Sarah Moore

Baby Frog Fish at Turtle Canyons

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It as a beautiful afternoon out on the water today! The sun was shinning and the water was crystal clear as we headed out to out into the bay. The first dive site of the afternoon was Koko Craters. The turtles were out and about swimming around with us the whole dive. We also found a couple moray eels, a blue dragon nudibranch, a porcupine fish, and tons of cute little reef fish! After a wonderful 40 minute dive at 35 feet we climbed back on the boat to head over to the second dive site. The second dive was Turtle Canyons, 40 feet for 40 minutes. With about 80 feet of visibility it was an incredible dive. We were able to spot an octopus out walking around! We found a few more moray eels as well. We also found a baby frog fish! So cute! Today was an awesome day of diving with some awesome divers. Congratulations to Hipo for completing his Open Water Course and Libby for completing her Advanced Open Water Course!

Crew: Captain Joe, Instructor Sarah, Instructor Matt, Crew Brooke

Mary Christensen

Amazing Morning of Diving! 5/18

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The winds were up a little but it was still fairly calm out this bright Wednesday morning.  We motored our way to Baby Barge, max depth 85 feet for our dive.  There was a slight Koko head current but once we got to the bottom it was pretty much calm waters.  Oh my, there were tons of turtles and the group kind of just explored on their own.  We made our way to the shark cave and then out over the sand.  Coming back up along the small reef and back to the barge.  It was so nice down there….made it hard to come up.  Got to stay down a bit extra with our bottom time because Loren and Susan were stretching the legs, so to speak, on their new PADI Enriched Air Certifications!

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Next dive was at Spitting caves, max depth was 50 feet, drift dive.  The current was light and it made fur a super fun time checking everything out.  We got to see plenty of Turtles again, peacock flounder, eels, and 2 frog fish.  We tucked in and out of the caves along the wall and really had a nice time just doing the lazy drift dive.  Captain Joe had hot pours for us after both dives and we served hot peach tea today on the boat.  At the end of the day we had hot towels to freshen up with, always a super end to our dive day.

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Amazing divers:  Susan, Loren, Brett, Cynthia, Craig, Doug, and Mike.

We are very sad to see Brett and Cynthia making some of their last dives with us.  They have been very good friends to Island Divers and are moving back to the Mainland.  A big Mahalo to both of them for becoming family with us and enjoying so many dive trips.  You will truly be missed.  Best of luck to you and we can’t wait for you to come back and visit us all very soon!!

Dive Staff:  Captain Joe and Dive Instructor Mary

Dive Sites:  Baby Barge, max depth 85 feet, viz 85 feet, wreck dive.  Spitting Caves, max depth 50 feet, viz 80 feet, drift dive.

 

Sarah Moore

Awesome Afternoons

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Today was a great afternoon out on the boat with some pretty great divers as well. We had a mixed group on the boat this afternoon, a couple certified divers, a discover scuba diver, and a student finishing up her open water course. But everyone was out there for the same reason, to blow some bubbles! The first dive site we went to was koko craters. The turtles were out and about this afternoon. We swam along with over 7 different turtles including an adorable little baby! We also found a couple moray eels hanging out in the reef and a great big porcupine puffer fish just bobbing along. Towards the end of the dive we were able to find an octopus, awesome little creatures! After a nice 45 minute dive at 35 feet we headed back up to the boat to chow down on some pretzels. The second site we headed to today was Anglers reef. And boy were we glad we chose Angles today! As we were cruising along the ledge checking out a couple moray eels and playing with the reef fish we came across a white tip reef shark! He was swimming around the reef and swam right by the group! Not your typical suspect at this dive site but an incredible encounter non the less. He swam by the group another 4 times before the end of our 40 minute dive. White tip reef sharks are one of the smaller species of sharks, this individual being around 3.5-4 feet. But of course everything is magnified underwater so he still looked pretty big! Swimming with sharks is always an incredible experience and I think we all felt pretty lucky to be graced by his presence. Overall it was a great day of diving. A special congratulations to Nicole for completing her open water course! Welcome to the club!

Crew: Captain Joe, Instructor Sarah, Instructor Larry
Conditions: Visibility 40-60 feet, Water Temperature 78

Mary Christensen

Perfect day to Dive! Skimmen’s, Baby Barge and Sea Cave! 5/15

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The winds were light, the sun was shining and there was no better place to be but on the 3 tanker dive today!  We headed to Skimmen’s first today and were lead there by a nice pod of dolphins.  Had such a lazy dive, puttering along and catching all the sights.  Making it through the swim thru’s, poking around on the reef in the deeper areas and the shallows.  The dolphins even made an appearance when we were loading up the boat just to wish us on our way.  It was pretty magical.

