Mary Christensen

Amazing 3 Tanker!! 4/23

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The sun was out all morning, the winds were light and the waves were down.  This was the makings for a perfect day of diving.  We headed to Kahala Barge as our first dive today.  This was super fun for some of our visiting tech divers, the got to make their way through the wreck.  Kahala is a great place to find some of our amazing reef sharks.  We found one there today!  This was pretty exciting for one of our divers who couldn’t wait to see sharks today.  Also at the wreck were several big moray eels.

Next stop was a pleasant surprise that we got to do a drift from the Wine Racks, to Pyramids, ending at the YO-257.  This was a pretty exciting dive today.  We dropped down and the submarine was there.  Everyone got to wave at all the people then we started our drift.  Eagle rays, tons of reef fish.  It was great going to sights we rarely get to go too and two of the three of these are them.

Last dive sight was Fantasy Reef.  Always a crowd pleaser.  So many turtles, eels, shark and our very favorite Red Frog Fish!! The drift started at the east marker and we moved a long pretty fast at first.  Seeing all the fish was fantastic and it was so clear today.  The swim throughs were alive with all the sea life.  It slowed down a little then and as we exited the chimney we got to see about 8 turtles all around.  After that was the red frog fish, then the shark.  What a fantastic end of our dive day.

Thank you to all our Awesome divers:  Steve, Keith, James, Andre, Sarah, Danica, Dennis, Stephen, Amanda, Rafal, Waldemar, Krzysztof and yes another Krzysztof!

Dive sites:

Kahala, Viz 80 ft, Wreck dive

Wine Rack, Pyramids, and YO257, 100 ft viz, Drift dive

Fantasy Reef, Viz 100, Drift

Amazing Staff:  Capt Joe, Dive Instructors Mary and Sarah, Boat Crew Becca!!

Mary Christensen

Double Drifting Monday!! 4/18 AM

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It was a blustery start to the day today but the weather cleared quickly as the dive boat headed out to the sites.  We drifted off the LCU wreck today and headed west after that.  The barracuda were out like crazy today, hundreds of them. We explored parts of the ocean floor that we seldom get to see.  Never knowing what you will see out there is pretty exciting.  So many reef fish around on this dive and the cutest little free swimming octopus.  It’s always fun to do this drift when we get the chance.

Barracuda  Moray EelDay Octopus

Next we drifted Fantasy Reef.  The water was crystal clear today and the reef was full of turtles.  This was pretty exciting for most of our divers today.  Lots of people taking pictures and enjoying the sites.  We saw a couple of nudi’s and yet again another free swimming octopus. One of the favorite parts of the dive was finding the red frog fish, this is one of my personal favorites around.    They are not common and a little hard to find.   Towards the end of the dive we even got to see the big present white tip shark we have been seeing around.  She is so slow when she swims now that everyone had a chance to take good pictures.  Lot’s of eels on this dive also….was so much fun.

Imperial Nudi  Day Octopus Green Sea Turtle Blue Dragon Nudi Red Frog FishMoray Eel

Thanks to our awesome divers:  William, Pat, Amanda, Josh, Nico, Carly, Angelo and of course Pastor Tim.

Congratulations to Carly and Angelo on their New PADI Enriched Air Certifications!!

Amazing Dive Staff:  Capt. Joe, Dive Instructor Mary and Maddie as Crew!!

Dive Sites:  LCU Drift, 95 max depth, 100 ft Viz.

Fantasy Reef, 55 max depth, 100 ft Viz, Drift

Thank you Everyone!!!

Mary Christensen

Amazing Monday!! AM 4/10

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The sun was shining and the divers ready to take on the morning dives.  We started with a trip to the Corsair but the current was a bit strong.  As divers do we changed up our plan and headed to Baby Barge. On the way there the last of the whales gave us a lovely whale watch. What a good choice this was.  We were greeted on Baby Barge with so many turtles we couldn’t count them.  Yellow margin moray eels, to many reef fish to count, nudi’s and even an Octopus!  It was a great day there and a hot bed of activity.  After everyone boarded the boat and we were doing gear change overs there were DOPHINS!  It was a super pod and they stayed with us for over 45 minutes during our surface interval.  Not to mention…..the Whales came back!

