Archive for month: June, 2014

Another fantastic afternoon for diving here in Oahu. It seems as though we have been blessed with awesome weather (of course) for the beginning of the summer dive season. Today, we had a lot of of help on the boat, since David and his lovely group of Divemaster trainees came out to do some skills. With just two customers, we had a lot of opportunity to explore.

Since we had some practice before we hopped in at our first site, Koko Crater, our first time divers were more than prepared. We were lucky enough to make it off of Little Buddha and spot a 7ft hammerhead! A rather uncommon site in these waters, Liana and I were stoked to have had this kind of opportunity.

We spent about 23 minutes at the site exploring the crater and checking out some cool sea creatures before we made our way back aboard the Sea Fox.

We spent about 40 minutes at the surface chatting and enjoying a light snack before we hopped in at our second site, Angler’s Reef.

Over at Angler’s Reef, we hopped in and had a great conditions for exploring the ridge. Visibility was fantastic and allowed the diver’s to look in all the small nooks and crannies for some small eels.

Divers were much more comfortable jumping in at the second site which made it a lot easier for us to explore and see some really cool sea creatures.

We spent about 21 minutes at the site and got to see a lot of different fish and a huge moray eel before we again boarded the Sea Fox and made our way back into the Hawaii Kai marina.

We really had another great day out in Maunalua Bay and again the weather made for some really awesome diving off of the coast of Oahu.

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CREW: Marnie (Instructor), Dave (Divemaster), Neil (Captain), Greg (Boat Crew), David (DMC Instructor)

WEATHER: 84*F, Sunny, Slight Breeze

DIVE PROFILES: Koko Crater: 79*F water temp, 40ft max depth, 23 minute bottom time

Angler’s Reef: 79*F water temp, 40ft max depth, 21 minute bottom time

MARINE LIFE OBSERVED: wrasse, hammerhead, pincushion sea star, moray eel, helmet conch, sea turtles, white mouthed eel, trumpetfish, butterfly fish

How many sea hares does it take to get to the bottom of a scuba tank?

Sea hares get their name because someone thought their two rhinophores sticking out on top of their head looked like bunny ears. They actually have good sense of smell, which explains why they were following Liam our youngest most advanced diver around.
Honestly, what goes through these scientists minds when they discover something like a sea hare. It expels purple ink, as Angela found out today, and it can actually get around using jet propulsion like a squid. Let’s call it a sea hare!

The real question is why are they floating in the water in mass at what seems to be random intervals?
I had so much fun diving with you all today, thanks for coming out to have some fun with me and the Island Divers Hawaii Crew. Great job drifting today, you guys nailed the second dive. I smell a drift specialty, you will all be ahead of the game.

Safe Diving,
Davy

Weather Conditions: Slight Drizzle, sunny
Dive Sites: Fantasy & Turtle Mound towards spitting caves
Dive conditions: Rippin’ current, VIZ was harey at spitting, but clear at Fantasy
Crew: Captain Joe, Maxine, Davy, Marnie, Bodhi

 

 

What a great morning for diving! We left the Hawaii Kai Marina on schedule at 8:30am with a total of 10 divers from all over the world. We had some divers who had been with us before and some new divers to the area which made for a very exciting morning aboard the Sea Fox. The divers also had a varied range of experience from Advanced to Rescue which made for an enjoyable experience. For some it was the first time going deep diving!

We decided that our first dive would be at Kahala Barge, which proved to have awesome conditions. Visibility was fantastic and divers had the opportunity to swim through and explore the shipwreck.

We had a good 30-35 minute dive on the wreck and saw a lot of really awesome marine life, there was even a potential hammerhead shark that was spotted, but that is yet to be determined!

The divers did a fantastic job monitoring their deco times and safely made their way back up the descent line and back to the Sea Fox. We had a surface interval of about 45 minutes, which allowed our divers to enjoy the morning sun and share stories with their fellow divers.

We decided for our second dive that we would drift over Fantasy Reef. This is one of our favorite sites to visit because its is teeming with marine life and has so much to offer. We saw loads of turtles and had some rather close encounters with a few of them!

Divers got to swim through some of the reefs formations and had a rather easy time drifting over the coral covered ocean floor. With so much to see, divers had the opportunity to observe Hawaii’s marine life at its best.

We spotted many different marine animals including pufferfish, turtles, and a white tipped reef shark!

After 40 minutes, we made our way back to the Sea Fox and headed back into the marina. I would say this dive was a fantastic way to spend my morning!

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Crew: Marnie (Instructor) Kendal (Captain) Parker (Crew)

Weather: 82*F Sunny, Slight Breeze

Conditions: Strong Koko Head current (E), Mild Surge

Dive Profiles:

Kahala Barge: max depth 97ft, visibility 90+ ft, 37min dive, 82*F water temperature

45 minute surface interval

Fantasy Reef: max depth 54ft, visibility 85+ft, 35min dive, 82*F water temperature

 

 

 

It was a wonderful morning off the southeast side of Oahu. There was a bit of wind and a small south swell but the water was crystal clear out at the LCU for the first dive.  We had 100+ft viz and little current as we made our way down to the wreck. Right away we found a red frogfish on the wreck and had a large school of goatfish swimming about.  As we swam about the wreck we found another frogfish and had a great relaxing time before heading back to the surface.

For the second dive we drifted Fantasy Reef and again had a great dive.  The viz was down a bit from the first dive but there was life all over the area.  We found turtles all around the site with a lot of them just cruising about in the current and a couple resting on the bottom.  There were also a few eels hiding about the reef and colorful reef fish swimming all about. We had a great morning and a perfect start to the week.

Sunny blue skies, with wind and big waves gave us some great buoyancy practice on our dives today.  Heading out we saw Koko craters was too busy, so we checked out Turtle Canyons.  it was a bit green due to the surge, but not bad viz, about 80 feet. current was running west, so we swam into it, seeing lots of eels, octopus, and large schools of juvenile reef fish, and then turned around and had a relaxing drift back to the Fox. 9 divers today, and special treat was 11 year old Tyler, who had a blast zipping around and checking out everything!  great young diver!!. joining us were isabella and dad chris from LA, locals ken and vanessa, plus tim and joe.  2nd dive was back over at Kokos to check out the green sea turtles, and they did not disappoint. the water was much bluer, with a fair bit of floating plankton, so very nice viz.  we also saw more eels, a plethora of cone shells, as well as the cool statues that live there.  thanks to all, Larry and Flora

Turtle Canyons – 35 feet, 40 minutes, viz 70

Koko craters – 40 feet, 44 minutes, viz 90