2016 - Page 10 of 14 - Island Divers Hawaii

You Ask….We Deliver!! Baby Barge, LCU and Frog Fish! 4/10 AM

April 11, 2016/in Dive Reports, Diving Courses/by Mary Christensen

The start of the day was a sunny, calm beautiful morning and a great day to dive. This morning we had a few requests that we made happen. Divers wanted Baby Barge, max depth 85 feet, viz 150+. It was amazing at baby barge we could see the site from the boat. It was crystal clear looking down! The dive was outstanding, lots of turtles, eels and reef fish. Some of us headed to the “shark cave” and took a look around there. Found some shark teeth and Sasha and Lena buried their keys from the vow they made on friend! Congratulations on your wedding!!! Now baby barge has a special meaning for them.

Our next stop was the requested LCU, max depth 90 feet, viz 80 ft. The upside down landing craft was such a good choice for our next dive. There was a good sized white tip reef shark under the wreck and she was quite active. Swimming all around and giving a pretty good show to the divers. We came out one of the doors on the south side of the wreck and swam into the Z blocks. Found a little octopus out there but he was having nothing to do with coming out. The last group coming up got to see the schooling eagle rays so everyone had a pretty awesome dive. Capt. Matt and Genna had a great lunch all set out for us at the end of this dive. Lots of laughing and comparing what each other saw at this time.

Our last dive was Spitting Caves, max depth 50 feet, viz 50 feet. Everyone was excited to go on the drift dive at Spitting Caves. One of the big requests came from Jane, she wanted to see frog fish. Always hard to guarantee that was see a particular thing underwater. So many turtles on this dive was super. We have been seeing the growth of a few young Hawaiian Green Sea “Honu” Turtles over the last few months and they were all their today. The fish were abundant as always and the dive groups having a great time. About 3/4 of the way through the dive we found the frog fish and yes, Jane was squealing like a school girl. There wasn’t just one…there was 2!! Lots of eels and reef fish also to spice up our dive. A huge congratulations to Lena, Daniel and Victoria for completing their PADI Advanced Open Water Certifications. You all were Excellent Students and made this instructor look good! Loved all the laughter and hugs on the boat today. You truly all left as friends today! On the way in Genna made all the divers hot towels to freshen up with always welcome and popular on the boat!!

Amazing Divers: Sasha and Lena (Newlyweds!), Daniel, Pavel, Jane, Victoria, James, Will, Anthony, Becky, Andrew, Colin, Justin, Megan and Vanessa. NEW Advanced divers Lena, Daniel and Victoria!

Dive Sites: Baby Barge, 85 ft 150 viz, wreck. LCU, 90 ft 80 viz, wreck. Spitting Caves, 50 ft 50ft viz, Drift.

Dive Crew: Capt. Matt, Dive instructors Mary and Chelsea, Boat Crew Genna!

Scuba Divers: Brien, Colin, Jane Leana, Sasha, Pavel, Daniel, Randy, Cheryl, Sherrill and Will

Kahala Barge, Fantasy Reef and Tons of FUN! 4/9 AM Fox

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

Today started out with the sun shining and an amazing group of divers that couldn’t wait to dive. The water was calm and nothing but smiles on the boat. Kahala barge was our first drop site, and what a good choice that was. 100+ foot of viz and very little current. The excited divers dropped down and started their dives. Exploring the inside and outside of the wreck. We had one big female Hono that was very interested in our dives. She circled and followed, made sure to give each and every diver the once over. It was pretty special when the sea life interacts with us in that way. We leave them alone and they just want to know what we are doing. Brought smiles to all our faces and some pretty good photo ops for the divers!

During our time between the next dive we went over drift diving and talked about the possible things we could see on Fantasy Reef. The viz was about 60 feet but the reef was teaming with life. Pretty sure we saw about 15 turtles and the real highlight was the THREE…yes three baby sharks all cuddled up in a small over hang. Our white tip reef sharks are one of the few sharks that can sleep without movement to keep them breathing. Then we went to the second swim through and there was a much bigger, very active white tip there. It swam throughout the group then went through the swim through. She returned and the second group of divers got to see her too. Pretty exciting for all of us. The drift took us along at a pretty good clip and we got to see lots of sights. Boy I can’t wait to dive tomorrow with 6 of our divers that are returning! This was a totally fun group with lots of smiles and laughter.

