Archive for year: 2015

What a grand day to dive.  The skies started out a little overcast but by the end of the day it was quite brilliant on the water.  We went to Kahala Barge for our first dive and everyone explored inside and out.  There was a little current at the surface but after making our way down the line it was lovely on the wreck.  Free swimming eel glided along the top for most to enjoy.

We made our way around beautiful and green Diamond Head towards our next dive site of the Sea Tiger.  Going down the line we got to see a large and beautiful white tip reef shark who stayed at the wreck for the entire dive.  Also on the deck there was a huge Hawaiian green sea turtle taking a nap.  Lots of eels and schools of fish.  Was a lovely dive with no current to speak of.

 

The crew prepared us a great lunch of sandwiches, fresh veggies, chips and juice.  After our trip back around Diamond Head on smooth waters we picked Fantasy Reef as our drift dive.  Wow!!  So very clear down there and a nice current for us to float on.  It was filled with Turtles at every turn, a huge feeding Eagle Ray and schools of fish.  It was so peaceful no one wanted to come up.Ole at the Wheel doing what Captain’s Do!

 

Congratulations to Ole on being the FIRST Ever student to complete the new PADI SEA FOX Specialty, only available at Island Divers.  He drove the boat between our dive sites this afternoon and did an amazing Job!  Also today Ole and Kevin completed their PADI Drift diving Speacialties.  James completed his PADI Enriched Air Specialty today with flying colors and really enjoyed the extra time underwater using mixed gasses!  Way to go guys you did an Amazing job! Thank you to all our divers today, Andre, Polly, Anthony, Bob, Brian, Chris, James, Kevin, Kewin, Stephanie, Kristin, Ole, Scott and Sean.  You all make it possible for us to do what we do

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Kahala Barge, Max Depth 90 feet, 100+ viz

Sea Tiger, Max Depth 120 (at sand) 100 feet (at deck) 75 foot viz

Fantasy Reef, Max Depth 55 feet, 100 foot viz

Crew:  Captain Joe, Instructors Mary and Jeremy, Deck Crew Sophia!

the sun was going down as we jumped in the beautiful water at Fantasy Reef.  we had dive lights, but the setting sun gave us enough light to see by as we cruised this beautiful reef.  the lava formations of arches and swim-throughs covered with beautiful hard corals, and populated with reef fish, giant turtles, eels, and some white tip sharks on the prowl for dinner!  cool to see, as usually we see white tips resting.  these guys were out hunting!  great to see this different behavior!  our 2nd dive was at Turtle Canyons, a fantastic spot, day or night!  lots of eels out, and reef fish bedding down for the night.  we got to see a spanish dancer, a real treat – and only at night!  thanks to all for safe diving, larry, captain joe

       

What a morning for diving!  Boarding the Sea Fox today all the divers were having a discussion on what they wanted to do and came to agreement that it was going to be a TWO Drift kind of Day.  Spitting Cave’s, max depth 55 feet, always delivers.  It was filled with all kinds of ocean life today.  Pretty sure we found most of the Hawaiian green sea turtles today, eels, always sharks and even a baby octopus came out to greet us.

Fantasy reef, max depth 55 feet, was spectacular.  200+ viz and we found all the rest of the turtles in the sea.  The current was perfect for the drift today and moved us right along.  There was a huge eagle ray that joined our dive for about a third of the way.  Found the swim thru’s, and just got to enjoy the peace that the Pacific offers us.  Everyone was so stoked about the dive they were ready to do another!!!

always such a treat to see the rare and endangered Hawaii Monk Seal while diving!   We have some great sites for diving with them 15 minutes from our dock, particularly Spitting Cave, as they seem to love the canyons and small caves that dot that site on the wall outside Hanauma bay.  we also saw several sharks, large green hawaiin sea turtles, octopus, shoals of reef fish, as well as the spectacular topography of the wall created by lava and shaped by the sea.  that was our second dive, and we drifted it, as conditions were perfect, mild current and crystal clear, blue water!!  for our first dive we moored up at Baby Barge, where we had good viz and mild current.  checked out the shark cave, which had a nice whitetip shark, cruised up the ledge to the barge, where we saw huge green sea turtles surfacing for air and relaxing on the bottom.  great day of diving, thanks to all for safe diving!  larry, sarah, joe

baby barge   80 ft   120 viz  35 min.

spitting cave 52 ft   200 viz  45 min

Boarding the Sea Fox this morning the group was all a buzz.  The excitement of a double wreck dive was electric in the air.  We had Jack, Mi Sou and Jason doing their PADI Enriched Air specialties today.  Made our wreck dives even longer.  LCU was our first drop.  What a Morning!  Arriving at the dive site we could see the LCU Wreck from the dive boat.  The dive was beautiful.  Had a first on this dive too….always on the look out for things I have not seen before….A Long Nose Butterfly Fish that was COMPLETELY Black!!!  Love the Ocean.

Next stop was Baby Barge.  Again we couldn’t ask for nicer conditions.  Steven, Luke, Mi Sou, Jason, Jack, Bill, Nicole, Jonathan, Kelly, Richard, Catherine and Chul all had an amazing time.  We got to explore the shark cave, checked out the wreck and even the cave that sits right under the wreck.  This dive site has so much to offer.  Loads of turtles, eels and tons of reef fish everywhere.  At the end of the dive we all got to see a rather large Octopus that was happy to hang out with everyone for a bit and show us all his color and texture changing ability.  What an epic morning dive trip we had.  Congratulations to Jonathan for completing his PADI Advanced Open Water Certification today!!

LCU Max Depth, 95 feet

Baby Barge Max Depth 85 feet