ISLAND DIVERS HAWAII DIVE REPORTS

Daniel Bond

October Fest of Diving!

/in , /by

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!

/in , /by

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!

/in , /by

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!

/in , /by

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!

Club Dive Members
Daniel Bond

Say Do You Remember….How Diving was in September?!?

/in , /by

The day was hot and made us ready to get into the amazing 80 degree water. We had certified divers, student divers, and DSD’s eager to see what the ocean would let us see that day. We talked it over and quickly figured out that Koko Craters was the site to check out. Captain Joe got us to the 36 ft site where we encountered a variety of sea life. We saw turtles, eels, trigger fish, puffer fish, and much more.

Once back on board we charted our next course for a site nearby called Angler’s Reef. Max depth on this site was 47 ft. Along the mini wall we saw a variety of sea life from moray eels, trumpet fish, butterfly fish, sea urchins, and different shells.

On both sites we had really good visibility and good conditions. Big shoutout to Bill and Evans for helping me out with everyone.

Big congrats to the Schumann family (Paul, Sarah, and Elijah) on joining our ranks of certified divers.

 

David Sanchez

Diving in Hawaii… its GRRRRRRRRRREAT! 9 4 17

/in , /by

As the iconic Tony the Tiger would say, and you will understand the reference soon :)! A beautiful Monday morning sprang to life as a adventurous group of divers boarded the Sea Fox for adventure… and they were not disappointed! Ready to tackle Maunalua Bay were Ben, Breawna, Cory, Dan, Robert, Jai, James, Joe Kim, John, Michael, Mike, and Christina. We motored out of the harbor enroute to our first site: LCU.

Ah LCU, one of my favorite sites due to its abundance of life. So many things to see… from White Tip Reef Sharks, Pacific Barracuda, Spotted Eagle Rays, Hawaiian Green Turtles, and so many species of fish, Eels, and Octopus.

they put on quite a show at LCU!

After a required surface interval it was on to our next site: Fantasy Reef!

Now let me just start by saying that I always tell my students and Certified Divers that one of the great things about diving is NEVER SAY NEVER! Because Mother Nature will throw you a Curve every once in a while and BLOW YOUR MIND! Well… it happened today.

The dive started as usual with the  common siting’s of Hawaiian Green Turtles and Great Barracuda

 

And we ran across a White Tip Reef Shark laying in a small cave

so all was well… until I rose up above the reef and came face to face with a 10ft TIGER SHARK! It was no more than 15ft away from me crossing from my right to my left, its beautiful stripes and distinctive eye gazing right at me. It continued on its path as several divers pointed in awe of its powerful tail. As I tried to chase it whipped its massive tail twice and was GONE!

MIND BLOWN! As far as I know it was the first confirmed sighting of a Tiger Shark at Fantasy Reef.

 

GoPro footage courtesy of Mike Davis

An EPIC DAY! And so that’s why I say… Diving with IDH… its GRRRRRRREAT! Thank you so much for a fantastic day of diving! Until we dive again…ALOHA!

Dave INSTRUCTOR

Mary INSTRUCTOR

Joe CAPTAIN

LCU 90ft

Fantasy Reef 50ft

Water temp 80

 

Carl Santangelo

Monday Afternoon Reef Diving

/in /by

It was another glorious afternoon in Hawaii as the Sea Fox set out into Maunalua Bay with a boat load of certified divers and open water students.  All were treated to an ample supply of sea turtles and tropical fishes.

Dive Sites:  Angler’s Reef, 40 ft., Turtle Canyons, 40 ft.

Mark Savel

Clear Weather and Waters

/in /by

It was a wonderful day out on the Sea Fox today off the southeast side of Oahu.  The water was crystal clear as we dropped in on the Kahala Barge.  As we got down to the site there were reef fish all about with schools of pyramid butterflyfish and wrasses swimming around. We also spotted  a yellow hairy hermit crab hiding out in the wreck.

For the second dive we drifted Keanu Reef and again had great visibility. Right as we got to the bottom there was a white tip reef shark that came cruising by. As we swam around the reef we found reef fish all about including a rare banded angelfish. We also found a few eels about the site as well. It was a great day out on the water.

Carl Santangelo

Friday Morning Drift Diving

/in /by

Another beautiful morning in Maunalua Bay; the sun was shining and the winds were down.  We opted to do two drift dives due to the strong incoming tidal current.  The visibility was outstanding and good times were had by all.

Dive Sites: Fantasy Reef, Max Depth 55 ft. and Spitting Caves, Max Depth 60 ft.

Mark Savel

Summer Fun on Oahu

/in /by

It was a nice day out on the water this morning, scuba diving off the southeast side of Oahu.  We had a wonderful group of divers all diving nitrox as we headed to the LCU for the first dive. We had some current as we tied up to the site and some great visibility as we got down the line. There were fish all about the wreck with wrasses, butterflyfish, and snapper swimming about. There were also a couple turtle s resting on the top of the wreck. Soon we were off to the second dive site.

For the second dive site we headed in to one of our shallow site as the wind picked up. We dropped in at Turtle Canyons with nice calm conditions and had a great long dive. There were turtles everywhere with a few swimming about and some resting on the reef. There were also a few eels about and we even found a large helmet snail in the sand. It was a great was to spend a nice summer morning.