Our next dive site was Keanu Reef.  When we jumped in and were making our decent…..DOLPHINS…they surrounded us and started the dive that way.  It was breath taking.  On the drift we did at Keanu we got to see a huge octopus in its hole.  When we looked in we could see all her eggs there, can’t wait for all the new baby octopi around the reefs.  Lots feels also on this site.  It was a pretty amazing day on the ocean for all that were there.  We had a very happy Dive Day!

 

Awesome Divers:  Andy, Rebecca, Seena, Kyrylo, John, William and Tim!

Amazing Staff:  Dive instructors Mary and David, Capt. Joe and Maddie the boat crew!

Dive Sites:  Baby Barge 85 Feet, 100′ viz, Wreck Dive

Keanu Reef, 65 feet, 100 foot viz, Drift Drift

 

 

David Sanchez

Sunday 3 Tank Funday! Apr 9 17

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What a beauty of a Sunday it turned out to be as our Divers began their morning getting checked in to Island Divers Hawaii Kai shop. Andy, Brian, Chris, James, and Jonathan climbed aboard the Enzo in search of adventure in the blue waters of Maunalua Bay. After an in depth briefing and a short ride out we reached our first destination… LCU. The waters were calm and the visibility was around 75 ft as we descended down the lines to the wreck. Plenty of reef fish, an Octopus, and a large school of Pacific Barracuda make this site their home.

Next it was off to the West and the Mamala Bay area just outside of Waikiki. There sits the YO 257 and the San Pedro, 2 beautiful wreck sites. The currents were strong, so we decided to drift the area and head East towards the wreck site. We dropped down on a site known as Wine Racks where we observed a Sponge Crab and a Porcupine Fish. Riding the current East we soon saw the YO and the San Pedro off in the distance along with the Atlantis submarine which cruises through the area. We chose the San Pedro where we saw a Hawaiian Green Turtle and 2 large Pompano Fish. After a few more feet it was time to surface.

After a nice lunch interval it was on to our final site of the day… Fantasy Reef. An awesome reef site that sits at max 50 ft that boasts an abundance of life. Green Turtles, Moray Eels, White Tip Reef Sharks, and the Great Barracuda all live and thrive here. So much to see, so little time. After a 35 minute dive it was time to bid farewell to the blue water of Oahu.

Thank you to all our divers for a great Sunday of safe, fun, and eventful day of diving. Until we dive again… ALOHA!

Lead Instructor Dave

Support Mary

Captain Joe

LCU 90 ft,

San Pedro 95 ft

Fantasy Reef 50 ft

 

 

 

David Sanchez

Baby Barge and Fantasy Turtle party!

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A beautiful day today out in Maunalua Bay as we set out for a days adventure in the great waters of Oahu. On board the Enzo was a lucky 4 who had the boat all to themselves… Ainhoa, Nathalie, Gaelle, and Brian were all set for a 2 dive experience.  Conditions were good as we reached our first destination: Baby Barge. Currents were moderate, visibility was 60-70 ft, and water temperature around 76 degrees. All divers entered the water and descended to the wreck which sits at around 60 feet. We were met by many turtles who make the wreck their home, a porcupine fish, but alas no white tip sharks…

Turtle flybye

You talking to me?

Next it was a drop to 50 ft. for a drift on Fantasy Reef… the current died down a bit but the visibility also was down around 50 ft. Alot of turtles, reef fish, great barracuda, eels, and thanks to Nathalie who is an expert Nudibranch whisperer… Nudibranchs!

Barracuda!

Eel

Dancing turtle

A great day of diving for all. Thank you to all our divers for a safe and fun day in the water, hope to see you again soon. Aloha!

