September 2014 - Island Divers Hawaii

Unusual Afternoon Adventure 9/30

September 30, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Mark Savel

It was an amazing afternoon today. We had a great group of divers with not much wind but a larger south swell. With all certified divers on the boat we headed for some deeper sites where the surge wouldn’t be as bad. For the first dive we hit Baby Barge and had good viz but a bit of a surface current. Once we got to the bottom the current was much weaker and there were large turtles everywhere, resting on the bottom or swimming about the site. We also found a couple large yellow margin moreys and reef fish all about the site.

For the second dive we drifted Fantasy Reef and had a nice dive. Again there were turtles all over the site and more eels hiding in the reef. We had reef fish swimming about with large schools of damselfish and butterflyfish round us and goatfish and wrasses hiding about the reef. It was a wonderful afternoon and a real treat to head out to some of our more advanced sites later in the day.

BLUE AND BLUER !! 30 september

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

just a beautiful day today above and below the surface. sunny blue skies and waters, with mild current at our first site the Corsair airplane wreck. with me were Sina and Cat, a Persian and Columbian, with Sina working on his advanced open water cert. also out were jon and matt, playing with their diver propulsion scooters! lots of fish at Corsair, fusiliers, big eyes, and the ubiquitous garden eels, plus a big eel in the fuselage. no frog fish today! 2nd jump was a drift of Fantasy Reef, always a favorite. great topography, with ginormous turtles everywhere! also a baby octopus, barracuda, beautiful reef fish, and colorful coral! thanks to all for safe diving!

larry, kellen, max

Corsair 107 feet 25 minutes 90 viz

Fantasy 52 feet 42 minutes 90 viz

Wild Waters (SEPT29)

September 29, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Marnie Cadden

It was an enjoyable afternoon aboard the Sea Fox for today’s dives! We had a small group of only four divers and since we were all certified, we had a lot of options for our site choices.

At Koko Crater, we dropped into some rather warm waters. There was a bit of surge, but it wasn’t anything that our divers couldn’t handle. We saw lots of turtles and eels and came across a rather unique crab that was something new to all of our divers.

As usual, we saw lots of turtles who didn’t even seem phased by the surge that was coming across the crater.

At our second site, we decided that we would drift along the ledge that connects Pa’a’awa and Secret crater, which was teeming with schools of fish. It was rather enjoyable mingling with this underwater crowd.

We came across some rather large pufferfish as well, who seemed just as interested in us as we were of them. We surfaced and made our way back the boat, and made our way back to the marina.

Thanks for coming out this afternoon everyone!

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

DIVE PROFILES: Koko Crater: 40ft max depth, 37 min dive time, 50ft visibility, 83*F water temp

Pa’a’awa Drift: 38ft max depth, 27min dive, 25ft visibility, 83*F water temp

MARINE LIFE: green sea turtle, pufferfish, white mouthed eel, brittle sea star, butterfly fish, Moorish idol

SUNNY AT SEA !!

September 28, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Larry Hogan

We enjoyed sunny skies while cruising to our dive sites today, and we really enjoyed watching the rain on the land! great day to be at sea and diving! trades were blowing, and the waves were happening, but the water was warm and clear. first stop was LCU to visit the sharks who love it underneath that particular wreck. 4 whitetips, with 2 of them quite good-sized! out and around the wreck we also saw an eagle ray, but no frog fish today. YO 257 was next, and the current was fairly strong, but we had a great time seeing turtles, schools of fusiliers feeding on plankton, with big jacks trying to catch them! quite the dance of nature! YO is always a fantastic dive! For our 3rd, we did a drift at Fantasy, and it was also fantastic, with a mind-blowing number of huge turtles cruising around us. much more active than usual! big eels and tiny octopus, porcupine puffers, and loads of reef fish surrounded us at various times. a great dive site!

LCU 90 feet 30 minutes 90 viz

YO 257 100 feet 36 minutes 90 viz

Fantasy reef 53 feet 47 minutes 90 viz

SO LUCKY!!

