The water near shore around Maui is mostly pretty shallow. So far in the 2 dive sites that I visited (5 Graves and Mala Wharf), I wasn't able to get deeper than 30'. I was curious to see what the marine life was like deeper and I noticed that the marine chart shows a steeper drop to around 100' deep at Papawai Point. This is a popular lookout spot for whale-watching. There is a small parking lot and a long, steep slope down to the rocky shore. I came here to try diving it on Feb. 23, 2018. Before the dive, I saw several humpback whales in the distance. There was also a small swell hitting the exposed point so I would have to be careful where I entered the water.
I found a spot that was sheltered from the swell by a small finger of rock.
I swam straight out from shore to see if there was a deep drop-off. There was an almost flat slope of coral that eventually ended in sand about 45' deep. This definitely wasn't as steep and deep as I expected.
I turned right and started following the base of the rock/coral slope along the shoreline towards the tip of the point.
I reached the area at the tip of the point. The base of the slope was deeper here (65'), but still nowhere near 100' deep or anything. The slope was a pile of large boulders. There seemed to be less coral at this depth than up a bit shallower. Like all my dives on Maui, I could hear humpback whales singing during the entire dive. At this site they were especially loud.
I headed up the slope and swam back to my entry-point in the shallows.
After the dive, when I was back up in the parking lot, I saw a group of humpback whales swim past the point close to shore right where I had been diving. If I had been in the water 1/2 hour later, they would have swam right over me. I didn't see any sharks on this dive and only one turtle, but there were more fish than I saw on my other Maui dives.