The mooring has been out at baby barge for awhile and thanks to Capt. Joe and Kelsey it got put back in so we went there on our second dive.  Loads of turtles, eels, found some sharks teeth in the sand.  Thinking all our photographers were quite pleased with all the turtle pictures they got to take this day.  Back on the boat Capt. Kendal and Britney made a great lunch spread.  All the divers were happy that they take such good care of us.

SEA CAVE!!  Yep we finally got a break in the weather and made it to Sea Cave today.  The cave was awesome as usual and the reverberation of the waves hitting on the walls above us was like an old friend giving a hug.  The drift was interesting with the current today but we got to see tons of stuff.  This is one of my favorite dive sites on the island and we are lucky we get to do it.  Arman and David saw so many people doing Nitrox on the boat they both decided to give our TRY Nitrox program a try.  Loving it so much they made the choice to do the whole certification today.  A huge Congratulations to Arman, David and Kurt on getting their PADI Enriched Air Certifications today, you guys were Awesome!

Hot towels and cut up fruit on the way home….all were pleased with another Island Divers Amazing 3 Tanker!!!

 

Dive Sites:  Skimmen’s Reef, max depth 75 feet, viz 100+, Baby Barge max depth 85 feet, viz 100+, Sea Cave, max depth 50 feet, Viz 80.

Awesome Divers:  Alex, Rebecca, Anthony, Arman, Bruce, James, Renee, John D., John F, Amber, Kurt, Nick, David, and Peter!

Amazing Crew:  Capt. Kendal, Dive Instructors Mary and Sarah, and Crew Britney!

Kevin Cloud

Spirit of Adventure

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Of all the inspirational sites I have seen, I would have to tip my hat to Marina Storelli for sticking with her short journey to become Open Water Diver, at first she was very concerned and anxious about doing certain skills, but what drove her wasn’t only the instructor guidance, no I would say it’s the inspiring feeling everyone faces to make their own adventures happen. So without a further ado I welcome Marina to the diving community and hope her future dives will always have that spirit of adventure. I would also want to give a congratulations shout out to Michael and Tracey becoming newlyweds, and hey what better way to spend it in Hawaii. The dives we did were amazing (as always), blue clear water KOKO Craters with a depth of 37ft, visibility 50 feet, and the exotic Turtle Canyon with a depth of 42ft, and with endless visibility.

 

 

 

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Chelsea McLaughlin

Mother’s Day Three Tanker!

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We had a great group on divers this Sunday as we headed out to Maunalua Bay for some great dives. Cassandra was starting her Wreck specialty and Cole was completing his Nitrox course. There was a south swell rolling in, making for some choppy seas. Stop number one was the LCU (max depth 91ft). Underwater, there was a moderate current, but the visibility was quite nice. We circled the wreck and saw some eagle rays and an eel curled up on the top of the wreck. Larry even found a few amazing nudibranchs!

For dive number two we headed over to the YO-257 (my favorite wreck!) and the San Pedro (max depth 95ft). There was still a moderate current and the visibility was around eighty feet. We saw an eagle ray facing into the current hanging out and a few turtles cruised by. There were schools of butterfly fish and damselfish roaming the wreck as well.

Our final dive was a drift at Fantasy Reef(max depth 50ft). The surge took us all around the reef. We saw more turtles than we could count, a few small eels and Larry found an octopus! The turtles were acting like they were part of our group as we cruised the reef. We even found a few white-tip reef sharks hiding in a cave! It was a fantastic day!

Awesome divers: Cassandra, Thea, Cole, Anthony, Brian, Kraig, Camille, Darrell, James, Renee and Bruce!

Amazing staff: Capt. Joe, Instructors Chelsea, Larry, and Matt! 🙂

Mary Christensen

Double Drift with Sharks and Turtles! 5/7 AM

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It was a little rainy and grey out this morning but those always make for some of the best dive days! There was a mildly strong current this morning so our group of experienced divers opted for the double drift dive.  The shark cave is were we started our dive.  Greeted by turtles right at the decent was a great experience for all. I heard the squeals of delight as our graceful Honu glided our way.  They seemed to be very interested in the divers today which always makes for a nice interaction.  Slowly drifting along we made our way to the baby barge, where we were greeted by even more turtles.  The barge had loads of reef fish out and the eels were tucking in and around the reef.  After exploring the reef a bit we went on and exploration dive.  Gliding down the reef, inspecting all the nooks and crannies was fun.  We even found a very pregnant white tip reef shark.  Equally excited sounds and looks from our divers.  We drifted on with the current and made our way to the “tire reef”.  This isn’t somewhere we go often so it’s pretty interesting to see.

