Evans Humphreys

Amazing afternoon dives!

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Earlier this month, we at Island Divers had the pleasure of diving with some of the most spirited guests yet! There was tons of chatter and happy vibes along the trip out to the dive site with lots of laughs and much excitement about the dives to come. With Captain Shiloh, the new captain on the block, helping keep us safe, our favorite dive sites were sure to be a great time. Our first stop was Koko Craters and what a day to be diving this site. There was close to 10 turtles circling the famous “Big Buddha” statue at the center of the dive site.

We also saw lots of cool eels including the intimidatingly large yellow margin moray and the delightfully small golden dwarf eel. On top of that I found the biggest shell to date weighing in at what must be over 2 pounds! Our next stop was Turtle Canyon where we had the pleasure of finding 3 different species of nudibranchs and an awesome eagle ray!

All and all this trip was a blast and I hope to see these divers again very soon!

Evans Humphreys

Beginner Divers Dream Day on the Barge!

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Wow. What an amazing day we had recently on the beginner divers boat lovingly called the Barge. With Captain Chris at the helm, I knew we were in great hands. The ocean was as calm as I’ve ever seen looking more like a big lake than the sometimes tumultuous sea and the visibility seemed infinite. With 10  first time divers on board, the day was shaping up to be perfect. Suddenly, as if the day was meant to be special, the divers on board were lucky enough to be graced by the presence of dolphins, which typically don’t make appearances this close in shore! I quickly gathered everyone to finish the dive briefing so that we could start making our way onto the dive site with the hopes of possibly seeing the dolphins underwater if their curiosity got the best of them. So with the help of Tim, the deckmaster, we quickly got our divers into the water, worked on the skills needed for a first time dive, and started our dive. Our first dive we would not be successful in finding the dolphins underwater, but turtles, beautiful nudibranchs, and eels made special appearances and the dolphins could be heard playfully whistling and squeaking in the background. Time comes for the second dive and the dolphins are still close by but as we descend no sign of them. Luckily the conditions are beautiful and we see around 6 turtles, 2 scorpionfish, two trembling nudibranch, eels galore, and a gorgeous horned helmet conch. But just as it was time to start making our way back to the boat the lucky divers with me started pointing into the distance and waving for my attention.

DOLPHINS!

 

We slowly turn and swim towards them to get a better look and spend a few minutes watching them. After the dive they followed the boat halfway home to the sounds of some pretty excited divers. Congratulations to all the first time divers on an awesome dive day!

Daniel Bond

Great Memorial Day Diving in Maunalua Bay!

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What better thing to do then go diving to celebrate Memorial Day! That’s what 3 students and 4 certified divers, and another instructor (Bill) thought as well. With Captain Shiloh at the helm we made our way out into the gorgeous Maunalua Bay. I had wondered how things were going to be since the “King Tides” making their way here on the south shores of Oahu, but was pleasantly surprised with good visibility 50 ft. and not too much current on our first dive site, Koko Craters! The water temperature at 78 degrees made it comfortable as well. There at the site we saw many things such as eels, sea cucumbers, Hawaiian State fish ( Humuhumunukunukuapua), pufferfish, and not to mention the main attraction, the great sea turtles! They were everywhere!

After there we decided on our next destination, Angler’s Reef with a maximum depth of about 45 feet and, we made our way and hooked up to the mooring line. The visibility here was also around 50 ft. Upon descending there were plenty of sea life to see all along the top of the mini wall. We saw other things such as little and big eels, star pillows, nudibranchs, trumpetfish, pufferfish, and many other different forms of life.

Upon concluding this dive we had two more join our ranks of certified divers! Big shout out and congratulations to Melinda and Brandon upon completing their Open Water!

Big shoutout to Bill for helping me out today.

Carl Santangelo

Friday Morning Wreck and Drift Dives

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Flat seas are always a welcome luxury when diving in the open Pacific and our divers were treated to just that on Friday for our two-tank wreck/drift dives. Baby barge was our first destination, a wreck that sits in 85 feet which is home to a variety of sea turtles and moray eels; the water was a beautiful shade of purple/blue and the visibility was well over 100 feet. After a surface interval we dropped in at Spitting Caves for our drift dive. This site is always a pleasure as corals and turtles are abundant; we were even blessed with some white tip reef shark sightings.

Dive Sites: Baby Barge: max depth 85 ft., 110 ft. visibility, wreck dive

Spitting Caves: max depth 55 ft., 90 ft. visibility, reef drift

Dive Staff: Carl Santangelo, Jeremy Sanders-Lewis, Captain Shiloh Branham

Jeremy Sanders-Lewis

From Wreck to Reef, A great Tuesday Morning for Diving

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Tuesday morning proved to be another great morning in Maunalua Bay for diving. As we set out early at 8:30 our small group set sights on the first destination of Baby Barge. Sitting at an estimated 75ft of depth we were treated to good visibility of about 60 ft and little current which provided excellent conditions as our party made its drop down to the Barge. Waiting for us at the wreck was a collection of 6-8 adult Hawaiian Green Sea turtles who had decided make Baby Barge the spot for some rest and relaxation. These graceful giants were undisturbed with our presence and allowed the divers to observe them in their natural habitat as only diver can. Surrounding the wreck in several different locations is a rock shelf with small caves that house other marine life such as White Tip reef sharks and moray eels.

Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle at Baby Barge

Another Turtle resting behind a rock below Baby Barge

After we returned to the boat and completed our surface interval the group discussed their options of sites to dive next and quickly decided to shoot a little closer to shore for relaxing dive at the amazing Anglers Reef. Sitting at a max depth of 45ft Anglers Reef is a single shelf that runs for several hundred feet. Its five feet of depth change from top of the shelf to the bottom is home to a multitude of marine life and today it did not disappoint. After mooring up and making a quick decent down to the reef the group was again treated with wonderful encounters to a variety of eel’s, especially several very large Yellow Margin Morays. These intimidating looking creatures paid us no mind as we coasted by.  We also laid eyes on a couple Imperial Nudibranchs, some cleaner shrimp crowding tiny holes and a very well hidden Devil Scorpion fish. Not a bad morning at all.

A very big Yellow Margin Moray hiding under the self at Anglers Reef

A Devil Scorpion fish doing his best blend in.

A juvenile White Mouth watching his own reflection in the camera lens.

Carl Santangelo

Saturday Afternoon Double Reef Dive

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It was another beautiful Hawaiian afternoon in Maunalua Bay aboard the Enzo as summer settles in. There was an eclectic assortment of first timers, open water scuba students, and certified divers on board which allowed for the creation of many different types of lasting memories. Hawaiian waters never cease to amaze and all were treated to turtles, moray eels, and stunning underwater topography.

Dive Sites: Koko Craters, max depth 36 ft., 100 ft. visibility, 40 min. bottom time reef dive

Turtle Canyons: max depth 40 ft., 90 ft. visibility, reef dive, 38 min. bottom time

Dive Staff: Carl Santangelo, Daniel Bond, Captain Shiloh Branham

 

Daniel Bond

More Diving Adventures in Maunalua Bay!

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Beautiful water, nice breezes, and a very eager crew of certs, DSD’s, and students made for a very nice day out in the bay. Captian Shiloh, Instructors Carl, Evans, and myself got everyone ready and briefed. We started out on “Back Crater” of “Koko Craters”. Our max depth there was 36 ft with a mild current, but visibility there was great! We saw quite a few things such as turtles, scorpion fish, trumpetfish, and even a fallen statue of a guard. All in all it was a great dive.

Next we headed off to our next dive site which was “Turtle Canyons” which also had good visibility and similiar conditions like the first. Reaching a max depth of around 36 ft. we were able to explore up and down a group of fingered reefs and saw eels, nudibranchs, pufferfish, and many other different types of marine life. We had good groups which allowed all of us to have plenty of time underwater which again made for an amazing afternoon.

 

 

 

Mark Savel

Lake Maunalua Bay

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It was one of those spectacular days out on waters of the southeast side of Oahu. We had a nice group of divers today was we headed for the LCU for the first dive. There was a little rain but crystal clear, blue water as we tied up to the site. There was no current and a good 100+ ft viz. We had fish all over the wreck with schools of barracuda, snapper, and goatfish and even found a small white tip reef shark hiding under a cement block.  Coming up from the dive we had no wind and completely calm water as we sat through our surface interval.

For the second dive we tied up at Fantasy Reef.  With little current and great viz we took out time cruising the reef looking for wonderful life. There were turtles all around the reef resting on the bottom. We found a few eels about and a nice sized devil scorpionfish hiding on the reef. It was a wonderful day to be on the water.

Mary Christensen

Fantastic Mother’s Day Dives! 5/14

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The day started out with some beautiful blue skies here on Maunalua Bay.  We had a full boat, lots of students and some down right happy divers.  Baby Barge was our first site of the day.  We had some current today but all of our divers were up for the challenge.  We were visited by turtles, eels and octopus at this site.  Our photographers on the boat were pretty happy with all wild life at the boat of the sea.

While we were on the first dive the seas picked up a little.  Made the choice to do drift dives in a little shallower this time at Fantasy Reef.  Boy was it a turtle show there!  Also had a free swimming shark on the reef and Octopus!  It was so nice to just lazily drift along and take in all the sights.  The reef, as always was crowded with reef fish of all types and even some great barracuda!!  It was a fantastic peaceful dive.

Our final dive was at Angler’s Reef.  The current died down some so we were able to move up and down the reef at will.  We got to see ton’s more eels, porcupine puffer fish, octopus and tons of reef fish.  It was pretty amazing out there on the water today and everyone was super happy!!  What a nice day we had!

Congratulations to all the New Advanced Open Water Divers! Ken, Samantha, Preston, Stephanie, and Sean!

Awesome Divers:   Florent, James, Jared, Ken, Steve, Russ, Jose, Kelly, Arvin, Caroline, Samantha, Preston, Stephanie, Sean and Glenn!

Amazing Dive Staff:  Capt. Shiloh, Dive Instructors Mary, Dave and Jeremiah, Fantastic Crew Becca

Dive Sites:

Baby Barge, Wreck, 85′, Viz 100′

Fantasy Reef, Drift, 55′, viz 75′

Angler’s Reef, Drift, 50′, Viz 100+

Thank you to all our new friends for coming out with us today!!

Mark Savel

A Day of Nitrox Diving

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Today was a wonderful day on the waters of south Oahu with a great group of divers. We had most of the boat diving enriched air nitrox with a few of the guys finishing up there EAN class.  We had planned to tie up for the first dive but as we got to the barges we had a ripping current and opted for a barge drift. It is such a wonderful dive being able to drift past Baby Barge, New Barge, and the LCU in one dive. There were turtles all around the Baby Barge and fish life throughout the dive. We even saw two massive ulua on New Barge.

For the second dive we drifted Fantasy Reef. The current had gotten weaker but we still moved well along the reef site. There were more turtles around and eels hiding in the reef everywhere. We had a few barracuda and schools of butterflyfish and snapper all over the reef.