On a great Thursday afternoon we headed out with customers participating in Discover Scuba Diving, students conductiong their open water dives 1,2,3 and 4. First dive site was Koko Crater where it was a turtles heaven for our divers counting 5 individual turtles through the dive. The second dive site was Anglers Reef where it was eels and tridents trumpet shells that were the highlights for the divers.
The water was still relatively calm as we made our way out into Moanalua Bay for our afternoon dives. We had a few people completing their Open Water certification, a few working on the Advanced certification, and some certified divers. Conditions were lovely and we were able to head out to Fantasy Reef (max depth 55ft) for our first dive. We stumbled upon an octopus right at the base of the mooring, which was a great way to start out our dive. As we swam along, we ran into multiple turtles and little eels. One group even saw an eagle ray! The shark cave didn’t disappoint: there was a small whitetip reef shark trying to get comfortable for an afternoon nap.
Our second dive site was Turtle Canyon. The current was a little strong, but there were hundred and hundreds of little gold ring surgeonfish in a mating aggregation. The water looked so dark as the fish swarmed. We found a few little nudibranchs, a small hawaiian green sea turtle, and even an octopus!! The best part of the dive for me was swimming through the massive gold ring surgeonfish aggregations. It was so great to have these little fish so close to us and not caring that we were there trying to swim along. Congrats to the Todorinovs who are now Open Water divers!
Amazing staff: Capt Joe, Inst. Chelsea, Larry, and Jim
The swells were small and the sun was shining as we headed out to Moanalua Bay this morning. We had a great group of certified divers with us (many who have been with us before) and a few were working on completing various specialties, like drift and wreck.
Our first site was Kahala Barge, which sits in the sand at 95ft. There was a moderate current and all our divers did an excellent job of navigating in it. Visibility was amazing. We could see the wreck clearly from the surface. Kahala Barge has quite a bit of coral growth on it and we saw several different kinds of nudibranchs. There was also a large school of yellow pyramid butterfly fish hanging around the top of the wreck near the morning ball.
For our next stop, we ventured around Diamondhead to visit the wrecks of the YO-257 and the San Pedro (one of my favorite wrecks). Once again, visibility was super but there wasn’t much current this time. We found several green sea turtles right as we descended. An eagle ray also cruised around the wrecks while we explored. There were several eels poking their heads out of their hiding holes. The final few divers got a special treat when they came across a whitetip reek shark with an eel just hanging with it’s shark buddy.
We made our way back into Moanalua Bay for our final dive. We drifted Fantasy Reef and it couldn’t have been a better choice. Right after we dropped, a large green sea turtle swam right past us as he made his way into the open ocean. We came across quite a few more though. In the shark cave, a turtle had squeezed into it and cozied up to a whitetip reef sharks. It seems like all the sharks had friends today! We had a nice long drift and saw so many different fish (all sorts of butterfly fish, moorish idols, parrotfish and wrasses). Thank you to everyone who chose to spend Father’s Day with us! We had a great time showing you around our underwater world!
Now at times I don’t consider myself as someone who always brags about what he saw out there in the big o’ blue, but this time I’ll make an exception. Just yesterday on June 15, 2016, me and several other fellow divers had the honor of diving at one of the many barges called Kahala Barge that morning in a rather windy-sunny day,however pleasant under the surface. Now once at the wreck we managed to swim the whole sunken vessel whether it was under,above, or even through the wreckage it still always has that eerie and yet fascinating feeling. Once finished there, after a 45 minute surface interval we immediately did a drift over Fantasy Reef where I stumbled upon 3 White Tip Reef Sharks in a small cozy cave side by side, aside from that we were then approached by another. So yeah I am going to brag about how many sharks, but that’s besides the point. Want to give a congratulations shout out to Darrel and Chris for finishing there Advanced Open Water Course with me, one of the many awesome instructors at Island Divers.
The winds were still blowing, but the swell had calmed down, as we headed out on the “Sea Fox” this morning. We had a small group of certified divers that couldn’t wait to jump in, even though it was a rocky topside.
Our first dive site was LCU. LCU is a landing craft that was accidentally sunk upside down, which makes for a unique dive. Divers can explore underneath the wreck and circle the props on their ascent. Today, visibility was amazing! We could clearly see the wreck as we descended even though it was almost 100ft down. We saw a massive school of barracudas right off the bat. As we made our way along the bow of the ship, we came across a lone eagle ray hanging out in the current. A white tip reef shark came to play as we made our way back to wreck after exploring the surrounding area.
We were able to make it over to Spitting Caves for our second dive. The current was quite strong, which made for a thrilling drift along the wall. Throughout the dive, turtles came to visit us. There was even a baby Honu that was the size of a small backpack! Cutest animal ever! We found another white tip reef shark snoozing on the sand in the A- cave. Towards the end of our drift, we came across a Devil’s Scorpionfish (the most venomous fish in the sea) and a gorgeous white-mouth moray eel. Despite the swell-y conditions on the surface, we had absolutely lovely time under the sea today!
Awesome divers: Beth, Ralf, and Rich. Mahalo for diving with us and we hope to see you soon!
Amazing staff: Capt Kendal, Instructor Chelsea and Deckhand Courtnie.
Our Weds afternoon gave us an opportunity to explore the dive sites of Anglers Reef and Fantasy Reef. With discover scuba divers and open water students on board we got great first time experience and amazing training completed. The Hawaiian green sea turtle and a variety of eels were the main attraction of both dives with some white tip reef sharks spotted by a couple of divers. A great day for a great couple of dives.
