May 2014 - Island Divers Hawaii

Rays, Eels and Mating Helmet Conchs 5/31

May 31, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Maxine Markert

Last day in May and we had some beautiful conditions today. Trying to tie up at Kahala Barge I ultimately decided the current was too strong. So I proceeded with our large group to jump in at the Shark cave to the west of the Baby barge. The moment we got in, Captain Joe and his crew member Kelsey, dropped us on two incredibly curious spotted eagle rays. They stayed with us all the way to baby barge. Cutting in front of us every so often, we also were pleased to see several turtles emerge from the Baby Barge, after which we drifted along to New Barge, we glassed over the wreck and proceeded to come up completing a thirty minute dive. A bit choppy on the surface so we decided to head in to calmer water. We dove Angler’s reef the second dive and we again did a drift. After seeing 6 pairs of mating helmet conchs we were nearing the end of the reef so I brought the group to some off shore coral heads. I saw a frogfish on top of the coral head I put my hand down close to an eel home underneath the coral head where he then bit my hand. I apologize to all my divers and also thank them for understanding you can’t win them all. A special thanks to Dennis and Danica for providing the pictures show. As well as a big thanks my whole dive group for following proper diving procedure even in an emergency and doing a safe accent. Thank you for all of your patience today and I look forward to seeing each and everyone of you diving with us again, next time I’ll have some gloves! Mahalo!

Maxine Giving the OK to all her diver’s after a long day!

Scorpion Fish at Angler

Our friendly spotted eagle ray pair!

Aloha, weekend!

May 30, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Amy Bossler

Weather Conditions
Dive Sites: F4 Corsair, Fantasy Reef
Dive Conditions: Dive 1-105′ for :20, Dive 2- 50′ for :30, 76 degree water temp, strong Diamond Head current, surge
Marine Life Observed: Garden moray eels, alligator snake eel, octopus, green sea turtles, and blue dragon nudibranch
Staff: Capt Jo, Amy, and Max (Crew)

Aloha,
Thanks for choosing to dive with Island Divers Hawaii. We had another great morning of diving. Today, Josh and Joel joined us from Dallas, Mike and Kevin came from San Diego, Loren and Nori joined us from HI, and Aaron traveled from the mid-west to come diving. We had bumpy conditions out in the bay today. However, the sun was shining and the diving was great! We stepped into the water for our first dive at the Navy F4 Corsair. This wreck rests in 105′ of water. Our divers got their pictures with the wreck, checked out the garden eels, and got a rare chance to see an alligator snake eel!!! So lucky! After our surface interval we headed back into the water at my personal favorite, Fantasy Reef. We had strong currents and about 80″ of viz. Our group saw tons of turtles, nudis, an octopus, and a large green moray eel. Overall, it was a great morning of diving and a fantastic start to the weekend. Thanks again for diving with IDH. Until next time, dive easy!

Aloha,
Amy

Swimming through Fantasy

May 29-Marcus Flys with yellowfin

May 29, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Davy Eleen Vercoe

The Common Longnose Butterflyfish swims under Marcus, schools of Yellowfin Goatfish swim ahead, Marcus flies behind with his free time. LCU had some treasures on it today, two frog fish, one blueish black the other looked like pink brown reef. They were beautiful to watch hunting with their mouths agape ready to strike. Although frog fish have no spines or poison they can catch food with their lure above their mouth and eat it in about six milliseconds. It was wonderful flying around the wreck and breathing underwater. Today felt like it did the first time on scuba, magical.

Weather: Sunny and breezy
Dive Sites: LCU 90 FT & Anglers 42ft
Dive Conditions 100ft & 60Ft
Water Temp: 77 F- Awesome for shorties
Marine Life Observed: Frog Fish

Safe Diving,

Davy

Marcus Flys with yellowfin goatfish

Which Species Frog Fish is this?

I love me some Gold Lace Nudibranchs

5/28 Plunging New Depths

May 29, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Kellan Bernhardt

Wednesday – By request we’re diving the Corsair. We have a couple of students doing advanced open water diving course, and the list is deep and drift. So we’re going as deep as we go: 105 feet. Current is pulling a little, but nothing serious. At 80 feet the thermocline makes us all freeze with a nearly ten degree difference in temperature. From there we move on to Spitting Caves and jump in looking for turtles. We find some, and get some bonus sharks in as well. An octopus also says hi. As we come back in the day gets even better with sunshine and hot minty towels. Good stuff.