Amazing Divers!! Brien, Colin, Jane Leana, Sasha, Pavel, Daniel, Randy, Cheryl, Sherrill and Will!

Dive Sites: Kahala Barge, max depth 95 feet, viz 100+, Wreck Dive. Fantasy Reef, max depth 55 feet, viz 60ft, Drift Dive.

Awesome Staff: Capt. Kendal, Dive Instructors Mary and Matt, Boat Crew Kelsey!

April 9th Afternoon Fox

April 9, 2016/in Dive Reports, Images/by Kevin Cloud

Another beautiful and easy going day has come and gone, but on this day many divers have come to Island Divers with the same goal. And that goal is to see firsthand the many wonders of the Pacific Ocean, some of these divers want to broaden their knowledge and skills, others are merely here for the enjoyment, but then we have the newcomers who have the honor of visiting these underwater ecosystems for their very first time, I am blessed to be the person to show them this amazing world. So I would like to thank Sarah, Jeremy, and Miche for trying out this course with us, in addition I want to congratulate Nkosi on his Advanced Open Water Diver certification. Great job guys, hope to be diving with you again soon.

April 6th Afternoon Dive

April 8, 2016/in Uncategorized/by Kevin Cloud

Fun in the Sun, and Underwater

March 31, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Sarah Moore

Today was a gorgeous day out on the water in Mauna Loa Bay. The sky was clear, the winds were calm, and the water was flat! We couldn’t have asked for better conditions as we headed out to our first dive site this morning. The first dive today was at the LCU. With a max depth of 90 feet and a 30 minute dive time we had an awesome dive. we found a white tip reef shark hanging out underneath the wreck. Three spotted eagle rays were cruising around the wreck, and a few moray eels were hiding in the cement pylons surrounding the wreck. Lots of cool stuff to see down there. The second dive we did today was sea cave! Always an awesome dive site when we are able to do it! Lots of different kinds of nudibranches living inside the cave. We swam with huge schools of butterfly fish and sargent majors the whole time we drifted along the wall. Visibility was amazing, 100+ feet, and the fish were all around. After a 40 minute dive to 50 feet we headed back up to the boat to catch some final rays before hitting the dock. Overall an awesome day on the water with an awesome group of divers!

Crew: Captain Matt, Instructor Sarah, Crew Brady

Flat Seas, Clear Water, Awesome Divers!! 3/30 AM

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

Could not have dreamed of a better day to dive than today! All the divers arrived early, with huge smiles on their faces! Today was going to be amazing right from the start. Everyone agreed that Baby Barge was the wreck we were going to do. We made our way there and the boat was a buzz with excitement about the upcoming dive. There was a slight current there so we made the choice to drift the site. It was fantastic, so many turtles. We had the cutest little octopus that was so very interested in us and also an ornamental crab that gave us a once over. We lazily made our way around the wreck then headed to the shark cave. Our Nitrox divers had a little more time so we showed them were to look for the shark teeth. They SCORED!

The water was so calm that we just took our time on the surface and enjoyed the sun and many good laughs with the divers and crew. Captain Bradley and Ashley cut up fresh pineapple for all to enjoy and we served up hot tea.

Fantasy Reef was our drift dive and again it seemed like at least 20 turtles!! They were everywhere. We took our time and explored the whole reef. So much fun to look in all the nooks and hiding holes along the way. We were not disappointed! Even got a nice swim by of a Zebra Eel, one of my favorites. A Huge Congratulations to Jessie on Completing her PADI Advanced Open Water Class!

Dive Sites: Baby Barge 80 feet max, 150+ viz, drift dive. Fantasy Reef, max depth 55 feet, 100′ viz, drift dive.

Divers: Jen, Ron, Jessie, Alex, Karl, and Matt!

amazing divers

Crew: Captain Bradley, Dive Instructor Mary and Boat Crew Ashley!

Clear Skies and Great Vis! March 30

March 30, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Chelsea McLaughlin

This afternoon, we had light winds and clear skies. Our first stop was Angler’s Reef. There was a mild current, and the visibility was great. We saw a massive eel and so many schools of butterflyfish. Koko Craters was our last stop. We saw too many turtles to count, a few eels, and several pufferfish that we got pretty close to. It was an amazing day for Deron and James to finish up their OW certification!

