July 2016 - Island Divers Hawaii

Perfect Last Day of July, 3 Tanker! 7/31

July 31, 2016/in Dive Reports, Diving Courses/by Mary Christensen

Sunday mornings are always the start of our favorite dive of the week, 3 Tanker!!! A great group of divers and students came out today to enjoy the day. LCU was a great first choice, max depth 90 feet and 100+ foot of visibility. Defending down we saw a huge school of barracuda and four schooling eagle rays. The rays stayed on the the site the entire time we were there. Our photographers had great opportunities to shoot amazing pictures.

PADI AOW Students making their way down.

Eagle Rays!

With a view of the very green Diamond Head we made our way to the YO-257/San Padro wreck sites. Most of our divers have never got the chance to dive this site before so it was very exciting to get to do 2 wrecks on one dive site. Sometimes this dive seems like you have jumped into a full aquarium and today was no different. On the decent schools of moorish idols and sergeant majors engulf you. Today the site was teaming with sea life, everything from sharks, eels, eagle rays to small nudibranch’s and turtles. This wreck is in amazingly great condition, even some of the smaller delicate pieces.

Green Sea Turtle

Yellow Margin Moray Eel

Bluespine Unicorn Fish

YO 257

Great Coral growth on wreck

Yellow Tang and more of the Wreck.

Coming back around Diamond Head all the divers enjoyed lunch and talk about the last dive. We picked Fantasy Reef as our last site and had a pretty good west current for our drift dive. It was many of our divers first time doing a drift dive and finding out how much reef you can cover with very small effort. It was a great dive and as usual we got to see tons of turtles. Weaving our way around the reef, through the arch and chimney swim through was great for all. The large helmet shells were out in force and seemed like a convention. This was the most relaxing dive of the day and a perfect way to finish up. Kelsey and Capt. Joe had fresh pineapple and chocolates for the divers as we laughed and talked about the day. Another perfect three tanker day!! Congratulations to John on completing his Advanced Open Water class!

Awesome divers: Chase, Christian, Chri, Stephanie, James B, James M, Jared, Jeff, John and Stephen!

Amazing Crew: Capt. Joe, Dive Instructors Mary and Jeremy, and Kelsey our fantastic Boat Crew!

Dive Sites: LCU, Max depth 95, viz 100+ Wreck

YO 257/ San Pedro, Max Depth 95, viz 85, Wreck

Fantasy Reef, max depth 55, viz 100+, Drift

Certifications All Around

July 28, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Sarah Moore

Today was a great day out on the boat! It was a windy one but the conditions were great underwater. We had a boat full of open water students this afternoon eager to get certified. The first dive site we went to was Koko Craters, land of the turtles. We had one little baby turtle that was very curious and wanted to join our class. He swam along beside us as we went to go complete our skills and he even found us again at the end of the dive as we were heading back up to the boat. Everyone did awesome with their skills. Our first dive was 40 minutes with a maximum depth of 37 feet. The second dive site we went to today was Angler’s Reef. We did a 45 minute dive here with a maximum depth of 46 feet. At Angler’s we were able to find quite a few moray eels. Most were sitting in the gaps on the reef but one came out and swam around! Always cool to see. We were also able to find a little baby octopus hiding in the reef! The reef fish were abound today with big schools of damsel fish and the cutest porcupine fish that came to say hello. Overall it was a great day of diving with some awesome newly certified divers! Congratulations to Devan, Nate, Emma, Rick, and Sara! You all did awesome! Come dive with us again soon!

Crew: Captain Kendal, Instructor Sarah, Crew Brady
Conditions: Visibility 80+ feet, water temperature 79 degrees fahrenheit

Fantasy and Anglers 7/27 AM

July 27, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Mary Christensen

Today was kind of a blustery day but the sky was blue and it was warm out. Our first site today was Fantasy reef or what we secretly call it “Turtletopia”. We had no shortage of turtles or eels today there. We were met with turtles and there was just more and more all the time. Everyone had a good time exploring the reef and all the life there. Did I mention how many turtles we got to see there? The abundance of reef fish was amazing.

