August 2016 - Island Divers Hawaii

Tuesday, A Shark in every cave! AUG 30 am

August 30, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Mary Christensen

We had a group of divers today that wanted to see everything, we delivered! LCU was teaming with life and action today. Schooling eagle rays that stayed around the wreck the whole time. Sharks swimming around under and around the old wreck. A big old Green Sea Turtle lounging on top of the boat by one of the props. A rarely seen long nose all black butterfly fish and a huge school of barracuda’s. There was little current so we got to explore all over the place and watch all the activity. What an amazing dive at this wreck that sits upside down in the water on it’s wheelhouse. Not to mention the 100+ feet of visibility!

free swimming white tip reef shark

eagle ray

sleepy turtle by prop

hundreds of barracuda

long nose all black butterfly fish

schooling eagle rays

Today was the day that we went to Spitting Caves and in every single cave we found a sleeping white tip reef shark. The current was moving at a good pace for our drift dive but boy oh boy did we get to see a lot. More eagle rays, turtles, sharks, octopus, our favorite frog fish and about a million reef fish. It was truly a treat to get to dive today with all the sea life out and about. We poked around looking at everything. Some of our divers had never gotten to see a frog fish in the water before so it was great that our favorite was out where we could find him. Not always an easy task. This was a pretty epic day for diving. Waiting for us back on the boat prepared by Capt Joe was fresh pineapple and chocolates!!

white tip reef shark

devil scorpion fish hiding

another shark

white mouth moray

frog fish

stout moray eel

Dive Sites: LCU, max depth 90 feet, viz 100+, wreck dive

Spitting Caves, max depth 50 feet, viz 100, drift dive

Awesome Divers: Abduolah, Ben, Lauren, Brett, Dennis, Molly, Garett, James, Robert, Jeff, Sheri, Ming, Tim, Johhny, Yammick and Stephanee!!

Amazing Crew: Capt Joe, Dive Instructors Mary and Everett!

Three Tanker Bliss! 8/28

August 28, 2016/in Dive Reports, Diving Courses, Images/by Mary Christensen

The last three tanker of August was hands down fantastic. We had nice weather, slight wind and sunny skies. The LCU wreck had amazing visibility of 150+ feet and no current. Everyone had quite the shark adventure down there. We saw big white tips and baby white tips, several hundred barracuda and to many kinds of reef fish to count. Some of the divers were doing their PADI Enriched Air class, so they got to extend their bottom time. We also have a “Try Nitrox” program so several of our other divers just got to sample what it’s like. This made for some epic dives.

Schooling Barracuda

Diamond Head is always so majestic to see from the ocean vantage point. With a back drop of blue sky and white billowy clouds it was breath taking. The YO 257/ San Pedro wreck was super today for sea life. As we came down the line there were four turtles right at the mooring. Everyone was pretty excited about this. It was a bit cloudy down there but we made our way around with zero current. The turtles and morays were everywhere this morning. We also got to make some of the Atlantis Submarine riders happy, waving to them as they went by. Always see the flashes going off as they are very interested in our diving. As we were exploring the bottom of the sea Capt Joe and Mikaela were busy preparing our lunch and getting all our fresh tanks out.

Spitting caves is one of the favorite dive sites of customers and staff alike. We did a very nice long drift dive here. Our favorite frog fish have returned to the sight and this was fantastic because many of our divers had never seen one before. We were also graced with quite a few other fun things including sharks, turtles, eels everywhere and a scorpion devil fish. Weaving in and out of the rock formations and small caves on the nice Diamond Head current. This was a great dive for all. Again Capt Joe and Mikaela worked their magic topside with fresh pineapple and chocolates which everyone really enjoyed! It was a great day out on the sea. Congratulatios to Ken on completing his PADI Advanced Open Water class, he did excellent. Also Congratulations to Chris and Ken on their PADI Enriched Air Specialties! You both really did awesome today.

Frog Fish

devil fish right in middle…look close

white mouth moray

White mouth Moray…Look close you can see teeth.

LCU: Max Depth 95 feet, Viz 150+, Wreck dive. YO-257/San Pedro: Max Depth 90 feet, Viz 50 feet, Wreck

Spitting Caves: Max Depth 50 feet, Viz 100 Feet, Drift

Awesome Divers: Celine, Chris, Eric, Emma, Greg, Kate, James, Janet, Ken, Matt, Renee, Bruce, Tessa, and Craig!

