David Sanchez

A Boat-full (of FUN!) Jan 5

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A beautiful Monday, calm seas, and 20 excited and eager divers joined us on the Sea Fox for an afternoon of certified, open water certification, and refresher course diving…

Bob, Carol, David, Doreen, Joe, Meg, Lucas, Jackie, Matt, Becky, Robert, Anthony (CERTS), Chris, Priti, Wendy, Courtney, Emily (OW3/4) and Ken (DSD) all were ready to get into  the Maunaloa Bay shallows known as Koko Craters… after a few skills were mastered by all students a small turtle cruised by to see what all the commotion was about…

Turtle sleeping at koko crater

Up to the surface for some Dive Flexibles and back on the boat to proceed to our next destination… Anglers Reef. With all skills completed the group of students got to relax and enjoy the dive. Threadfin Butterfly, Long nose Butterfly, Moorish Idols, Squirrel fish, Reef Trigger, and Puffer fish darted about the reef. And of course…

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Our Friend the Yellow Margin Moray Eeel… and a rare siting…

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A Sponge Crab looking for something to eat under the reefs ledge…

A great day of diving… Thank you to all our divers for a safe and fun day out on the Sea Fox! And congratulations to our 5 newly Certified Open Water Divers!

Koko Craters 34ft/ 25 Min/ 74*

Anglers Reef 42ft/ 30 Min/74*

Dave – Lead

Larry – Support

Jeremy – Suport

Kendal – Capt

Lauren Smith

Jan 5th Lake Pacific

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Today was a calm and beautiful day for diving at Island Divers Hawaii! The sea was flat and the sun was shinning bright as our AM charter left for a two tank advance dive. Our first stop was a fun wreck called The LCU (Landing Craft Utility). Sitting at a max depth of 85 feet, this upside down vessel lies on a sand y bottom surrounded in a field of artificial reef Z-blocks. The wreck today had lots of marine life, including schools of blue stripped snapper and pennant butterfly fish. Under the wreck the group took photos of a large white tip reef shark and a little spotted eagle ray swimming into the blue.

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Our surface interval between dives we had the chance to see humpback whales splashing their pectoral fins on the surface of the water!

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Our next dive was a great drift down to visit the Sea Cave! Our group of Adv. Divers suited up for our next descent to a max depth of 60 feet. Entering a large dark swim through the group was soon floating inside an underwater ballroom, bright and glowing with beams of light. We soon began to encounter white tip reef sharks, turtles and eels. A few nudibranchs and starfish where crawling around the rocks below. Once we exited the cave we began our drift past a wall of lava tubes. drifting past a few green sea turtles getting there shells cleaned by wrash and filefish, the group started swimming out into the blue for a safety stop and group ascent to the surface.

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Another great day of advanced dives with great divers, calm seas and clear water. Every came back with smiles and photos to share!

 

W: Bradley (instructor)  Mark (instructor) Kendal (captain)

CONDITIONS: Sunny, Mid 75*F  , 74*F water, visibility 60+ft

DIVE PROFILES: LCU: 85ft max depth, 35min dive time & Sea Cave: 60ft max depth, 37min dive time

MARINE LIFE: white tip reef shark, spotted eagle ray, green sea turtle, moray eel

 

David Sanchez

The Calm AFTER The Storm! Jan 3

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After a wild storm rolled through the island Friday, the day after began with a great sunrise and softer winds. By the time the Sea Fox was ready to get under way on Saturday the sun was shining and the seas were calm. A great crew of divers boarded (Aya, Carlos, Carlos Jr, Christine, Christopher and Priti OW1/2, David, Richard and Evan OW3/4, Douglas, Greg, Gustavo, Haley OW1/2 , and Voreen) and off we went to Koko Craters. The green water let us know the visibility was down a bit due to the storm the day before, but all the divers pushed on and got down to the site, After all the students aced their skills, off we went to find some residents of the deep…

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Turtles slept under the ledge, taking refuge from the surge in the crater…

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And a puffer hid out in the calmer water under the dwarf statue…

Once all our divers were safely aboard the Fox it was on to Anglers Reef… a bit better visibility was had on the site, where skills were mastered by all our divers after which it was a quick dive on the wall…

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Green Morays peeked out from their temporary homes…

while reef fish of all shapes and sizes swam about the hard coral.

A great day of diving… thank you to all our divers for a safe and fun day of diving! Congrats to Richard and Evan on competing their open water certification!