We then motored over to Angler’s Reef just in time for the sea to settle down a bit. This was the nicest relaxing dive and yes lots more eels. We got a pretty good show from a rock mover wrasse juvenile. He darted all around showing off and let everyone take lots of pictures of him. About half way through the dive we started noticing these small things floating by in the current. There were thousands of them. Upon further inspection we discovered they were actually very small sea creatures. At first the thought was sea horses….they were so small!! Finally one landed on my fingers and we were in a shower of newly hatched sea hares!! It was pretty amazing to be engulfed in them all the way around. It is something that happens here but very rarely. What a great dive site choice.

Rock Mover Wrasse

Dive Sites: Fantasy, max depth 55 feet, viz 100 feet, Reef.

Angler’s Reef, max depth 45 feet, viz 100 feet, Reef

Awesome divers: Adam, Alex, Regan, Becky, Ben, Charles, Cheyenne, Yeonki, Lee, John, Mike, Russ, Ryan M., Ryan T. and Tim.

Amazing Crew: Capt. Joe and Dive Instructor Mary!

Historic Corsair and Fantasy Reef 7/20 AM

July 20, 2016/in Dive Reports, Diving Courses/by Mary Christensen

In 1946 the Corsair plane went down on a training mission and sits on the floor of the sea. This is where we started our dive day today. This wreck is always highly requested so we get out there quite often. It sits at 107 feet at the sand, surrounded by the graceful garden eels swaying with the water movement. The visibility was excellent today at 100+ feet and the current was very light. There is a resident green moray eel that lives there that was quite active today. Swam out of the wing towards the garden eels then back again, poking its head out and inspecting all the divers. Also there were two scorpion leaf fish there, one purple and one black that were moving around quite a bit under the tail section. The divers taking many pictures. This was a bucket list item for one of our divers and boy was he happy to put that check on the list. Caitlin and Khaled doing their PADI Enriched air class, got to spend extra time at the site.

Corsair Wreck

Scorpion Leaf Fish

Corsair Wreck

Front view Corsair Wreck

Yellow Margin Moray

Free Swimming Yellow Margin

With a slight easterly current we did our drift dive at the ever popular Fantasy Reef. Surrounded by large Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles we drifted slowly. The first small cave we looked in had a small white tip reef shark in it. Through the swim thrus and always having the dance of all the reef fish around. So many things to see on the way. Today, I think I saw some of the largest turtles that I have seen on the south shore dive sites. Poking our heads under the last large overhang on the main reef got to enjoy to rather large 5-6 ft white tip reef sharks hanging out with a turtle. Pretty exciting for all the picture takers. This was a very leisurely dive for all. Back on the boat on the way in with Marissa provided us with hot minty towels to freshen up with. Another awesome dive day here.

Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle

Diver with swimming Turtle

Milletseed Butterfly fish

White Tip Reef Sharl

Shark and Turtle

Aloha!

Ornate Butterfly Fish

Green Moray Eel

Dive Sites: Corsair, max depth 107 feet, 100+ Viz, Wreck dive

Fantasy Reef, max depth 55 feet, 80 ft viz, drift

Awesome divers: Khaled, David, Eric, Kelly, Caitlin, Nathan, Aaron, Paige, Rochelle and Severin.

Dive Crew: Capt. Joe, Dive Instructors Mary and Jeremy, Crew Marisa.

LURE OF THE MONK SEAL !! july 14

July 17, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Larry Hogan

hard to describe what a treat it is to see a Hawaiin Monk Seal ! they are big, swift-moving, and often intelligently curious. they can gracefully appear and disappear like a shadow in the water. Or they can swim right up to you, trying to get a good look at your face, cocking their head, and gazing into your eyes. the energy coming out from their eyes is not aggressive, but friendly and curious. like someone taking a second look at you because you look familiar. i have even had my head tickled by their whiskers, the next level of checking you out! amazing creatures. we saw this guy on our second dive, which was at Spitting Cave, on the wall outside Hanauma Bay. world class diving every time there! volcanic topography and myriad marine critters, from huge turtles to tiny nudibranchs! and everything in between! first dive was also quite nice, at the Landing Craft, or LCU, where we spotted a huge eagle ray, and snuck right up behind him! thanks to all for safe diving, larry, courtnie, capt. joe.

lcu 90 ft 30 min 100 viz

spitting cave 50 ft 50 min 120 viz

Women’s Dive Day!! July 16

July 17, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Mary Christensen

Ladies listening to Dive Instructor Sarah’s Dive Briefing.