Amazing Dive Crew: Capt Joe, Dive Instructors Mary and Sarah, Crew Mikaela!

Starting The Week Off Right!

August 22, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Sarah Moore

On the Seafox Mondays really don’t suck. Today was a great day out on the boat and a wonderful way to start off the week! We had an awesome group of divers on our advanced charter this morning all eager to get in the water and blow some bubbles. The first dive site we went to today was LCU, an upside down landing craft. As we headed down to our maximum depth of 90 feet we cruised underneath the wreck to find 4 white tip reef sharks! Four of them today! I think we accidentally interrupted their meeting! It was an awesome day for sharks. One of them spent the rest of our 30 minute dive circling the wreck passing us quite a few more times. We headed out from underneath and took a tour around the cement pylons where we found a moray eel, a blue dragon nudibranch, and a pretty large school of barracuda. Lots of cool stuff around today. Two spotted eagle rays also made an appearance towards the end of our dive! Overall an awesome dive. We headed back up to the boat for some sun and fun before our second dive.

Sarah’s Gopro

Photo by Imran Sourjah

The second dive site we went to today was Fantasy Reef. It was an incredibly relaxing dive as we drifted along the reef. We saw lots of sea turtles on the reef today. Found a few more moray eels. We also saw a triton trumpet eating a sea star, so cool! We did a 45 minute drift on fantasy today and loved every minute of it. An awesome day of diving with some awesome dive buddies. Hope to see everyone back out on the boat again soon!

Photo by Imran Sourjah

Crew: Captain Joe, Instructor Sarah, Instructor Mary, Crew Jeremy
Conditions: Water Temperature 81 degrees Fahrenheit, Visibility 80-100 feet

Three Tanker Awesomeness

August 14, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Sarah Moore

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day out on the boat. Sunday morning and we were headed out for the best charter of the week, the three tanker! With an awesome group of advanced divers we headed over to our first dive site, the Baby Barge. With a maximum depth of 85 feet this wreck has tons of life and lots to see. We went over first along the reef ledge to the shark cave where we found about six turtles along the way and one white tip reef shark laying in the cave! We also found quite a few moray eels around the reef this morning. We headed back over to the wreck where we found a couple more turtles and a few tiny little nudibranches on the wreck. After an awesome 35 minute dive we headed back up to the Seafox and over to our next dive site. And that is when the excitement began. Captain Joe put a line in while we headed around diamond head over to the Sea Tiger in front of Waikiki. While we were on the way we caught something! A great big Ono (wahoo)! Dinner for everyone! Congratulations Joe!

Conditions were great at the Sea Tiger for our second dive of the day. Another deep wreck, sits in the sand at 120 feet. We went for a tour around the 180 feet vessel finding lots of moray eels, lots of reef fish surrounding the wreck, and four white tip reef sharks laying in the sand next to the wreck! An awesome dive with lots to see.

For our last dive we headed back over to spitting caves to drift along the wall. We did an awesome 50 minute drift at 45 feet along the wall today. We found another white tip reef shark in one of the caves. Many turtles both sleeping and swimming by. We also found a great big octopus! He was walking around the reef standing tall to show us just how big he really was! Always awesome seeing those guys out and about. Overall it was an amazing day of diving with some really great dive buddies. Hope to see everyone out on the boat again soon!

Crew: Captain Joe, Instructor Sarah, Instructor Mary, Crew Maddie
Pictures taken by Mary Christensen

Super Saturday! 8/13 AM

August 13, 2016/in Dive Reports, Diving Courses/by Mary Christensen

Basking in the sun as we made our way to the historic Corsair plane wreck, all the divers were ready to go. Making the decent to the wreck at 107 feet was fairly quick, everyone was excited to see the wreck. We had visitors from other countries and made a few bucket lists a bit shorter today. The wreck is still in amazing conditions in over 60 years on the sea floor. She went down in 1948 and sat there ever since, Corsair is the only natural wreck on our island. Today, Kristen was doing her PADI Enriched air class and there was really no better place to try it out. We also had Thomas working on his PADI AOW certification. My favorite little purple leaf scorpion fish was there and posed a bit for pictures.