Everyone Getting Stoked

Sarah Throws Out

Dave Gets Real

Sharky shark shark shark

Conditions: Windy 10-20kts, Medium swell, Very sunny
Dive Conditions: Medium current, high visibility ~120ft, 76f, fish density:high
Sites: Corsair 105ft 25min, Spitting Caves 50ft 40min
Staff: captain Joe, crew Danae, inst Kellan

Discovering Pa’a’awa 5/28

May 28, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Maxine Markert

Adam and his Angels

Max and her diving crew today

Waving good bye

Mark in the middle

Maunalua Bay was good to us today, no swell, light current and hardly any wind. Best condition I could have asked for, for my two open water students Marissa and Katie. They were so natural in the water I thought they were certified excellent job today guys! Mark was working with four hilarious Discover scuba divers, Stephanie, Danielle, Erin and Adam. They had such good energy they kept all of our days light and happy, thank you guys for your enthusiasm and excellent attitudes. Mary, thank you for being so self sufficient and easy going you are welcome back anytime. For our first dive we had the pleasure of Pa’a’awa reef, after a 30 minute dive we surfaced and shot right over to Koko Craters, it was a strange day at Koko’s not one single turtle, sorry to disappoint you guys wish you all come back again soon so I can show you some turtles. Thank you for coming out today with Mark and myself. I hope to see you all again soon.

Tinkering Tuesday 5-27

May 27, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Maxine Markert

This blissful Hawaiian morning everyone was so ready to leave, that we left the dock at 8 am. I love the enthusiasm guys! We got out to the LCU for our first dive and Audrey and myself got to see a majestic spotted eagle ray swimming into the current gliding gracefully. After circling the wreck several times seeing a beautiful frog fish and a sulky scorpion fish we ended our dive after 30 minutes. The visibility was incredible, the surface was a little choppy but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves on the boat with crew. After a hour long interval we hoped back in at Fantasy reef and saw an incredible amount of turtles everyone seemed to really enjoy the reef and the large amounts of fish and turtles. A huge thanks for Todd for coming out three days straight with us and coming back out after we were a bit full on Monday, we hope you choose to come back out with us again soon, you were absolute a joy on my charters. I really appreciate you positive attitude and self sufficiency YOU ROCK! To Audrey and James thank you for coming out diving with me today you two were very interesting to watch underwater I hope you had as much fun diving with me as I did with you! I hope you both come back again soon! Bill and Jennifer thank you for coming out today I always like to share as much knowledge as possible with as many eager people as I possibly can so it is nice when people as for my advice. Jennifer I also want to thank you for going to Hawaii Scuba University, I truly hope you have as much fun as I did there. I look forward to seeing all of you again very soon!

LCU with a school of fish

How about the scorpion fish?

can you see a frog fish?

Baby turtle came and ran into me… Watch where you are going squirt!

Swimming through Fantasy

Weather Conditions:Light trade Kona winds and 2 to 4 foot swell.
Dive Sites : LCU, Fantasy Reef
Dive Conditions: LCU max dept 90 ft, 30 minutes, 77 f, strong east current
Fantasy reef: max dept 45 ft, 40 minutes, 76 f, strong east current
Marine life observed: Scorpion fish, Frog fish, turtles, and spotted eagle ray
Staff: Captain Kendal, Crew: Parker, Instructor: Maxine

5/26 Now is the Time to Discover Scuba Diving

May 27, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Kellan Bernhardt

Monday – I jump into the pool with Chris, Mike, Tj, Charlie, and Jenna and we go over some skills that we need to dive for the first time. From there we’re joined by Alex, Manny, Tim Brenton and Nick. We go out to the first dive site: Pa’awa. We see some eels, some fish, and an octpus! Also a zebra shrimp! From there we go to koko’s and see some turtles. Always a good place to see turtles, Koko’s. If you’re thinking of going diving, but you’re not certified, that’s okay. Our DSD program will let you experience diving TODAY, without the hassle or expense of getting certified. DO IT. DO IT NOW.