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

WOW, such a beautiful day today! of course, that is true of most days out here in Hawaii. the trick is to remember how lucky you are to be living, visiting, and diving out here! today Ben and Matthew joined me, along with steve, doing his AOW dives, for a great dive day! First stop was Turtle Canyons and it was spectacular! great viz and loads of sea life, including turtles, octopus, schools of reef fish, and some great eels! 2nd jump was more luck – a drift of Spitting Caves, not a usual dive site for the afternoon. but all divers today were good, no OW students or intros, so off we went. also out diving were crew- persons kelsea and brother danny, out for fun. at spitting cave we saw cow fish, scorpion fish, more huge turtles, a big octopus, and lots of shoaling fish. thanks to all for safe diving! larry and captain joe

turtle canyons 35 feet 40 minutes 100 viz

spitting cave 50 feet 40 minutes 120 viz

The Current Conundrum (Sept27)

September 27, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Marnie Cadden

It was raining a bit as we left the Hawaii Kai marina for our morning dive on the Sea Fox. No worries, it didn’t bring our divers down, we were more then excited to jump into some awesome visibility!

We jumped into the water at our first site, which we decided would be the Corsair. We were a bit concerned about the conditions, seeing that we were having rather large surface swells. Not problems, however, despite a bit of current, visibility looked fantastic!

The plane was teeming with marine life as always, from schools of fish to the ever-famous garden eels that surround this shipwreck. Divers got a chance to check out all different kinds of eels and starfish that were grazing the bottom of Maunalua Bay.

After about 22minutes or so, divers made their way back up the line to again board the boat. The currents had changed quite a bit while we were below and doing our safety stop was a bit of a challenge. None the less, divers were fantastic and made their was back aboard the Sea Fox with no problems.

At our second site, we decided that with the conditions, it was best to check out some of the shallower reefs in the area. We headed over to drift Angler’s Reef and came across some fantastic conditions.

There was so many fish lining the reef’s edge today! From the ever present squirrelfish to the morrish idols.

We really enjoyed swimming through the schools of fish and examining the ledge to see what sort of creatures were housed within. We even came across this huge trident snail!

Of course we had the green sea turtle enjoying the warm waters this morning, he was in his usual spot taking a nap and watched the group as we passed by.

One of my favorite things about this site is the abundance of scorpionfish. There a bit difficult to spot, but they reside all along this reef.

We drifted just over a quarter mile before we made our way back to the surface. I would say that we had a rather enjoyable morning, despite some of the conditions that we had to deal with. Well done divers! Hope to see you out on the boats again soon!

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

CONDTIONS: Strong Koko Head Current (E), light rain, 89*F air, 81*F water

DIVE PROFILES: Corsair: 107ft max depth, 22min dive time, 100+ft visibility

Anglers: 44ft max depth, 29min dive time, 90+ft visibility

MARINE LIFE: trumpetfish, Moorish idol, moray eel, sea turtle, starfish, squirrelfish, trident snail, scorpionfish, sea cucumber, triggerfish

The Wonders of Drifting 9/26

September 26, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Mark Savel

It was such a wonderful morning today off the Sea Fox with a small group of divers out for some fun. Lisa, Mikiko, Jeremy, and I headed out the the barges for the first dive. The current was really strong as we tried to tie the boat up so we decided on drifting the wrecks. We dropped in at Baby Barge and had a turtle resting by the wreck. As we cruised to New Barge and the cement block pile beyond it we had reef fish everywhere. There were schools of damselfish and wrasses swimming about the blocks with butterflyfish and tangs darting about. As we got to the LCU we spotted a white tip reef shark swimming around and 3 more white tips hiding under the wreck. Right as we were ending the dive we saw a spotted eagle ray cruising along the bottom. It was a great dive with wonderful viz and tons of sea life.

For the second dive we drifted Fantasy Reef and it was another great dive. There were turtles all about the reef swimming around or resting on the bottom. We also found a few eels hiding about the reef. There were fish everywhere swimming about the area. It was such a great morning and congrats to Lisa on finishing her enriched air nitrox class.

