Why do we love scuba diving off the Big Island's Kona coast? Oh, let us count the ways.

1. It’s a nature lover’s paradise — it’s possible to snowboard Mauna Kea one day and then scuba dive a reef the next day, and hear the song of humpback whales.

2. The endemic marine life, including bandit angelfish, Potter’s angelfish and milletseed butterflyfish, to name just a handful. Even if you’re not the type of diver who maintains a life list, in Hawaii, with so many fish found nowhere else on earth, you’ll get swept up IDing the ones that parade past your mask.

3. The manta night dive is often billed as The Greatest Night Dive on Earth, but you could also call it The Greatest Underwater Night Party on Earth. Yes, it does get crowded and turn into a bit of a circus, but don’t miss the chance to get close to one of the largest fishes in the ocean, with wingspans of up to 20 feet or more. The Kona Coast is the best place to encounter manta rays at night. You can see them attracted to the spotlights in the waters off of resorts like Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay, just south of Kailua-Kona, or at Garden Eel Cove, a site just offshore the island’s airport.

4. It’s common to have playful spinner dolphins riding and spinning acrobatically in the wake of the dive boat on your way out to the dive site, or if your lucky, come down and join you while you’re underwater.

5. They are classified as threatened, but Hawaiian green sea turtles, or honu, are commonly found on Kona, both underwater and resting on beaches.

6. Classified Near Threatened by the IUCN, tiger sharks are requiem sharks that can reach 16 feet in length and weigh up to 1,400 pounds. It’s believed that the females migrate to the Hawaiian island chain to give birth. “The tiger sharks love it here around the entrance to Honokohau Harbor. They’ll come from deep, they’ll come from shallow — you’ll be looking around and all of a sudden they’ll be a big shark right there,” says Kevin Stewart, a divemaster with Kona Honu Divers. “Your best chance to see them is late June through August and into September.”

7. Don’t miss Jack’s Diving Locker’s Pelagic Magic (other operators offer it as a black-water dive experience). Tethered to the dive boat that’s drifting in 2,000 to 6,000 feet of water and equipped with a powerful dive light, you’ll witness seeing tiny animals that have migrated from the deep ocean waters to feed at the surface. It happens all over the world, but Jack’s Diving Locker pioneered the experience. It rivals the manta ray night dive as The World’s Greatest Night Dive.