It was an incredible afternoon out on the Seafox today, the wind was blowing and the waves were coming in but we still had an awesome time and did two great dives! The first dive site we headed to this afternoon was Koko craters and the turtles were out and about! They were swimming right beside us for most of the dive! We saw probably six different individual turtles today, score! We also found an octopus walking around at the back crater today! Always cool to see those guys. The second dive site we went to today was Anglers Reef, a little farther out to try and get some better visibility, and better visibility we did get! Anglers reef was beautiful today. We swam right through a group of four or five porcupine puffer fish. We found a couple great big spotted moray eels. And we had tons of little reef fish swimming around. Overall it was an excellent day with some excellent dive buddies. Thanks everyone for coming out and we hope to dive with you again soon!
Crew: Captain Joe, Instructor Sarah, Instructor Tommy
They forecast big swells and rough seas but our stedfast divers came. Today was a great day to dive even with the swell that came through. We had to change up our plan a little but we made it work on the sunny Sunday dive day. Heading out we knew we were going to do a double drift because Rob and Brandon signed up for the PADI Drift Diver Specialty class. Was really a great day to do this. We started at Fish Garden today and drifted west to spitting caves. Was a great dive and we saw so many things. Eagle ray, turtles, eels, sharks and loads of reef fish. Floating gently along on the currents was a great way to start the morning.
We motored over to the YO 257 for our next dive. It was a little surgey and stirred up from the swell but we still got to take in a lot. More eagle rays there, turtles and we got caught up in a storm of moorish idols. We also visited the San Padro while at the YO. Everyone was truly enjoying the abundant amount of fish on this wreck and the divers poked in and out of the wreck really getting a solid wreck dive out of it. This is always one of our favorite wrecks to get to on our Sunday 3 tanker. Our divers on Nitrox really got the full experience of the dives today with the longer bottom time. When we arrived back on the boat our Captain and crew had a really nice lunch for us laid out.
We took a nice long surface interval as we made our way back around Diamond Head. Everyone enjoying the warm sunny day and talking about the dives. Fantasy Reef was our next site because we wanted some turtle sightings!! We were not disappointed. We found them sleeping, and swimming, heading up to and down from the surface. It seems like everywhere we looked there was a turtle doing something. Made our turtle fans very happy today. As usual we had plenty of reef fish to join us on the dive and had TWO different shark encounters. The tides changed a bit while we were under the water so we got a double take of some of the swim throughs and maybe even of the turtles. The ride is was nice and relaxed as we got to discuss our amazing dive day. Congratulations Brandon and Rob on your PADI Drift diving Certs!
Awesome Divers: Brandon, Hilary, James, John, Matt, Meridian, Miyuki, Rob and Rick. Thank you Rick for joining us for an entire week of Diving. You are part of our family now.
Amazing Staff: Captain Kendal, Dive Instructors Mary and Sarah, and Britney as our crew!
Dive sites: Fish Garden/Spitting caves 50 foot, 70 foot viz, well at the start, Drift dive
YO/San Padro 95 feet, 40 foot viz, wreck dive
Fantasy Reef 55 feet, 80 foot viz, drift dive
WOW! What a perfect day. It’s always amazing when the water is calm, light trade winds and unreal visibility. We could see LCU from the surface! This was our first dive site today and it was breathtaking. The eagle rays swam around the wreck the whole dive. We found a huge sponge crab in the wreck. It was fun to explore under the boat, around the boat, get some great shots of the sea life. We had several photographers on the boat today. Chad was doing the dives for his PADI Enriched air course, several others just enjoyed the benefits of already being certified. Even the safety stop was great with eagle rays circling below.
Double Eagle Ray
Sponge Crab, look close at the white part.
Back to one of my favorite sites for the drift. Fantasy Reef! Visibility again was perfect and the current was just enough to keep us moving but not so bad we didn’t have time to explore. First thing we saw was one of the small white tip reef sharks taking a snooze in a cave. So many turtles all around, was pretty exciting for our divers, they are always a crowd pleaser and even a visit from one of the baby turtles we have here. The eels were pretty active on this dive and we even saw a curious octopus poke his head out and watch us. We were surrounded by schools of reef fish most of the time. Coming through one of the swim throughs even got to see a school of pacific barracuda’s, there were about 15 of them. When we came up and all were loaded back on the boat a pod of dolphins came right by the boat just to give us a send off. Also had the amazing Hot Towels to freshen up with after the dive thanks to Gracie. Congratulations Chad on your PADI Enriched Air Certification! What a perfect day!!
small shark
Smiling Turtle
Double Trouble Moray Eels
Fantastic Divers: James, Samantha, Chad, Stan, and Juan.
Amazing Dive Staff: Captain Joe, Dive Instructor Mary and Boat Crew Gracie. Special Appearance Dive Instructor and boat captain Matt.
Dive Sites: LCU, Max Depth 90 feet, Viz 150+, Wreck dive
Fantasy Reef, Max Depth 55 feet, Viz 150+, Drift dive
Tako or taco, we love them both!! but I’ll take seeing a tako (octopus) underwater anytime over eating a taco after the dive! our 2nd dive today was a drift of spectacular Fantasy Reef, where we found the aforementioned octopus, as well as 2 sharks, a plethora of huge green sea turtles, free-swimming moray eels, countless reef fish, amidst amazing volcanic topography! the current was perfect for a slow drift, so we meandered our way across one of our favorite dive sites! the first dive was Landing Craft, or LCU, and we were lucky enough to spot a flock of eagle rays flying in slow motion by the wreck! beautiful. also a shark and huge school of barracuda. despite the brisk current, there were lots of smiling divers as we motored in! thanks to all for safe diving, larry, kendal
LCU 90 ft 35 min 150 viz
fantasy 50 ft 49 min 150 viz