One of our favorite drifts is Fantasy reef.  Pretty sure we call it that because of all the amazing things you see there.  There must have been more than 20 turtles on this dive much to the delight of everyone.  We also got to see the baby reef sharks.  They are only about 2 feet long and hide in a couple of spots.  This dive instructor is pretty happy she knows those spots to share the beauty of our little guys with everyone.  Couple of eels did a quick swim by us and we also got to see one of the biggest dang Morays I have seen around under one of the ledges.  Dylan and Conrad dove Nitrox today extending there bottom time of the dives.  Congratulations to Dylan, who completed his PADI Enriched Air Specialty today.  He did a great job and was and excellent student.  Yumiko loved getting back into diving so much she signed up for the PADI Advanced Open Water class and can’t wait to start!!  We had hot towels after the dive to freshen up with made by Kelsey.  What a great day at Sea and Under.

What a beautiful relaxing day we had with the slight drizzle of a grey day.  Hawaii even makes the rainy days amazing.

Amazing divers:  Juliet, John, Dylan, Conrad, Chad, Catherine, Renee, Bruce, Yumiko, Tom, Mike and James.

Dive Sites:  Baby Barge Drift 85 ft max depth, drift.  Fantasy Reef, max depth 55 feet, drift.

Fantastic Crew:  Capt Joe, Dive Instructors Mary and Kevin, Boat Crew Kelsey!

Larry Hogan

HAWAIIAN MONK SEALS LOVE SPITTING CAVE !!

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well, as you can probably guess, we also love the dive site we call Spitting Cave!  there is a cave at sea level, and when the waves are hitting it hard, it spits that wave right back out!  and why do we love it?  because the is so much marine life there, as well as splendid visuals of walls and caves and canyons.  within all these caves, we often find sharks, turtles, and sometimes, monk seals.  all  wonderful to see, but there is certainly something special about an underwater meeting with these rare mammals, the hawaiian monk seal.  they have a level of awareness that is striking, as they will move closer, cock their necks, and calmly gaze into your eyes.  quite a fascinating experience!  perfect current for a drift, with nice viz, and tons of other marine life!  first dive was LCU, where we saw an eagle ray, turtles, octopus, as well as a cool wreck!  thanks to all for safe diving!  larry, joe

LCU  92 ft.   40 min   120 viz

Spitting Cave  50 ft.   50 min  150 viz

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Sarah Moore

Lots of Turtles, Lots of Fun

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This afternoon was a great day both out on the water and underneath. We had a few students on the boat this afternoon finishing up their open water course and a group of certified divers as well. The first dive site we went to was Koko Craters where the turtles were out and swimming around. We also saw a few moray eels hiding in the reef. After a lovely 45 minute dive we headed over to our second site, Turtle Canyons. We were able to see a couple more turtles at the second site too today. There was also a spotted eagle ray cruising around the reef! My favorite fish, the porcupine fish, came by to say hello. We also found a devil scorpion fish and an octopus. A great dive with lots of sea life to check out. A special congratulations to Sean and Garret for finishing their Open Water course! Welcome to the club!

Crew: Captain Joe, Instructor Sarah, Instructor Larry, Instructor Jim

Sarah Moore

Not Your Typical Afternoon

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Today was a gorgeous day out on the water, the sun was shining and the water was refreshing! We had small group of certified divers on the boat this afternoon all ready to spend some time below the surface. For the first dive we headed over to our finger reef, Turtle Canyons. With a maximum depth of 40 feet there is lots of marine life to see. We found a giant helmet conch, an octopus, quite a few moray eels, one who appeared to be in an altercation with said octopus and also appeared to be winning! A great big porcupine fish decided to swim with us for about 5 minutes of the dive as well! We were also able to find the beautiful but very small gold lace nudibranch. After a fun 45 minute dive we headed back onto the lovely seafox to make our way to the second dive site. For our second dive we went out to Fantasy Reef, an excellent reef full of fun critters. The maximum depth at this site is 50 feet. Here we were able to swim with lots of turtles, I lost count after 5. We also found a baby white tip reef shark underneath one of the ledges! There were again lots of moray eels and another octopus, these ones appeared to be getting along though. We also saw quite a few blue dragon nudibranches. It was an amazing 40 minute dive on a beautiful reef that we don’t often get to dive in the afternoon. It was a fun day with fun divers!

Crew: Captain Joe, Instructor Sarah, Instructor Jim, Crew Maddie
Conditions: Visibility 30-60 feet, water temperature 76 degrees