August 2014 - Island Divers Hawaii

Fun for All Ages 8/30

August 30, 2014/in Uncategorized/by Mark Savel

We had a wonderful group of divers today with a couple of 10 year olds finishing their PADI open water course and divers all the way up into their 60’s diving. The water was great with a small swell and clear water as we headed for Koko Craters for the first dive. There is always a great chance for turtles at this site and today was no exception. Right away on the bottom we found a couple turtles and reef fish all about us. Swimming around the reef we found a couple yellow margin morey eels and a very small turtle hiding out in the reef.

For the second dive we dove Turtle Canyons and again had a great dive. There were eels hiding out all over the reef including a couple large white mouth moreys and a few stout moreys. We also found a few leaf scorpion fish and a large porcupine puffer swimming about. It was a wonderful afternoon and congratulations to John and Julia for finishing up their open water today.

I’VE NEVER BEEN WRONG – JEFF SANTOS !! 30 August

August 30, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Larry Hogan

HAHA, the worlds greatest salesman, Jeff Santos (cannonballing in photo above), told us today that the weatherman who predicted small craft advisories, big swells, and rough conditions. was totally full of it, and instead, the weather was going to be beautiful. well, Saint Jeff was not wrong as we had a spectacular day of diving!! the sun was shinning, the breeze was gentle, and the waves were smooth. everyone wanted to see the famous Corsair airplane wreck so off we went, mooring up in the mild current, and the viz was so good i could see the plane from the mooring! huge schools of fish, fusillers, moorish idols, and big jacks were milling above the wreck, with the garden eels surrounding it. 2nd jump was a drift of Fantasy reef, and there were plenty of huge turtles, eels, a whitetip shark, as well as loads of reef fish! viz was down a bit but the current was nice and we had a blast checking out the marine life in Fantasy’s beautiful topography! thanks to all for safe diving, and congrats to Ty for his EAN cert, and joseph for completing his AOW! much love to Ron and Jan, two of our favorite regulars who have dove with us for the last 8 years, whenever they come out to visit! also Happy Trails to the aforementioned superstar Jeff (who has never been wrong, right Matt?) is off on his bi-annual vacation. have a blast buddy! larry, joe, and kelsea

thanks for the smiles Jan!

ENJOY THE RIDE!! 29 august

August 29, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Larry Hogan

it was a awesome, fun, and wild ride today, as sunny blue skies above gave us a great day for diving! underwater was the thrill ride, as Koko craters was full of big turtles, octopus, scorpion fish, schooling fusiliers, all swaying back and forth in the powerful surge with us. lots of buoyancy and surge practice today!! we had to stay tight, as the viz was way, way, way down. maybe 20 feet! but we all hung together and saw lots of cool stuff, one of the highlights being a huge peacock flounder! 2nd jump was over to Anglers ledge, where we found some blue water, giving us 80 feet of viz. sweet!! it was the eel show there today, as we saw big and small morays, lots of juvenile reef fish, and some huge helmet conch canoodling on the bottom. lots of current also! thanks to all for a great effort of staying alert and together as a group in challenging conditions!! larry and lord kendal

8/29 Sometimes You Just Gotta Double Wreck Double Deep

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

Friday – What started as a beautiful morning with Stu, Alecia, Ben, Klaus, and a bunch of HSU guys and gals with Amy and John turned into an awesome day of diving. We jumped into the Kahala Barge, one of my personal favorite spots to dive, and saw a bunch of huge trumpet fish, some spotted crabs in the coral while John and his crew buzzed around with a bunch of DPVs- Diver Propulsion Vehicles. From there we went to the LCU, just a short jump away and saw some White tipped reef sharks! I also dropped my camera immediately, but then got it back. Yes! Nice work everyone, we’ll see you next time.

Ben is solving the problem of world hunger in his head

Stu snapping a better pic than I

Ben and Klaus

Klaus

Stu looks at a hole.

Weather Conditions: Windy and Sunny, small south swell
Dive Sites: Kahala Barge & LCU
Dive Conditions: 90 FT 32 min & 85 Ft 20 min Temp 79 F
Staff: Capt Kendall, Dive Lead Kellan, Amy, John, Crew Catherine

Discovering SCUBA before Summer Ends! 8-27-2014

August 27, 2014/in Dive Reports, Uncategorized/by Manolo Cabasal

Visiting from the Mainland Logan, Austin, and their mother Anna decided to fit in a couple of SCUBA dives before school starts next Monday. Their journey began @ 0900 at IDH’s Hawaii Kai location. After a short intro video and a gear fitting the vacationing trio went to the Makai Research Pier for a confined water skills presentation and swim practice. After completing their skills with ease the trio returned to Hawaii Kai for lunch, filled with confidence.

Eager to document their adventure, they entered the water with a GoPro and a rental digital underwater camera. The first site on the agenda: Turtle Canyons. Despite the incoming swell, the divers were met with 50ft visibility, a mild current, and every moray eel in the neighborhood. Green morays, snowflake, dragon, and zebra. You name it and it was out there showing their teeth.