Prop on Corsair

Fantasy reef always delivers for us on dives. It was an awesome turtle-fest down there today and our divers really got to see them up close and personal. Drifting west, we moved up and down over the reef. Went through the swim thru. Got to see more turtles and eels than you could count. This reef is always so great because we take super good care of it. Our divers today were no exception to that rule. The practiced great buoyancy and had fun doing it. All in all today was a perfect start to the weekend! Congratulations to Kristen on completing her Nitrox and Drift Specialties.

Been seeing this turtle with odd tail a lot.

Curious turtle extending his neck

Lazy Hono just hanging at his rock.

Dive Sites: Corsair, 107 max depth, 100+ viz, Wreck

Fantasy Reef, max depth 55 feet, 75 ft viz, drift.

Awesome Divers: James, Nicole, Hope, Jessica, Kristen, Matt, Michael, Mike, Thomas, Vanessa and Shawn.

Amazing Dive Staff: Capt. Joe, Dive Instructor Mary and Fantastic Kelsey as boat crew!

Discovering Diving

August 12, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Sarah Moore

Today was a beautiful day out on the boat on Maunalua bay. The sun was shinning and the water was clear. We had two certified divers and four discover scuba divers on the boat this afternoon. Everyone was super excited and ready to discover scuba diving in Hawaii. Our first dive was at Koko Craters. There were lots of turtles out swimming around the dive site today. A few great big ones and a cute little baby! Well… teenager maybe. We were also able to find an octopus today! Awesome little creatures, usually hiding in holes in the rocks so no one can see them. There were great big schools of sargent majors and tons of little reef fish cleaning off the turtles shells. After a great 40 minute dive we headed back to the boat and over to our second dive site. The second dive today was at turtle canyons. The water was wonderfully warm today, 80 degrees fahrenheit! We found two more turtles and the second dive site. Quite a few moray eels. Two of the smaller stout moray eels were out swimming around the reef! We also saw the adorable porcupine fish, love those guys! And of course the classic Humuhumunukunukuapua’a, state fish of hawaii, always makes an appearance. Over all it was an amazing day out on the boat with some amazing people. Lots of fun was had both above and below the water. Hope to see everyone out on the boat again soon! Aloha

Crew: Captain Joe, Instructor Sarah, Instructor Kevin, Crew Jo

Monday’s are made for Diving! 8/8 AM

August 9, 2016/in Dive Reports, Diving Courses/by Mary Christensen

We had just a small group of divers today but it was perfect! Justin was doing his PADI Enriched Air class so we got to do an extra long dive on the LCU. With a slight bit of surface current we got to the upside down LCU and it was perfect. Schooling barracuda, octopus and such a huge array of reef fish. We took our time looking around exploring out in the Z blocks and then back on the wreck. The wreck was so peaceful, it was a dream dive.

Hiding Octopus….we see you!!

growth on the wreck

We made our next drop on Hawaii Loa. This is a hidden little reef and when I say little I mean nice sized shallower reef! Since our group was small we opted to go to a lesser visited site and take our time. It was down right amazing. We spotted three different baby turtles!! They were the size of basketballs and if you know anything about our Hawaiian Green sea turtles you know how big they get. These little guys were pretty interested in us and swam around the group quite a bit. We also found another octopus that did some great free swimming right around us. Also we got to see a pari of elusive Saddled Butterfly fish which was super exciting. We got to do just a couple minutes short of an hour dive which made everyone very happy. This was a super day for diving.

Baby turtle swimming with James

Baby Turtle

baby Hawaiian Green sea Turtle

Saddled Butterfly fish

free swimming octopus

Dive Sites: LCU, max depth 95 feet, viz 80 feet, Wreck

Hawaii Loa, max depth 35 feet, viz 80 feet, reef dive.

Amazing Divers: Tracy, James and New PADI Enriched Air Diver Justin!

Dive Crew: Capt. Joe, Dive Instructor Mary, Dive Dog Saffron!

Tuesday, A Shark in every cave! AUG 30 am

Three Tanker Bliss! 8/28

Starting The Week Off Right!

Three Tanker Awesomeness

Super Saturday! 8/13 AM

Discovering Diving

Monday’s are made for Diving! 8/8 AM

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