Archive for month: August, 2014

Today’s dive at Baby Barge was amazing. The current was strong near the surface and it carried tons of tiny particles.  Some of the particles were the stinging kind and some were the round, translucent, about the size of a dime and had a crazy psycidelic  pattern kind. It made my safety stop with Mike at the end of our dive together vey interesting.  During the dive on baby barge we got to see a turtle emerging from the turtle cave below the wreck. Once the turtle was gone it opened the cave up to reveal a junior sized white tip reef shark. How exciting!
At depth at Baby Barge the current was almost non-exist which is rare here in HI and Mike and I took full advantage. It was the laziest, most rejuvenating dive in a long time.  It is moments like these were I absolutely fall in love with diving all over again.
Our second dive at Keanu Reef we spotted a slipper lobster exposed and out of his hole. Which is super rare so I included the video below.  We dropped into Keanu reef to find the current was moving fast there. We did our best to help each other spot the eels, puffer fish, elk horn, and antler coral that covers this dive site.  The corals are teeming with life and it’s pretty overwhelming to see so many fish climbing all over this one coral head in the middle of not much else.
Please enjoy the photos below of Keanu Reef.

Safe diving,

Davy

3 Best Times of the Day to Go Scuba Diving in Oahu, Hawaii

 

The island of Oahu is one of best spots to dive – not just in Hawaii, but anywhere in the world! There are some really incredible dive sites here, like the offshore lava formations, grottos, ship and plane wrecks, not to mention marine life that you may never see anywhere else.

 

Hawaii is 2,500 miles from the nearest continent, making it an extremely remote archipelago, which is hard to believe given its accessibility and popularity. Twenty islands make up the state, the largest of which are Oahu, Maui, Lanai, Kauai, and Molokai. With year-round warm water, it’s no wonder that people come from all over to get their scuba diving training and certification here.

 

Many people ask us what the best time of day is to go scuba diving in Oahu. Our response: there are only three times of day that are the best and these are morning, noon, and night!

 

Morning

Morning dives are fresh and invigorating. A lot of experienced divers love to dive in the early morning, going to locations like Kahala Barge and Fantasy Reef. With tons of fish, eels, and green turtles to swim with, you may also be lucky enough to pass by some octopi on your adventure.

 

Afternoon

At Island Divers we offer great afternoon two-tank dives, during which our charter boats take you to some truly excellent dive sites. Guided by experienced PADI certified divers, you’ll learn all about these locations, as well as the marine life you’ll see down below. Places like Sharks Cove, with its open-ended lava tubes and gorgeous arches, are easily accessible, providing some beautiful deep-light penetration that makes everything you see look like a magical kingdom.

 

Night

Nighttime dives are just plain amazing. They are for more expert divers who know their way around equipment very well and who are super comfortable underwater. To us, there’s nothing like going wreck diving, where nocturnal marine life awakens and phosphorescent fish seem to light the way. Diving in Oahu offers so many great locations, like the Corsair plane wreck, or the former smuggling ship known as the Sea Tiger located right off Waikiki. There’s also nothing like night diving by moonlight when you don’t need a flashlight to be guided through the dark. This being said, it’s always important to take a pocket light and a regular light with you, along with a chem light that you can attach to your tank.

 

Diving All Over the World

At Island Divers we offer two tank dives for all levels. If you are a beginner and want to get certified, we offer an excellent PADI program that gives you the best education, techniques, and protocols you need for your Cert card. As any experienced diver will tell you, scuba diving is one of the most worthwhile sports you can master. Getting to know the world underwater is exciting and rewarding and as you progress with your abilities, you can do it anywhere in the world – morning, noon, and night.  Ask us about where we can take you in the world with Island Divers Travel!

 

Contact Us

To learn more about diving in Oahu, drop us a line at: www.oahuscubadiving.com.

What a calm day out on the water! Despite the weather following the hurricane, we were blessed with calm seas this morning. We hopped in at our first site, New (Big) Barge, and were unable to moor the boat. Despite the calm surface, we had a current that was ripping across the bottom.

We made a quick change of plans and decided that we would drift from New Barge to LCU. It was possible because we had such a small group of advanced divers that were fantastic under water.

Once we dropped down onto the barge, we came across a green sea turtle relaxing on some of the rubble. We then explored some of the wreck and got to enjoy some of the swim throughs.

It was nice to have the option to explore the inside of the wreck because it gave us a break from the strong currents that were happening on the bottom.

Once we got time to explore New Barge, we headed over to LCU as a group. The strong current made it easy for us to drift pass some rather cool sea life. We passed the rock pile on our way to LCU and got to see some white tipped reef sharks!

Divers had a great time exploring the undersides of many of the concrete blocks that covered the ground at the rock pile.

Once we finally made it to LCU, we only had a quick chance to see the wreck before the current pulled us right past the wreckage.

We again passed a rather large pile of concrete blocks before we headed out for our surface stop.

We spent just over a half hour exploring the bottom and going with the current to get the best out of our first dive. Once we made it back aboard the ship, we had a nice long surface interval with some light snacks.

For our second site, we decided that we would dive Sea Cave, which has been impossible for us to dive recently. Given the strong conditions, we haven’t been able to go because its not safe for the boat to drop us off. Today we really lucked out.

We first dropped down to about 70 ft where we ran into another green sea turtle and a spotted eagle ray! Another great way to start off a dive!

One of the first things we spotted upon entering the cave was this hairy hermit crab in a trident shell. He was huge and right out in the open!

We explored more of the cave and came across tons of sea stars and more turtles before we began our drift dive to the east of the cave. Here we again came across more turtles and schools of fish.

We drifted for another 15 or so minutes, exploring the coral formations and the sea life that makes up the ridge of the wall.

We sent up our surface marker and made our way safely back to the surface, but not before we spotted a monk seal! What a fantastic way to end the dive!

Thanks so much to everyone who came out and made this a great morning for diving. We had a few students who finished up some specialties and a great group of certified divers. Hope you all had as much fun as I did!

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CREW: Marnie (instructor) Larry (instructor) Kendal (captain) Parker (crew)

WEATHER: 87*F, Sunny

DIVE PROFILES: New Barge to LCU: 80*F water temp, max depth 92ft, strong east current, dive time 36minutes, 80ft visibility

Sea Cave: 80*F water temp, max depth 70ft, slight east current, dive time 32minutes, 70ft visibility

MARINE LIFE OBSERVED: green sea turtles, crown of thorns, monk seal, spotted eagle ray, moray eel

It was a nice mellow afternoon today with only a handful of divers on the Sea Fox.  We had Sheri and Kelly out for some relaxing dives and Alberto working on his PADI open water certification.  For the first dive we hit Koko Craters and had nice conditions as we headed to the bottom.  There was a little bit of current and surge but it was a great dive.  There were turtles everywhere around the reef. Throughout the dive we found 12 turtles swimming about or resting under the ledges.  They are used to divers and just go about their business without a care in the water. There were also reef fish all about with damselfish and butterflyfish swimming around us. Before the end of the dive we came across a couple octopus hiding in the reef.

For the second dive we dove Turtle Canyons and again found a few more turtles resting on the bottom. We also had schools of wrasses and unicornfish swimming all over the reef. We found a few eels about the site including a large yellow margin morey and a smaller white mouth morey.  It was a great day and a nice relaxing afternoon, a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon.