David Sanchez

Year End Scuba Adventures

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As the year 2017 begins to wrap up, I look back at all the great people I met through the year, all the fantastic adventures I’ve had, and on to 2018 which I know will be even better! Today was no exception… I had a fantastic group of divers made up of Corrinna, Jennie, John, Pat, Scott, Katelyn, Brian, and Taylor. We found that as we reached LCU there was a very strong current. so we decided to drift the barges, which is one of my favorite things to do. We do a negative entry as we drop down on the LCU, then head in the direction of the current as we pass over other wreck sites. It requires some skill and experience in diving, so not for the beginner.  The dive was awesome with good visibility  as we entered the LCU, drifted along over Z Blocks, and finished the dive over New Barge.

The waters were so calm we decided to try Sea Cave which is a site between China Walls and Hanama Bay. A great cave entry site and then drift along a wall.

Entrance to Sea Cave with a White Tip exiting

White Tips resting in the rocks of Sea Cave

Sea Cave Hawaiian Green Turtle

Wall Yellow Margin Eel

Another Fantastic Day out on the wall. Thank you to all our divers for a safe and fun day out in the bay. Till we dive again…ALOHA!

 

David Sanchez

Awesome Thursday Diving

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Always great to have a smaller group for a morning advanced dive on the Sea Fox. Today we were happy to have Katie, Victor, Ryan, Bailey, and Jackie join us on a Thursday morning that turned out to be beautiful both above and below the water. Water temps have begun to drop, but the cooler waters bring our most famous visitors to Maunalua Bay: Humpback Whales!

We departed the dock and made our way to our first deep wreck site of the day: LCU which is a Landing Craft purposely sunk in the 80s that sits at 90 ft.

One of the favorites are the White Tip Reef Sharks that love to sleep under and around the ship. Beautiful and graceful swimmers that rest under the ship and among the blocks.

Awesome Spotted Eagle Rays in formation

After a short surface interval and a chance to grab a snack, we dropped down to do a drift of Fantasy Reef…

One of the favorites at Fantasy Reef… Hawaiian Green Turtles!

White tips resting in the lava formations…

and the Great Barracuda hunting for his lunch…

A great Thursday of diving for all, and a big Thank You to all our divers for a fun and safe day out in the bay! Till we dive again… ALOHA!

Lauren Smith

Scuba Diving Lessons For All Levels in Oahu, Hawaii

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Where should you dive for your first time or for your hundredth dive? A dive center with the capabilities of offering all persons of all levels comfortable and unforgettable experiences is a winning choice.

You want to be able to bring your friends and family of all diving skill levels together to experience on their own the freedom and excitement of scuba diving. Island Divers has an array of beginner to advanced diving options for everyone.

For Beginners:

You can try your first breaths underwater in a pool while learning a few skills to make you more confident to then dive with your instructor in open water. Through our Discover Scuba Dive Experience those who have never had the opportunity to breathe underwater can get the brief training and experience with wonderful astute instructors to guide you while diving the reefs of Oahu. Once you realize the joy of diving, getting your Open Water certification will be your next opportunity to move forward to being a certified independent diver.

Open Water Certification options on Oahu

Island Divers offers many options to fit your schedule. You can take our Week Long Open Water Course that is tailored for people working 9-5pm. You can do a semi-private course and pick your days to complete the course. Maybe you can start on Monday but then can’t do the next day till Saturday. No worries! Our Instructors will always be there to complete the course on your time. Really want an exclusive experience? Ask about our Private Open Water Course.  Any of the choices you choose above will always be lead by our valued instructors and you will be provided the top of the line equipment and diving with one of the only operations in Oahu that offers diving on three sides of the island on one of our 6 boats!

Diving doesn’t just stop with Open Water certification; there are many paths you can take as a diver. A three-day Advanced Course will get you oriented with deep diving, wreck diving, and navigating yourself around dive sites. You become more confident in your abilities to be a good diver and a good dive buddy. After this, you can focus your dive education into many different specialties.

Advanced Divers:

Specialty certifications are our Specialty!! What do you love about diving? Do you love the fish, the weightlessness and controlling your weight as you glide through the water ahead of you, the penetration of a wrecked vessel sitting on the ocean floor, or the joy of underwater photography? We offer you many different courses to hone your skill in a specialized area of diving. There are over 20+ specialties that you can get certified in and educate yourself in all facets of diving. You are now ready to be a Master Scuba Diver, the top of the diving food chain for recreational divers.