Lead Instructor Dave Sanchez

Captain Kendal Vercoe

Crew Phillipe

Baby Barge 60-85 ft

Fantasy Reef 50 ft

Water Temp 76 degrees

David Sanchez

Great day out at the LCU!

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Braving some moderate winds and some surface chop, our certified divers boarded the Enzo looking for high adventure under the rolling ocean. Divers  Brian S., Brian B., Carlos, Craig, Devon, Jared, Paul, Dray, and Megan,  were set to dive out in Maunalua  Bay in Hawaii Kai. After gearing up and getting our boat and dive briefings we were headed out to the bay and our first stop: the Landing Craft Utility or LCU.

Wow dropping down the lines it was easy to see that the LCU was a hotbed of activity and was not going to disappoint… we immediately saw a large school of Pacific Barracudas off to the left of the ship

Pacific Barracudas

This school has been growing bigger and bigger each time we see it, and is easily taking over the site. Out away from the wreck we trekked until we came to some cement tubes where inside sat a White tip reef shark… who promptly exited the tube and swam off into the blue…

White Tip Tube

Turning back towards the wreck we ran into 2 Spotted Eagle Rays gliding along the perimeter of the site…

Gliding Spotted Eagle Ray

Such graceful and beautiful creatures… one of my favorites!

Soon it was time to surface and bid farewell to the awesome LCU!

Next it was on to the East side and Spitting Caves wall drift!

The currents were up and visibility was down a bit, but we did manage to see a few Hawaiian Green Turtles…

Hawaiian Green Turtle

a White Tip Reef Shark, a Scorpion fish, a Frog fish, and an Octopus! A very nice drift for all.

Thank you to all our divers for a very safe and fun day out on the Enzo, and Aloha from IDH!

Dave Lead Instructor

Megan Instructor

Kendal Captain

LCU 87 ft.

Spitting Caves 45 ft.

 

Sarah Moore

Double Wall Drift

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Today was an absolutely beautiful day out on the boat! We had a great group of divers on the boat as we headed out into the bay this morning. The conditions were perfect, light winds, flat seas, and amazing visibility. The perfect day for a double wall drift! We started our first dive at Spitting Caves and meandered along the wall with current. Just a couple minutes into the dive is when the turtles started showing up. We probably saw at least 8 different turtles throughout the dive! We also found a scorpion fish camouflaged on the wall. We saw a couple large moray eels, yellow margin and spotted, and quite a few small ones, snowflake moray. We also found two imperial nudibranches. Really small but really beautiful. After a beautiful and relaxing 45 minute drift we hoped back up on the boat and soaked up some sun during our surface interval. We jumped back in just a little bit further down the wall from where we left off and drifted towards seacave. Again tons of awesome stuff along the wall. More moray eels. Massive schools of butterfly fish. We were lucky enough to spot a frogfish. Pretty ugly fish but awesome to see. We also saw the biggest barracuda I have ever seen. It was somewhere around 5 feet long. Absolutely massive. Inside the seacave there were 3 white tip reef sharks! We also found a big porcupine pufferfish inside the cave and quite a few blue dragon nudibranches. It was two magnificent dives. A great day out on the boat with some great dive buddies.

Mary Christensen

Shark, Rays, Eels, Oh My Monday! AM 1/30

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Yan and Si came out for an amazing dive today.  They braved the winds we had this morning and went to LCU and Fantasy Reef today.

With the over 100 feet of visibility we were all happy just coming down the lines in the slight current.  The schooling barracuda were there and boy were they there!  Hundreds and hundreds of them in fact.  Under the wreck the long nose butterfly fish were swimming upside down, because they can.  Swimming out the far side of the wreck we were greeted by the barracudas again!  Then while gazing up to them the eagle rays came into view.  Just two of them to begin with but they were big.  We looked around at all the hiding places in the Z Blocks and got to see and array of many reef fish.  At the top of the wreck we looked for the Tinker’s butterfly fish that lives around that area but could not find it.  When we came to the far side of the wreck we found the Eagle Rays again….and right under them a Shark!  This was the thing Yan and Si had requested to see today so they were pretty stoked.  The white tip reef shark swam around us for the rest of the dive!

