Archive for month: June, 2014

Wednesday – The day starts off with a couple of awesome people trying scuba diving for the first time ever through our Discover Scuba Diving program. Josh, Gillian and I went over to Makai and rolled around in shallow waves for a little bit. We attempted some skills, and they smashed them all. From there we got on the boat with 6 others and went diving for reals! Turtle canyon was first where we saw some eels, some urchins, I used a cucumber as a slate, and we found an octopus! The next site was Koko Craters where we saw ONE turtle. Blasphemy. But we did see some Hawaiian lionfish and played frisbee with a pillow star, and Conolly and Tony did the skills they needed to to finish their Open Water Certifications. Congrats All! Come back and see me again.

Divemaster Students?

OW Students!

DSDs!

Weather conditions: Warm, sunny, and slight breeze
Dive Sites: Koko Craters and Turtle Canyon
Dive Conditions: 70+ viz, mild Diamond Head current
Marine Life Observed: Turtles, eels, Hawaiian Lionfish, Pacific Octopus
Staff: Capt. Joe, Kellan, David, Greg crew

The charter this afternoon was full of new divers, divers working on their certification, finishing certification and advancing their skills.  On board today we had Alan, Brandon, David, Mac, Jeff, Natalia, Nick and Joe.  Our first dive we ended up at Koko Crater where we found fantastic visibility and very minimal current.  The conditions were really in our favor for having some beautiful dives, as we began our descent onto the crater we found ourselves immediately in the middle of a school of Moorish Idols and Sargent Majors. As we continued on our dive, the ocean seemed to be happy for us choosing this day to dive, we saw Green Sea Turtles and much more all wrapped up in shimmering light rays reflecting off the beautiful white sand bottom. Once we completed the skills required for our individual courses we finished touring around the site and then headed back to the boat.  We got back on board and we were off to the next site, during surface interval and our signature red vine and cookie snack, we all took the time to meet each other.  We had visitors from all over the country today including even one student from Chile named Natalia who finished her open water certification! Congratulations to Island Divers newest certified diver! After our surface interval we headed back underwater at Turtle Canyon. Once again we were gifted with nearly perfect conditions.  We got to explore this coral encrusted reef and all of its inhabitants such as Snowflake Morays, Green Sea Turtles and Divided Flatworms which just so happens to carry the same poison as pufferfish. We finished up our dives and then got back on board and headed back to the dock.  It was quite the beautiful day out on the water and truly one of those times you had to be there…

Weather Conditions: Wind (SE @ 15kts), Seas (1-2ft Slow Rolling Swell), Sunny and Beautiful

Dive Sites: Koko Craters, Turtle Canyon

Dive Conditions: 40 ft Max, 32 min & 45 min, 80 degrees, Mild – None Current

Marine Life Observed: Snowflake Morays, Green Sea Turtles, Divided Flatworms, Moorish Idols

Staff: Captain (Joe) Crew (Greg) Instructors (Kendal and Neil)

wow, a flat surface, sunny blue skies, and ripping current gave us a great day of diving, boating, and exercise!  LCU was the people’s choice for dive one today, and the viz was spectacular at 150 clear, blue feet!!  no sharks today, but the frog fish is still fun to find, and we saw eagle rays, and a couple of great barracuda.  dive two was one of our favorites, the YO 257. After a smooth trip over to waikiki, we tied up and shimmied down the line, spotting turtles and submarines, as well as a huge school of moorish idols.  dive three was a drift dive over at world-class dive site, Spitting Cave.  jackpot!  sharks, turtles, octopus, frogfish, and great topography.  of course, the ripping current had disappeared by then!!  haha, that’s the ocean for you. special thanks to kelsea for working all weekend as crew, as well as to Flora for hooking the boat up in the midst of epic current!  and  thanks to all for safe diving,  larry, kellen, flora, joe, kelsea

Landing Craft Unit – 90 ft, 30 minutes

YO 257 – 90 feet 30 minutes

Spitting Cave – 50 feet, 45 minutes

Haha, a bit of current today on Kahala Barge.  Actually it was about as strong as i’ve felt in all my years of hawaiin diving. But by using the excellent line set up on the Fox, divers can get to the dive sites with minimal effort and no wasted air.   wrecks also have some protected spots where the current is redirected, so an aware diver can still enjoy long and relaxed dives by using those techniques.  one of those protected areas was inside the wreck, which had 4 huge trevelly, locally known as ulua, hiding inside.  they took off pretty quick, but always great to see a big, fierce fish like that.  2nd jump was a spectacular drift of Spitting Cave, and the conditions were perfect.  blue, clear water, mild current, and loads of sea life.  schools of fish, turtles, eels, an octopus, and a big green frogfish were all viewed along the way.  thanks to all for safe diving,  larry, kendal, joe, kelsea

kahala barge 90 feet  35 minutes

spitting caves 50 feet 45 minutes