Next site for exploration: Koko Craters. Immediately off the mooring line, the divers came face to face with numerous turtles under the Little Buddha statue. Besides the turtles, the divers encountered spotted and blotched porcupine fish, a couple more morays, pincushion starfish, sergeant majors, and a devil scorpion fish.

Dive Stats:

Turtle Canyons & Koko Craters
41ft – 33min & 40ft – 43min

Very well done Logan, Austin, and Anna! Make sure you add a PADI Open Water Course to your extra curricular activities! Thank you for coming out!

A special thanks to the Sea Fox crew: Capt. Kellan, Matt, Brent, & Sam the Dive Dog.

BIG SHARKS AT LCU !! 27 August

August 27, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Larry Hogan

fun day, especially if you are a shark lover!! blue skies and nice breezes followed us out to the LCU where we divers hoped to see a shark or two. currents have been strong, and today was no different, as it took 2 tries to get the boat moored up. strong current! supermaning down the line, we were greeted by a hawaiin green sea turtle hanging out next to the prop. then on further decent we saw schooling fusiliers and checked out the encrusted brown frogfish, still in the same spot, and so hard to see! amazing!! people love it when they finally make it out! today it was upside down. heading underneath the wreck we saw 3 large whitetip sharks, pretty relaxed, but moving about a bit! quite big for whitetips! 2nd jump was a drift of Fantasy, and it was spectacular as usual! huge turtles, lots of fish and eels, a big octopus sitting out and flashing colors. thanks to all for safe diving, larry and kellen

LCU – 90 feet 30 min. 100 ft viz

Fantasy – 52 feet 45 min. 100 ft viz

Tuesdays with Moray (AUG26)

August 26, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Marnie Cadden

It was a very calm day this afternoon aboard the Sea Fox. With just a couple of divers aboard today, we had the chance to go around and explore some of the deeper sites. For our first dive, we decided it would be a good idea to drift over Fantasy Reef to get some great views of the reef.

We dropped down onto schools of fish that were awesome! We headed west towards Diamond head so that we could avoid swimming against the current. Following the zig zag patterns across the reef, we got to see a lot that it had to offer.

We got to spend some time with the green sea turtles that inhabit the reef and got much closer than we had expected!

Wehad a great time going through the arches and through the canyons that the reef had formed. We came across tons of eels and all different kinds of marine life.

We made our way back aboard the Sea Fox to make our way to the next dive site, and we enjoyed a nice snack as well.

We dropped into the second site to come across a ton of moray eels. It felt as though every corner we came across, we saw another one!

We also saw a rather large and friendly pufferfish that swam with us for a bit, which is rather uncommon.

We saw many fish that were camoflauging themselves with their surroundings. It was fun to spot them along the reef edge.

We made our way back aboard the Sea Fox in record time and enjoyed a nice fresh cut pineapple on our way back in. Such a great way to spend the afternoon. Thanks so much for coming out!

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CREW: Marnie (instructor) Ashley (crew) Neil (captain)

DIVE PROFILES: Fantasy Reef: max depth 57ft, 80ft visibility, 33min bottom time

Anger’s Reef: max depth 43ft, 60ft visibility, 36min bottom time

MARINE LIFE OBSERVED: green sea turtle, moray eel, scorpion fish, trigger fish, trumpet fish

Oahu Dive For Life 2014

August 26, 2014/in Dive Reports, Uncategorized/by Lauren Smith

What a wonderful Event for the weekend. We had such amazing support from all over the island, and a turn out of over 100 divers! For those who are not familiar, Dive For Life is an event we at Island Divers started last year.

There are many ways people are raising money to fund the research into a cure for cancer, one especially that is a successful tradition is Relay For Life.

Island Divers Hawaii decided to put a twist on the Relay for Life to make it fit what they and their diving community can relate to, Scuba Diving. From that Dive for Life was born. Teams of divers hit the water at Sharks Cove to dive for 12 hours while donations flooded in to support their efforts.

The biggest reward at the first Dive For Life is that Divers from around the world donated and Dive For Life raised over $6800 for American Cancer Society. The American Cancer Society representative of Hawaii Arthur Grau was blown away by the popularity and efforts that dive for life committed to the cause.

This year we wanted it to be even bigger! We want to be one of the largest Cancer fundraiser event in Oahu and create a tradition for all our future divers in Hawaii to join together their Dive Shops, Dive Clubs, and weekend dive groups and do something for others.

Like we said before, we had an amazing turn out of over 100 divers and we raised over $5000! Every team did such an amazing job getting all their friends and families involved and everyone was so excited to dive all day long!

Not only did we have amazing support from our SCUBA community, We had amazing sponsors join the fight. Aqua Lung donated a Legend LX regulator, Impression Mask, & X Shot fins. Oceanic donated Aeris A300 computer, Veo 1.0 console computer, Veo 3.0 Wrist computer, Aeris mask, fin, snorkel bags, Hollis t shirts, and Lava Core Hats. Scuba Pro donated an MK25/600 regulator.

We just thank you all for coming together and being apart of a cause we can all relate to!