Our beautiful women were so excited they started arriving at the shop early for Women’s Dive Day. This is such a popular dive it sold out very quickly. Maybe next year we will have to get a bigger boat!! So much excitement and today we made an all female crew also. Loading the boat we got all the ladies into their groups and made our way to Turtle Canyon’s! Really not sure if I have every laughed so much with all the women on the boat in a long time. We had good music playing and smiles all around.

The conditions were PERFECT at Turtle Canyon, max depth 40 ft visibility 150+ feet. We had groups that were being guided, groups that explored on their own (with some big camera’s), and our DSD’s that got to learn there skills, then went down to explore the reef. So many things to see on this dive too. We were visited by turtles, eels, reef fish, octopus, crabs and a huge flounder!! The ladies had bright smiling eyes under the water and had a super good time.

happy divers

yellow tail wrasse

yellow tail wrasse and rock mover wrasse

Exploring ladies

raccoon butterfly fish

Moorish Idol

Divers under the boat

Multiband Butterfly fish

Moorish Idol and Box Fish

Sponge Crab

Divers looking at Turtle

Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle

Peacock Flounder

Face Shot of Peacock Flounder

Free Swimming Peacock Flounder

Back on the boat after the dive we turned up the music and filled the boat with dancing and laughter. Lots of ladies jumped in and enjoyed swimming in the warm Pacific waters while others had snacks and drinks on the boat. This was a wonderful day to spend out on the ocean with the calm waters and sunny skies. We had experienced divers that enjoyed the dive, we had others that just needed to shake the dust off and new divers that experience our diving world for the first time. We enjoyed the end of the day with a nice cruise back in. Lots of dancing and singing on the boat and did I mention all the smiles!! This was a wonderful day for all our women divers and we can’t wait to do it again next year!

Awesome Women: Amanda, Amy, Anki, Anne, Brandy, Casey, Carey, Carmen, Carrie, Dora, Genevieve, Savanna, Grace, Mirissa, Kristen, Lacey, Leslie, Marissa, Michelle, Sabrina, Mary, Sulfiati, Sarah, Stephanie, Stephanie, Tammy and Zoe!

Amazing Staff: Captain Sheila, Dive Instructor Sarah, Davy, Mary, Alex and Kylie!!

Thank you all for coming out this was a WONDERFUL DAY!!!

Amazing Dive Day on 3 Tanker!! 7/10

July 11, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Mary Christensen

Sunday’s have to be the best days for us here at Island Divers for diving. The Sea Fox takes us out for our awesome three tank dive and the energy in the air is always so exciting in the morning before we go. Boat was loaded and we were ready to dive. Tide was right first thing in the morning so we started at Spitting Caves for a drift dive. Such a nice start to the day. We peacefully floated along and got to take in all the sights. The reef fish were out by the thousands and there was so much to see. It was the perfect dive for some of our divers to shake the dust off, it had been awhile since the had dove.

Look Close for the Peacock Flounder

Making our way to the upside down LCU there was lots of chatter on the boat about the next dive. With no current and 100+ of visibility was awesome. We took a tour under the boat then explored the Z blocks. Much to our surprise there were two napping white tip reef sharks out there. One of them came out and swam around the group for awhile. This gave all our divers lots of time to snap pictures. David, Janice, Jeff T. and Justin were all doing our “Try Nitrox” program and super excited they did because they got to spend more time at the wreck. Returning to the boat Capt Kendal and Britney had prepared is lunch. So much to talk about after that dive.

Diver with White Tip

White tip free swimming around z blocks

back of LCU with all 3 props

Tiny Daniell’s Thorunna Nudibranchia

Saving the best site for last of Fantasy Reef is an understatement. The group was excited to get in the water again to see what was next. As always, Fantasy provides us with more turtles than you can count. Also got to see large moray eels, sharks, so many reef fish there is no way to count. We weaved through the swim throughs and explored the site in the mild current. As we neared the end of our dive a shadow passed over and looking up we saw a Monk Seal playing in our bubbles!! This really large seal swam around us, then went up to the surface and watched us. Back down and in and out of the group. Boy, I could hear all the divers squealing with excitement through their regs. We all got to take plenty of pictures and it made the perfect end to our dive. Back at the boat Britney had made hot towels for everyone to freshen up with and we made our way back to the dock. So many happy divers today!!