SHARKS WITHOUT BORDERS ! 25 September

September 25, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Larry Hogan

trade winds are back! and the sea was calm when we headed out to the Landing Craft Unit (LCU) to see some sharks!! current was strong, and we had to use the lines to save air, but it was great because the frogfish was sitting right at the bottom of the down line! otherwise we might have missed him!! under the wreck were 3 large whitetip sharks catching a snooze. they woke up, did a few circles and settled down again. back on top of the wreck an adult eagle ray cruised right up to us and we headed for the line. out today was old friend Pam Holt, an incredible singer and movie/TV actress, plus jazmine, restauranteur in Seattle, and Chris, who just returned from a medical mission to North Korea! he is part of a team of surgeons that perform serious operations for people in areas with no medical options, for free! similar to Doctors Without Borders! great stuff and great divers! 2nd jump was Fantasy Reef and we had a blast, seeing turtles, octopus, eels, scorpion fish, barracuda, and lots of reef fish! thanks to all for safe diving, larry and kendal

LCU 90 ft 33 minutes 90 viz

Fantasy Reef 53 ft 44 minutes 120 viz

Super Sized Stingray (Sept23)

September 23, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Marnie Cadden

Aboard the Sea Fox this afternoon, we had a lively group of divers who were more then excited to jump into the underwater world. We had many groups of divers who were enjoying their vacations and were more then ready to see what Hawaii had to offer in the Maunalua Bay area.

At Koko Crater, we got to enjoy a lot of great schools of fish and only had a slight current. The visibility was fantastic and divers got some great photos of the underwater topography. These Buddha statues that have been placed at the site are a great spot to snap pictures to remember your experience.

The best parts of this site is the fact that there is such a variety of things to see. Today we came across some large helmet snails and swam alongside some green sea turtles! Its so much fun getting up close to these graceful sea creatures.

We hopped back aboard the boat to make our way to the next dive site, and had some really great conversations during our surface interval. The divers enjoyed hanging out on the bow and chatting while enjoying the afternoon sunshine.

Despite the fact that we had some rather strong surface currents, the drive was rather enjoyable and we had some light snacks and beverages as well.

We hopped in at our second site, Angler’s Reef, and had almost no current at the bottom. The visibility was again fantastic and we made our way along the reef edge.

We spotted schools of fish hiding under the ledges and tons of urchins along the bottom.

It was good that our divers today had such great buoyancy because we were not churning up the bottom, making it easy for us to check out all the nooks and crannies of the reef.

I love checking out all of the pencil urchins that line the reef as well, they come in many different colors and shapes and its amazing how they fit themselves into the tiny holes.

Once we made the turn to head back to the boat, divers had spotted a huge stingray along the reef! it was massive and was probably the biggest one that I have seen in these waters. Divers were really luck to see it so close and it swam by us long enough for us to snap some really good pictures!

Thanks to all the divers who came out and enjoyed the oceans wonders with us today. It was a great group of people and I hope to see you guys on the boat again soon!

Congratulations to our newest certified divers as well!

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CREW: Marnie (instructor) Carlos (divemaster) Joe (captain) Ashley (crew)

CONDTIONS: strong diamondhead (W) surface current, 92*F air temp, Sunny, slight breeze

DIVE PROFILES: Koko Crater: 40ft max depth, 32min bottom time, 82*F water temp, 90ft visibility

Anglers Reef: 42ft max depth, 29min bottom time, 82*F water temp, 95ft visibility

MARINE LIFE: green sea turtle, helmet snail, Hawaiian stingray, pencil urchin, scorpionfish

A Change in the Currents

September 22, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Marnie Cadden

We were greeted with another wonderful day of diving in Oahu. A small group of divers aboard the afternoon Sea Fox made for an awesome dive trip. We decided that our first stop would be at Turtle Canyons, which had fantastic visibility!

The coral formations at this site house some awesome marine life. It is different each time you dive this site because there is always so much to see.

As long as you keep your eyes open and are looking in all the right places, you will soon discover all the fun things to see. Today we spotted octopus, eels, starfish, and tons of fish!

At our second site, we decided that with such a great group of divers that we would give Spitting Caves a go. It was a great way for some of our students to finish up their Open Water certification dives.

Of course we saw tons of fish and had a great time exploring each of the caves that line the southeastern point of the island. It was an odd situation when halfway through the dive, the currents changed a bit. We still had an easy time navigating the site, and we couldn’t have asked for better visibility!

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

CONDITIONS: 93*F, Sunny, Slight Breeze, Strong swells, Koko Head Current, 82*F water temp

DIVE PROFILE: Turtle Canyon: 36min dive time, 38ft max depth

Spitting Caves: 29min dive time, 50ft max depth

MARINE LIFE: turtles, eels, octopus, starfish,