Angler’s Reef: max depth 46ft

Koko Craters: max depth 38ft

Awesome divers: Deron, James, Karen, Jack, Guo and Courtnie

Amazing staff: Capt. Brad and Instructor Chelsea

The Howling Southern Winds

March 29, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Kevin Cloud

Great diving on March 28th considering how choppy it was out there. But everyone was in high morale and the diving was exceptionally beautiful from the clear visibility, our dive sites were Anglers Reef and the always popular Koko Craters. I want to give a big shout out to Haley for overcoming her nervousness and to continue to her certification to Open Water, another shout out to David and Isabel for completing their Open Water course and welcoming them to a new and exciting adventures into the underwater realm. Adam is another fellow diver that I would want to thank him for choosing us for his first time diving as a Discover Scuba Diver, and hope he had a good time with us.

Sunday Fun Day Easter!!

March 28, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Mary Christensen

Awesome Easter Sunday three tanker today. We all hopped on the boat and got to head out a little early today. We made a dive plan but the dive sites were busy. Wanting to go to the Corsair first, but there was a line up of boats. Not a problem for us….the conditions were lake like, so clear you could see the bottom at 100 feet. So as divers do we made a new plan. Skimmen’s Reef!!! It was fantastic, clear with a little current to carry us on our amazing dive. Starting at the swim thru and making our way around the deeper side of the reef. Had a little octopus that couldn’t wait to come out and say hi to us.

Friendly Octopus on Skimmen’s

The whales were out near the boat, so we got a really nice mid day whale watch in. Couple of playful whales gave us a pretty good show. Captain Joe put on the whale songs and pretty sure that made them want to stick around. This was a nice distraction during our wait to go to Corsair! Boy was it worth it. A little bit of a current but it was great down there. Even an appearance by Bertha, well that’s what we call the big eel that lives there. She was out and pretty active today. Lots of history down there and all the divers were pleased we got to go there.

Divers on Corsair

Scorpion Leaf Fish

Bertha the Eel

By request of all on board our last dive was Sea Cave, always a favorite of our divers. The cave was super calm today and we all got to spend lots of time checking the place out. Upon entering there was a baby Green Sea Turtle, big eels inside, slipper lobster, crabs, just so much to see. We drifted west outside the cave and it was still super clear. The current pulled us along and it was like swimming in an aquarium. The fish knew what a great day it was, turtles swimming about and everything to explore. This was such an amazing day for diving. A big Congratulations to Andrew for completing his PADI Enriched Air Specialty and also to Andrew and Tara for completing their PADI Drift Diving Specialties! You both did and awesome job. Cant Joe had a great lunch for us after the second dive and on the way back in Maddy made us all hot minty towels to clean up with. Not to mention the amazing “Hot Pours” we get from the captain after the dives. One diver said it tickled her all the way to her toes today! We do love making our divers happy!!

Amazing Divers: James, Katherine, John, Tara, Andrew, Tara, Donna, Jason, DMC Matt, DMC Steven and Kurtis!

Eel Face time

Dive Sites: Skimmen’s Reef, Drift dive, Max depth 70 feet, 100+ Viz, Corsair, Wreck Dive, Max depth 107 feet, 100+ Viz, Sea Cave, Max depth 50 feet, 100+ viz, Drift dive.

Boat Captain Joe, Dive Instructors Mary and Kevin, Boat Crew Maddy.

Calm Day, Great Dives!!

March 26, 2016/in Dive Reports/by Mary Christensen

Beautiful morning dives off the Sea Fox today. Water was calm and clear, we took complete advantage of this. First stop was Baby Barge, max depth 85 feet with over 100 Ft of Viz. Plenty of turtles to see and everyone had fun looking for shark teeth. The barge is always such a fun place to explore and dive. Tara and Jason even got to have their first dive with Nitrox.

Sea Cave was next on our list. We did a nice tour through the cave and saw turtles and sharks!!! Always so exciting when we get a two-fer. We had a pretty good east current outside of Sea Cave. Max viz was 100 feet here too and our max depth was about 50 ft. We had such a nice dive just taking in the sights. Lots of baby turtles on this dive, which always brings a smile to my face.

A big congratulations to Tara and Jason on completing there PADI Enriched Air Course!! Great job today.

Crew: Captain Joe, Dive Instructors Mary and Chelsea, Boat Crew Kelsey!!