Sleepy Hawaiian Sea Turtle

Monk Seal playing in bubbles

MONK SEAL!!!

Happy Divers!!

Dive sites: Spitting Caves, max depth 50 feet, 80 ft viz., Drift Dive

LCU, Max depth 95 feet, 100+ viz, Wreck Dive

Fantasy Reef, max depth, 100+ viz, Drift Dive

Awesome divers: David, Janice, Jake, James, Jeff H, Kaoru, Jeff T., Justin, Khaled, Manish, Mark, Zolton and our Rider Cornellia!

Amazing Crew: Captain Kendal, Dive Instructors Mary and Sarah, boat crew Britney!

Turtles Galore

July 11, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Sarah Moore

Today was a gorgeous day out on the Seafox in Hawaii. The skies were clear and so was the water! We couldn’t have asked for better weather as we headed out into Maunalua bay this afternoon. With a group of all certified divers on the boat we headed out to our shallow reef sites. The first site we hit was Koko craters, known for its abundance of turtles and Buddha statues! We saw lots of turtles today, some out swimming around and some napping underneath the ledges. We were also able to spot a couple moray eels on this first dive. The reef fish were out and about swimming right along with us. We also found a great big helmet conch. After a nice long 55 minute dive at 37 feet we headed back up to the boat and over to our second dive site.

DCIM101GOPRO

The second site we went to today was turtle canyons. Here we were able to find a couple more moray eels. And we saw my favorite, the porcupine fish! Those great big puffers have the cutest faces! As we wound our way around the reef we saw tons of pincushion seastars and sea urchins all over the place. After another 55 minute dive at 35 feet we hoped back on the boat to soak up some final hawaiian sun rays before getting back to the dock. Overall another amazing day out on the boat with some amazing new dive buddies. Hope to see everyone out here again soon!

DCIM101GOPRO

Crew: Captain Kendal, Instructor Sarah, Crew Jeff

Baby Turtle on Fantasy!! 7/9 am

July 9, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Mary Christensen

Kahala barge was a beautiful first choice on our dive sites today. No current at all and 100+ foot of visibility. Our experienced crew of divers just explored inside and outside of the wreck today. Tons of reef fish, octopus, fuzzy crabs hiding in shells and a turtle in the wreck. We had a few people that enjoyed nitrox on this dive and got to stay down even longer. There is starting to be some good growth on the wreck which makes it even better to dive on.

Divers on Kahala Barge

Fantasy Reef was our second site today. It was wonderful….So many turtles. The current was light so we got to spend tons of time poking around the reef. We made our way down the chimney, got to see a very good sized shark, huge moray eels and again tons of reef fish. We had the same great viz again. It was amazing to dive again and we had a super drift. We got to see the baby turtle that lives there too! It has been there for quite awhile so it’s been super fun to watch him grow. The picture posted is a bit deceiving on size…he is only about as big as a basketball. He is super friendly too and always interested in the divers around. After the dive in as we prepared to end our day Kelsey provided us with hot towels which is always a dive boat favorite. Some of our regular divers really can’t wait for that part of the dive!

Thanks everyone for coming out. It was a super dive day for all of us!

Aloha Friday Dives

July 8, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Sarah Moore

Today was a fun day out on the water. The seafox was full with a group of excited and energetic divers. The first dive site we went to today was LCU. An upside down landing craft unit that has made itself home to lots of marine life. Today a beautiful spotted eagle ray came and cruised along side the wreck for a good majority of the dive. Really awesome getting to swim along side those graceful creatures. The visibility was absolutely amazing today with over 100 feet of visibility. Crystal clear blue waters and warm bright sunny skies. After a 35 minute dive at 90 feet at LCU we headed over to Anglers Reef for our second dive.

Anglers also had amazing visibility today. When we first jumped in the water we were greeted by a big green sea turtle! We were able to find quite a few moray eels including a massive yellow margin moray! We also saw a large group of porcupine fish and few other schools of small reef fish. And of course the famous blue dragon nudibranch. We did a 45 minute dive at 45 feet for our second dive at Anglers. Overall it was an excellent day of diving with a fun crowd. Hope to see everyone out on the boat again soon. Special congratulations to Jared and Aaron for completing their Nirtox courses today!

Crew: Captain Joe, Instructor Sarah, Instructor Larry, Instructor Amy, Crew Kayla