Let us here at Island Divers Hawaii give you the experience of a lifetime, as well as the opportunity to continue to progress in the world of diving with the best prices on the island!

David Sanchez

Perfect Saturday Diving 11 18 2017

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Our divers were greeted by sunny skies and beautiful conditions on this fantastic Saturday! Aboard the Sea Fox were Andy, Dennis, Esben, James, Joel, Matthew, Mike and TJ. Looking for an exciting day out in the Bay… and they were not disappointed.

So first stop: my favorite LCU! So much to see on this site…

Our most reliable resident of the site, our beloved White Tip Sharks. 3 adults and 1 juvenile around the wreck.

One of my many favorites: Eagle Rays and they put on quite a show today circling several times.

And finally a large group of Pacific Barracuda swimming slowly against the current.

After an adequate surface interval it was on to Sea Cave!

More sharks! several White Tips circled lazily around the cave.

Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles cruising the walls…

and finally several species of Eels hunting along the wall.

First off I want to thank all our divers for being safe and for making the day fun for all. Till we dive again… ALOHA!

Dave OWSI

Joe CAPT

LCU 90 Ft

Sea Cave 50 Ft

 

 

 

David Sanchez

Hump Day Hullabaloo!

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A windy Wednesday met our 3 divers Andrew, Joel, and David as the Sea Fox left the dock headed to our first destination: LCU. The sunken transport WW2 era ship that seems to be a hotbed of activity here in Maunaloa Bay. Its one of my favorite site due to the amount of life found here. Today was no different…

Ah our White Tips… under the wreck, outside the wreck, and a juvenile under the Z Blocks…

A single Eagle Ray circled the ship several times, enjoying the small current…

A school of Pacific Barracuda stood watch over the wreck..

And finally a small group of Great Barracuda have been gaining numbers and hunting in the area…

An epic first dive today! Next stop: Fantasy Reef!

And today was Turtle DAY!

Turtles everywhere and very active..

And Eels: Yellow Margin, White Mouth, and Snowflakes… awesome dive!

A great way to spend the middle of the week… thank you to all our divers for  a safe and fun day out in the Bay! Till we dive again: ALOHA!

DAVE OWSI

MATT Captain

NATALIE Crew

LCU 90″

Fantasy Reef 50″

Temp 76*

David Sanchez

Divers under glass!

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We love diving in Maunalua Bay on any day because of all the life and wrecks that are hidden under her waters. But there are days that can only be classified as EPIC and today was one of those days. 2 lucky divers joined me today aboard the Sea Fox: Monica and Rob. They chose to dive the wreck LCU as our first dive site, and she did not disappoint us. We were met by an ocean that looked like glass on the surface and perfect conditions at the site: 100 ft plus visibility and no current. We dropped down the lines and into the upside down wreck…

We were met by a 5ft white tip and during the dive we saw 3 more outside the wreck and under the Z blocks. They were very active today!

next up…

Two Spotted Eagles soaring above us…

a large school of Pacific Barracuda cruising along side…

and two Octopus hiding under the blocks…

So much to see it was sensory overload! a great dive!

Refuel and hydrate during a short surface interval and  it was on to our next site: a drift dive of Spitting Caves.

Eels of all kinds such as this White Mouth Moray…

And turtles drifting bye on their way to lunch!

It was a perfect day all around, with great divers, beautiful creatures, and awesome  me conditions! Thank you so much to all our divers for a safe and fun day out on the Sea Fox. Till we dive again… ALOHA!

DAVE Instructor

JOE Captain

BECKA Crew

LCU 90 ft

SPITTING CAVES 40 ft

Water 78*

Daniel Bond

October Fest of Diving!

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It was a beautiful sunny day and Captain Joe just got done with his briefing. We headed out into Maunalua Bay and the 82 degree water looked very inviting. We made our way to Koko Craters which had good visibility and a max depth of 36 ft. We had some mild current underneath, but didn’t stop us from seeing turtles, pufferfish, hawaiian state fish, trumpetfish, seargant majors, and star pillows.

