Manta ray night snorkel for non-swimmers at Keauhou Bay

Can you do the manta ray snorkel if you can't swim?

You can come along, and you stay on the boat. The lit feeding area lies offshore around Kaukalaelae Point, next to the OUTRIGGER Kona Resort & Spa and roughly 7 miles south of Kailua-Kona, so the only way to be there is on a vessel leaving Keauhou Bay. Boats cross in about five minutes and the paddle canoes need 7 to 10 minutes.

There is no shoreline substitute at the bay itself. A cautious wade in from the beach is not on the table: fishing lines and tour-boat traffic are exactly why the state tourism authority tells visitors not to swim or snorkel in Keauhou Bay, and with 60 to 70 viewing vessels estimated to work the two Kona sites, the water off the point is a working area once it gets dark.

A deck place still puts you over the whole show. Floodlighting began above the bay in the early 1970s, the light concentrates plankton near the surface, the rays loop up into it to feed, and the snorkel area is shallow, about 6 metres at its deepest. Most reef mantas off Kona measure around 12 feet across, so from the rail you are watching 12-foot animals turning in lit water a few metres deep.

Manta ray night snorkel for non-swimmers: the deck place explained

One Keauhou Bay catamaran operator sells a deck-only Ride-Along place for non-swimmers and small children from age four, supervised by an adult, and the ticket does not permit entry into the water. It is published at $65 plus tax and fees against $130 for adults aged 13 and over and $115 for children aged 6 to 12 on the same trip. Check the figure on the date you want, since rates on this coast move with the season.

The supervision requirement is the part groups forget. The crew will not take charge of a Ride-Along passenger for you; an adult has to be with that person on board, which means one of your swimmers stays dry or you book two adults so one of them can go in. Another Keauhou operator states plainly that guests who stay aboard rather than enter the water still need a ticket of their own, so nobody rides along unbooked.

The paddle canoe works differently. A non-swimmer may stay in the hull while the rest of the group gets in, the canoes take children from age two if they can sit unaided, and life jackets are available on request for the canoe, with children aged 12 and under wearing one while paddling. That option is priced at $180 per person at every age, there is a 250 lb per-person weight limit, and each hull carries six guests with twelve the cap when two canoes run together.

• Deck-only Ride-Along: from age four, an adult must supervise, and the holder stays out of the water all evening
• Canoe hull place: a non-swimmer stays seated while others snorkel, children from age two if they can sit unaided
• No adult may use a life jacket in the water on the canoe trip, which leaves the hull as the only place for a weak swimmer on that tour
• Deck observers still need their own ticket on at least one Keauhou operator

What the in-water places actually require

Every Keauhou boat that publishes a requirement asks for two things: independent swimming and previous snorkelling experience. The canoe operator goes further and requires comfort swimming in the ocean, since there is no deck to climb onto out there. Minimum ages for getting in start at seven years on one boat and six on another, and the six-year minimum applies only if the child already swims and snorkels competently.

Full-face snorkel masks are refused on one Keauhou manta snorkel and are not permitted aboard a 50-foot catamaran from the same bay, which rules out the mask inexperienced snorkellers most often plan to use. You will be in a standard mask and snorkel, holding a lit float or a manta board with your legs flat behind you so you never make contact with an animal. Nobody swims laps at the site; you hang still at the surface for roughly 45 minutes while the rays feed under you.

The adult life-jacket rule on the canoe is worth reading twice if you were counting on a jacket to get you through. A jacket holds you upright and vertical, and the conservation guidelines ask for a horizontal body position, so the canoe operator keeps adults out of jackets in the water and keeps non-swimmers in the boat.

Flotation changes the picture for a nervous but capable swimmer

If you can swim and have snorkelled before but dislike deep water, the float line is easier than it sounds, because flotation comes with the kit instead of being something you request. Read the inclusion list of the 1.5-hour tour here and the support is already inside it: a floatation life belt, mask and snorkel, dive lights with a manta board to hang onto, a USCG captain on the helm, and a snorkel guide and lifeguard in the water alongside you. The 2.5-hour trip includes a flotation device and a jacket-style wetsuit top, and Keauhou operators variously provide a custom manta flotation device, a shorty wetsuit, a lit float or ankle floats on the canoe.

Holding a board or noodle removes the two things that frighten people most here, which are treading water and looking down into the dark. Your arms are on the float, your legs stay behind you, and the wetsuit or wetsuit top adds buoyancy of its own. Depth under you is only about 6 metres, and on a charter carrying divers as well their lights sit roughly 30 feet below the snorkelers' raft, so the whole column you are watching is lit.

Choose the departure time around your own comfort in the dark. The sunset departure gives you a twilight crossing and colour still in the sky, while the after-dark trip is marketed on fewer vessels at the site and darker water, which suits people already comfortable snorkelling at night.

An honest self-assessment if you have never snorkelled in open water

The Keauhou night site is a poor place to learn. There is no beach entry, no shallow lagoon and no standing up, you are in open water with boats on moorings around you, and the trip you booked is the only chance that evening. Operators here report mantas on more than 90% of nights without promising a sighting, and the rays are wild animals, so the evening carries enough uncertainty already without a first-ever snorkel attached to it.

Work through the list below truthfully. A yes to all of it means take a water place; a no to any of it means take the deck place and enjoy the evening dry, or spend a morning snorkelling somewhere calm first and keep the manta night for later in your trip.

• You can float face down and breathe through a snorkel without lifting your head, for minutes at a time
• You have done it in the ocean with swell moving you about
• You can clear a flooded mask or snorkel without panic, with the crew a few metres away
• You are comfortable in water well over your head with nothing to touch
• You can stay still, legs horizontal, for about 45 minutes without getting cold or restless
• You are not relying on a full-face mask, which two Keauhou boats do not allow

Picking a water place or a deck place on the tours listed here

Decide the booking around the weakest swimmer in your group, then look at the fares. If one person will not get in, put them in a deck place on a boat that sells one and book the rest of you into the water; if the whole party is hesitant but capable, take the trip with a lifeguard and a manta board in the fare. The three tours on this site all leave the Kona coast and all put you over the same lit water, with about the same time at the surface.

Departures follow sunset rather than a clock, and the exact time arrives with your booking, so work to that time and nothing else. How early you have to be there varies by tour, from 15 minutes ahead of departure up to a full half hour, and anyone bringing a nervous swimmer or a deck passenger wants the longer end of that. Few spaces exist at the Keauhou Bay pier itself, so count on Kaleiopapa Street and a 3 to 5 minute walk down to the water with your towels.

Questions people ask

Read also