But a lot of the time the YO has some crazy current and too much work for an enjoyable dive. Many mornings the boats will head to the YO first and if the current is too strong, head to the Sea Tiger. Which is almost always dive-able. (note: the wreck dives are always the morning dives, the afternoon dives are shallower reef dives) and the second dive after one of the wrecks is one of the reefs nearby. If you wanted to see giant sea turtles, ask them to take you to “Turtle canyons”. The turtle are ALWAYS there. There is a “cleaning station” at that reef and the turtles are swimming in slow circles while the fish nibble on the “bugs” on the turtles. Great photo opts here, coz the turtles are very relaxed and swimming super slow circles or sleeping nearby.
AquaZone has two other boats in Koko Marina in Hawaii Kai. That area is good for the Corsair wreck, the Kahala barges, Fantasy Reef, Koko craters(turtles always here too), and my favorite dive site….the Big Sea Cave.
I have some photos from my trip in May online, just scroll down a little bit. Several pix of turtles, sharks & eels.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/draggonmn/
most the dive shops are good and friendly and you can’t really go wrong. Just some of the ones that don’t have their own boats get really crowded sometimes. No matter what, have a charged battery and empty memory card.
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Daz
Wow, thank you for the reply! that is really helpful. We love your pictures on your blog, what camera did you use for your underwater shots. We dive with a Olympus PT-EP05L housing / Olympus E-PL3 camera with a Zen WA-100 Pen Dome and double strobes. And I have to tell you I have not had such great pictures as your EVER! I love your pictures.
Feel free to share underwater picture secrets..... and I will surely get in touch with Aquazone.
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Dive Medic
We will surely get in touch with you, for some fun shore diving..... and hey, we are happy to drop our gear in your trailer and go diving with you. After all, you know the good sites. you can always catch me at juan@brickellbayaruba.com and you are always welcome at my hotel www.brickellbayaruba.com in Aruba.
We look forward to our trip and getting some good dive time in Oahu.
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daz88 - 7/05/2013 12:07 AM
hey Juan,
glad you enjoyed the pix. for those last Hawaii shots I used my G11 in a canon housing, just using natural lighting on most of them. I think I just used the onboard flash a couple of times. But lately most of the time in Hawaii I’ve been enjoying using the natural lighting. I shoot in RAW & adjust the WB when I get down to depth just to get it close, and make some minor tweeks on the computer. Most of the dives at home the viz sucks and most of the shooting is macro, so like to take advantage of the clear waters and natural lighting when in Hawaii. Plus all the turtles are so cool to shoot! All those pictures are from one day of diving.
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