We surfaced and made our way out to another dive site called Foxy Land. Max depth here was 38 feet. Current definitely picked up on the surface and under the water as well. We saw beautiful corals and reef formations and not to mention a massive turtle. Everyone seemed to have a good time despite conditions and everyone left happy.

A big shout out to Lloyd for helping me out with everyone today. Mahalo!

Last, but not least…congrats to first time divers, MARIA, CODY, AND SYDNEY.

David Sanchez

Aloha Friday Drifting!

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A beautiful Aloha Friday broke out this morning as our fearless dive group boarded the Sea Fox looking forward to an exciting day out in Maunalua Bay. Ready to explore the ocean blue was Aaron, Alex, Andrew, Dustin, Elizabeth, Jimmy, Heather, Grady, Tammy, John, Marcus, Matt and Ty. A great group of excited and experienced divers. We set our sites on LCU, but with a ripping current it was decided that we would DRIFT THE BARGES! YAY MY FAVORITE! We dropped down onto Baby Barge first…

And plenty of Turtles getting their spa day in!

Next we drifted to New Barge…

And a large group of HUGE Alua were ducking in and around the inside of the wreck…

and finally we dropped into LCU…

Three White Tip Reef Sharks resting inside the wreck! A great dive!

After a sufficient surface interval it was on to Fantasy Reef… a beautiful coral reef that sits at around 50ft.

LOTS of Turtle action!

A friendly Barracuda!

A fantastic day of drift diving was had by all! thank you to all our divers for a safe and fun day out in the water! Till we dive again… ALOHA!

Dave LEAD OWSI

Lloyd  OWSI

Joe CAPTAIN

 

David Sanchez

Advancing our diving skills!

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Another beautiful day broke out in Maunalua Bay as our diving friends boarded the Sea Fox to drop below the calm waters of the Pacific Ocean. Along for a great day of diving was Advanced Open Water Students Mike and Katherine,  along with certified divers Judy, Ed, Jon, Maxine, David, Chris, and Jaclyn. We departed the marina and headed off to our first site: Kahala Barge.

Kahala Barge is a ship that was sunk in the 80s to make a coral reef site. She sits at approximately 95 feet of water and is a nice site to enter and train on the proper way to dive Deep and how to be safe around wreck sites. We descended safely down to the ship and entered the bow area to look inside. Lots to see here…

  Yellow Margin Moray Eel

  Whitemouth Moray Eel

  Spotted Eagle Ray

A great dive. Awesome conditions and some great sea creatures.

Soon it was back on the boat and on to Spitting Caves. Just south of Portlock and east of China walls is a great site known as Spitting Caves. A drift site that is teeming with sea life big and small. Dropping off the boat and drifting around 40ft there are lava structures, small caves, and coral areas that are home to fish, eels, octopus, frog fish, just about everything you can find across Hawaii you can find here… including an occasional Monk Seal, Dolphins, and Humpback Whales when the season hits here in the winter months. But today we saw:

  Yellow Margin Moray Eel

  Undulated Moray Eel

  Hawaiian Green Turtle

Another fantastic dive… thank you to all our divers for a safe and fun day out on the Sea Fox. Until we dive again: ALOHA!

Kahala Barge 95 ft

Fantasy Reef 45 ft

Water Temp 79*

Instructor DAVE

Captain JOE

Daniel Bond

Shakas All Around for Another Great Day of Diving!

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We had another beautiful day for diving. The sun out made everyone ready to hop into the water. We made our way out into the bay with Captain Joe at the helm. We hooked up to our first site, Koko Craters. There was a strong surface current, but all the divers still seemed ready to check out what laid underneath us at around 36 feet. We made our way in and descended. On this dive we saw turtles, eels, trigger fish, butterfly fish, and many other types of marine life.

After getting ourselves ready for our second dive site, Turtle Canyons we got everyone ready. The water’s conditions got better with a mild current underneath still at a nice 80 degree temperature. We jumped in at a max of 40 feet in the sand and went exploring all over the fingered reef. We saw star pillows, sea urchins, puffer fish, scorpion fish, parrot fish, and a big moray eel!

A very big shout out to Bill for helping me out with everyone today. We had an Open Water Refresher, students, and other certified divers to share the ocean with us today!