Cruising along.

You like my snake impression?

Octopus

Mr. Morray barging his way through

Weather conditions: sunny, slight breeze
Dive Sites: Pa’awa, Koko Crater
Dive Conditions: limited surge, Koko Current, 60ft viz
Marine Life Observed: Octopus, nudibranchs, frog fish, Zebra Shrimp, Green sea turtles.
Staff: Capt Joe, Max, Pete, Kellan

SHARKS AND TURTLES ! 26 May

May 26, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Larry Hogan

who doesn’t like sharks and turtles? no one on the Fox today! and a great dive day for finding both! We moored up at Baby Barge and meandered down to the shark cave, which had been taken over by jolly green giant hawain sea turtles! on our way to the wreck a huge moray eel and an octopus eyeballed us from there respective hidey holes. couldn’t find the frogfish today, but we found several more huge turtles when we got there! current was moving well, so we decided to drift spitting caves for dive two. guess what? more turtles and sharks! congrats and good job to Susan for finishing up her Advanced Open water in great style! she’s on her way to the Galapagos for a dive trip next! thanks to all for good diving today! Larry, Max, Joe

Memorable Three Tanker 5/25

May 25, 2014/in Dive Reports, Dive Travel/by Maxine Markert

On this very eventful morning we made it out to the Corsair, enjoying slack current and a large variety of fish. After a 20 minute dive we surfaced and enjoyed our hour long journey to the YO- 257, jumping in and then directly down to the San Pedro, I was fortunate enough to see a white tip reef shark, Leila, Andy and Damien my advanced open water students, all enjoyed swimming through the wreck and after 30 minutes of being circled by the submarine we ended our dive. The last dive site we hoped in on was called Rock pile we decided to drift along the a series of random objects left on the bottom of the ocean again another 30 minute dive, there was also a mixture of large coral heads, and larger schools of fish. Fortunately we had an extremely laid back group today. A huge welcome back and thanks to Bob I can’t wait for your stand up act you were making me crack up today thank you for making me laugh and smile most of the day! And a Farewell to Mark Allen and Crystal Manning you too were excellent company all week last week and today, you two were people I looked forward to diving with every day, thank you for making my job easy. Everyone out was an absolute pleasure to be around we had an extremely incredible day with a great group of divers. Thank you for all coming out today with a lot of patience, I await the day you all come back!

Seeing the Corsair in a new light

sleepy turtle

Yo-257

Submarine

Rock Pile

Sea cave Entrance 5/23

May 24, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Maxine Markert

Thank God for being close to the equator Friday we had some of the best diving conditions possible. We started out our day with spinner dolphins following the boat out to the dive site. We dove the New barge with no wildlife to speak of but excellent visibility and the wreck is in prime condition. After a 30 minutes of exploring the wreck my dive crew surfaced and we enjoyed a 45 minute surface interval. We made our way over to Sea Cave the conditions looked nice and it was Larry one of our advanced student divers doing his last dive for a while on the island. We got down and entered the cave but it was all whited out so I made the decision to turn the group around and dive along the wall. We did a 40 minute dive and saw some turtles and one Spotted eagle ray on our way off the wall. It was a extra fun day with a fair amount of regulars on the boat. Michelle and Michael diving on who dive with us quite often thanks for coming out with me it was a blast to have you. Brittany and Jon you guys are always a pleasure to have around I know I can trust you to stay with the group and handle yourselves thank you for making my dives interesting and uneventful! Tony, it was a pleasure to show you some excellent sites in Hawaii thank you for choosing us to for your first dive in the United States. Larry this is farewell for now but I can’t wait for the day you come back to dive with us again, I hope your journey to Arkansas is all you hope it to be, Well Wishes! Linda, you were a hoot on the boat all day and onto the next day I am excited to have you on the Three Tanker on Memorial day Sunday, you made me laugh throughout the day! Mahalo to All of you guys for coming out diving with me today and I look forward to having you all back out on the water with me again very soon!

Michelle and Michael examining the New Barge

New barge

Entrance to Sea Cave

Exit to Sea Cave

Farewell to Larry!

Eagle Ray