Koko Crater 32Ft/ 74*/ 30 Min

Anglers Reef 43Ft/ 74*/ 25 Min

Dave- Lead

Everett- Support

Joe- Capt

Greg- Crew

 

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Under the Sea

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Lots of sunshine with light winds today while motoring out of Island Divers Hawaii Kai into Maunalua Bay. With a boat full of advanced divers we stopped and tied up to one of our favorite wrecks, the WW II Corsair fighter plane. Sitting at 107 ft. the group descended down to check out a sea full of garden eels dancing in the sand with hundreds of pennant butterfly fish swimming around the sunken plane. At the bottom divers spent time looking into the cockpit for a big green moray eel, frog fish and other critters hiding under the wreck. After a total dive time of 33 minutes the group boarded the boat again for a nice surface interval while we motored around the east side of the island past Hanauma Bay.

Preparing for our next dive the Sea Fox divers switched tanks and began a pre-dive safety check for our upcoming drift dive. With conditions just right we heading towards Palea Point! This time we broke into two smaller groups as we made a “parachute drop” and negatively descended below the boat to begin drifting, and drifting fast! Currents where strong as our dive group descended to a max depth of 60 feet along a sloping sea wall covered in hard corals and schools of damsel and surgeon fish. Along our drift we slowly began ascending to a depth of 40 feet, where we came across moray eels and sponge crabs hiding in holes along the reef. In a particular lava tube we found a white tip reef shark napping and a green sea turtles tucked away  not much farther down the reef. Swimming through a a large swim through and around the corner we noticed several different kinds of bird wrasse and a school of Aha Needle fish. After a 42 minute dive the group moved away from the wall where we made a safety stop in blue water. Popping up to the surface right in front Hanauma Bay we were soon picked up by the Sea Fox. On our way back Captain Joe spotted Humpback Whales in the distanced as he turned on the under water microphone for us to listen to their song as we cruised back into the harbor.

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There was a lot of active marine life underwater with great weather above. Another successful day spent under the sea!

 

W: Bradley (instructor)  Larry (instructor) Joe (captain)

CONDITIONS: Sunny, Mid 70′s , 75*F water, visibility 60+ft

DIVE PROFILES: Corsair: 107ft max depth, 33min dive time & Turtle Canyons: 60ft max depth, 42min dive time

MARINE LIFE: white tip reef shark, green sea turtle, sponge crab, moray eel

Larry Hogan

LAST DIVE TIL NEXT YEAR! 31 december

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beautiful day today, with blue skies overhead and blue waters below.  captain neal headed the barge out to Koko Craters, where we tied up to the little buddha mooring.  nice mixed group of students and newly certified or out-of-practice divers, so koko craters, with it’s sandy bottom, is a great site to get that neutral buoyancy back!  plus the huge turtles are always fantastic to see.  the current was strong, so we didn’t try for the back crater and more turtles, but enjoyed the reef fish, multiple eels, plus a cool peacock flounder, hiding in plain sight!  heather and mike were doing OW 1/2, and vincent, robert, steve, hirsch, and son miles came along too.  2nd jump was turtle canyons, and the current had abated, so we cruised a long way out and back, spotting frogfish, more turtles, lots of eels, and a huge eagle ray, up close and personal!  Manolo was along to help robert’s family, who all came out to snorkel around above us. everyone was smiling as we headed in while watching a gorgeous sunset!!   thanks to all for safe diving and snorkeling!  larry, manolo, and neal

koko craters 38 feet    100 viz   35 min.

turtle canyons   36 feet   120 viz   44 min.

 

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David Sanchez

New Years Eve Currents! Dec 31

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Wow where did 2014 go? A great year of diving was finished off with a great day of diving! Caroline, Scott, Todd, Penny, Steve, Heike, Christy (AOW), John, Len, Ryan, Oliver, Julie, Ruth, and Sarah joined Everett and I on the Hound as we headed out to LCU to begin our day. The current was hitting hard at the wreck, but all our competent divers used the lines and made it down to see a pair of white tips resting comfortably under the ship…

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As we tried to work our way around the ship a curious Barracuda swam up and eyed the group, and then darted back out into the open water. Even the fish were struggling against the strong current to stay bye the ship. All our divers used the lines back to the surface and made it safely aboard. For safety reasons we decided to tie up at Anglers Reef, where there was no current, great visibility, and lots to see!

First up…

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Several Eels were seen around he site: Green Morays and Snowflakes poked their heads out all around the reef.

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A chill Nudibranch was walking along the reef

and  the end of our dive  one of my favorite sea creatures cruised bye…

Ray

A beautiful Spotted Eagle Ray flew bye and gave our divers a photo op!

A great day of diving was had bye all; a special Thank You to all our divers for a safe and fun day of diving… HAPPY NEW YEAR!

LCU 85ft/ 74*/ 25min

Anglers Reef 43ft/ 75*/ 40 min

Dave – Lead

Everett – Support

Sophie – Capt