Fantasy Reef was totally clear and amazing also.  The turtles put on quite a show for us and seemed very interested in what we were doing.  The eels out on the reef as they always are keeping a watch over there coral reef home.  The swim thru’s were bustling with activity today also.  We had the regular reef fish, loads of turtles, eels, great barracudas, octopus, sea hare,  even got to see one of the solitary Guinefowl Puffer fish.  This is a pretty uncommon sighting for us so it made all pretty happy.  This was an awesome dive and we really just took our time soaking it all in.

Yan and Si were so happy with diving the are coming back tomorrow to do it again!!

Dive Sites:  LCU, 100+ viz, wreck dive.   Fantasy Reef, 100+ viz, drift dive

Awesome divers:  Yan and Si!

Amazing Dive Staff:  Capt. Joe, Dive Instructor Mary, and Crew Tim!

 

Mary Christensen

Magical Monday!!

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The winds had died down from the weekend and we pulled out of the marina heading to LCU.  The water was clear and the viability was amazing.  There was a slight current but it was no challenge for our set of fantastic divers.  As we dropped on the wreck we were met but a huge school of barracuda!  This is always an incredible site to see so many of them together.  After checking out the underside of the boat we made our way out into the Z Blocks.  We were not let down with the sea life out there.  One of our favorite small white tip reef sharks was sleeping in his usual lair.  We were also greeted by 11…yes ELEVEN Eagle Rays.  This was a beautiful dive today.

 

The winds were right, the tide was right, the divers were happy…..Spitting Caves was our next dive.  We had an window and we took it.  We got to see a monk seal the the surface but he didn’t join us under the waves.  Our drift was filled with sites to see….Sharks, Octopus, Eels, Turtles,  Frog Fish and about a million reef fish!  The drift was a nice lazy drift and everyone had a great time exploring all the caves, nooks and crannies!!

Dive Sites:  LCU, max depth 95 feet, viz 100+, Wreck Dive

Spitting Caves, max depth 50 feet, viz 100+, Drift Dive

Awesome Divers:  Dan, Jamel, John, Michael, Phil, and Yin

Amazing Dive Staff:  Capt Joe, Dive Instructors Mary and Dave, Crew Tim

This was a super day!  Thank you one and all for coming out!!

Sarah Moore

Friday the 13th Dives

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Today was another gorgeous day out on the boat in Maunalua Bay. We had an excited group of divers on the boat ready to blow some bubbles on the fine aloha friday. The current was kicking pretty strong so we decided to do a double drift today. First drift we did was a really cool dive called the Barge Drift. We have quite a few wreck dives out here in Maunalua Bay and few of them are close enough that if you navigate correctly you can hit multiple of them on one dive! So that’s what we did. We started out at the shark cave just west of baby barge where we were greeted by a pretty large, 5 foot maybe (everything looks bigger underwater..), white tip reef shark. We then cruised along the ledge until we hit baby barge. There were tons a fish around the wreck today and a massive barracuda lurking in the middle of the water column. We then kept cruising along the ledge and found a devil scorpion fish, a master of disguise. After finding a couple moray eels we hit the rock piles. Large cement blocks all dropped for the purpose of artificial reefs. There are great big schools of fish that hang around these rock piles. Then we hit our second wreck, New Barge. At this point we started making our accent and completed our safety stop. Just as we were hitting the surface after our safety stop we ended up right over top of the LCU. An awesome dive with lots of cool stuff to see. The second drift we did today was Keanu Reef. A 70 foot reef with great big coral heads. There were quite a few moray eels around the reef today, both small and big. We found a blue dragon nudibranch, love those little guys. And as we were doing our safety stop a spotted eagle ray swam underneath us! Overall a great day of diving with some great dive buddies. Hope to see everyone out on the boat again soon. Aloha!