Congratulations to the winning teams Wetter is Better, Honolulu Dive Club, and Better than the Dive Misfits! You can still donate till next week at www.oahudiveforlife.com

Oahu Dive for Life 2014

Hanging out ready to dive

Heading down the Hill first dive of the Day

Our strong SCUBA teams fight the cause!

100 Hamburgers, and 80 Hot Dogs were gone in an 1hr 1/2

Great SCUBA groups leading the charge against Cancer

Huge turn out!

8/25 Students Get Abducted By Aliens At Koko Craters

August 26, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Kellan Bernhardt

Monday – Not really, aliens aren’t a thing yet. YET. However there’s a bunch of weird stuff in the ocean, and that’s what we got to see on our trip. Onboard we had Avi, Steven, Lisa, and Mike, as well as Tim and his son/nephew? Alex. At Koko craters it was the normal student dive 3/4 stuff, compass navigation, working on buoyancy control, clearing some masks, and BCD oral inflation, as well as the CESA, which Avi and Steven passed with flying colors. Along the way we saw some eels, and a green sea turtle, and a ton of urchins, and some fish! Of which there are tons of and too many to name. From there we went on to Angler’s reef after some brief surface excitement, and played for 30 min at 50 feet there. Eels, pencil urchins, and a leaf scorpionfish were seen, all while getting led around by the students. It’s nice to have them take the reigns once in a while. Nice work everyone, and congratulations to our newest Scuba Divers. Welcome.

What a hat

Two hats

No hats

You could fit another person in there, sure.

Weather conditions: Warm, sunny, small wind
Dive Sites: Koko Craters 40min 35 ft, Anglers Reef 45ft 30 min
Dive Conditions: 40+ viz, 82F
Marine Life Observed: Spotted Moray, Green sea turtle, Pencil urchin, Scorpionfish
Staff: Capt. Joe, Instr. Kellan Max Crew

Drifting Away (AUG24)

August 24, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Marnie Cadden

What a great morning for the Sunday 3-tanker! We got an early start and headed out of Hawaii Kai with a boat of 6 diver. Most of us have been diving recently and were ready to have another day exploring the ocean. After a quick briefing, we decided to head over to the barges and check the conditions. We decided, after checking currents, that our best bet was to drift from Baby Barge to New Barge.

Baby Barge

Having some rather experienced divers aboard the Sea Fox this morning, we did a great job executing our dive plan. We followed along the shark cave ledge to Baby Barge, and spotted a white tipped reef shark under the ledge!

Green Sea Turtle

During the drift, we swam alongside the famous green sea turtle who was cruising along with the currents.

Concrete piles

We passed piles of concrete piles that house lots of different marine animals. Such a great thing to pass while drifting between boats.

Blue spotted eagle ray

Once we were ready to make our ascent, we found a blue spotted eagle ray while we were making our safety stop. He too was cruising in the current and hung around for a while before swimming off into the abyss. What a great way to spend 3 minutes!

Passing Diamondhead

We had a nice boat ride over to the Waikiki side of Diamond Head and divers got to share stories and enjoy the nice weather. After about an hour surface interval, we hopped in at our second dive site.

Max off Waikiki

At our second site, YO-257, divers dropped down onto a bit of a current. We had around 20+ minutes to explore the shipwreck before divers had to make their way back up.

YO-257

Our dive plan was to swim along the bottom and then make our way up to the deck of the ship to maximize our bottom time. Divers executed their plan perfectly and got a great look at the wreck off the famous Waikiki coastline.

Bow of YO-257

Inside the YO-257

We had a great time playing around on the ship and were sure to avoid the submarine that also explores the wreck.

YO-257 deck

Deck of YO-257

We finally made our way back to the Sea Fox (after completing our safety stop of course!) and enjoyed a nice lunch while we made our way to our final site.

Max making her way up the line

Captain Joe

Once we finished up our lunch and made our way back into Maunalua Bay, we chose Fantasy Reef for our final dive. After an hour or so aboard the Fox, we hopped back into the water.

Swimming with turtles

We dropped down onto great visibility and were immediately greeted by a lot of turtles!

Green Sea Turtle

We had a mild current across the reef, but divers did a fantastic job navigating across the reef to maximize our time underwater. We made it through both of the swim throughs and checked out all of the ledges. We were surrounded by turtles and schools of fish the entire dive. It was a great way to end the Sunday 3 tanker!

Great group of dviers!

Thanks to all who came out this morning, hope you had as much fun as I did!

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CREW: Marnie (instructor) Joe (captain) Lauren (crew)

WEATHER CONDITIONS: light winds, sunny, 86*F

DIVE PROFILES: Baby Barge to New Barge drift: 96ft max depth, 81*F water temp, 32min bottom time, Koko Head current

YO-257: 98ft max depth, 80*F water temp, 29minute bottom time, Diamondhead current

Fantasy Reef: 58ft max depth, 81*F water temp, 22minute bottom time, Diamondhead current

MARINE LIFE OBSERVED: blue spotted eagle ray, white tipped reef shark, green sea turtle, mantis shrimp, crown of thorns seastar