Archive for category: Diving Courses

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!

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!

Coral reefs are the most biodiverse ecosystem on Earth, with more species calling them home than the rainforest! Earth Day was the perfect day to set out and explore these fantastic rainforests of the sea. We had a great variety of divers and courses on the boat this afternoon. Winds were light and seas were relatively flat,making for excellent underwater conditions. Heath, Conner, and Colby tried diving for the very first time and did wonderfully! Meanwhile, Silvia finished up her Advanced Open Water and Justin and Lauren joined the wonderful world of SCUBA and became Open Water certified! Congratulations!

Our first dive today was at Koko Craters (max depth of 40ft). There was a slight current and a bit of a surge underwater. Right off the bat, we found an octopus hanging out right by the mooring, setting us up for a fantastic dive! Many Hawaiian Honu (green sea turtles) were lounging under the craters’ ledges, while others were getting cleaned as they hovered in the water. We saw several small eels slithering along the edges of the craters and one large moray hanging out in his hole in the side of the crater. As we made our way back to the boat, we watched a large octopus change both color and texture (a beautiful display of camouflage) to try to hide from us. We also saw a small nudibranch hidden on a rock in the middle of a school of blue striped and yellow long-nosed butterfly fish; orange saddle wrasses; and sergeant majors.

The second location we visited was Turtle Canyons (max depth of 40ft). We found more octopus, a few more nudibranchs, and a large school of gold-ring surgeonfish. Eels were nestled in the reef and a turtle was dozing under a ledge. Silvia found a helmet conch munching on a sea urchin for lunch. The coral was very bright and colorful as explored the inner reef.

While being so amazing and diverse, coral reefs are also one of the most threatened ecosystems on our planet. Despite looking like rock, corals are actually living organisms and are very fragile. They face a multitude of threats with the most serious stemming from climate change (ocean acidification, warming oceans, and coral bleaching) and humans (overfishing and pollution). As divers, we’re in the unique position of being able to help combat these issues and being able to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Please don’t touch the reef, even if you’re wearing gloves. Corals are very sensitive and die extremely easily. Master your buoyancy and learn more about the marine environment with us. Don’t leave any debris at the bottom of the ocean and participate in clean-ups when you’re able to. A lot of trash goes unseen because it’s on the ocean floor. We want to keep enjoying these amazing reefs.

Take only photographs and leave only bubbles! The Earth will thank you! Happy Earth Day!! 🙂

Amazing divers: Heath, Conner, Colby, Justin, Lauren, Silvia, Ylenia, Esmeralyn, and divemaster candidate Dave!

Amazing Staff: Capt. Joe; Instructors Chelsea, Tommy, and Sarah!

We had two amazing night dives last night! It was still a little choppy on the surface as it had been for the last few days, but the wind was dying down. We set out at dusk for our first dive at Fantasy Reef! There was minimal current, so we could explore the entire reef at ease. While some reef fish were getting ready to sleep, others were out and about starting their nightly hunt. We ran into numerous large moray eels that were not hiding in the reef. The best sight of the night had to be three white-tip reef sharks hanging out in a cave with a giant moray bobbing next to them. Fantasy Reef also showed us several octopus roaming the reef, several tiger sea cucumbers moving about, and some very large nudibranchs.

Our next dive was at Angler’s Reef, where there was no current! As we cruised along the ledge, we saw a large variety of crabs and several small shrimp. A large moray cruised the ledge looking for dinner. Within all the crevices of Angler’s Reef many parrotfish, surgeonfish, and damselfish were calling it a night. They had nestled themselves in the little nook and crannies to sleep and hide from potential predators. Melissa and Silvia were completing the night dive portion of their Advanced Open Water, so we spent a few minutes sitting in the dark watching the bioluminescent plankton glow as we moved in the water. We had two great dives and several accomplishments: Larry started his Night Diver Specialty, Silvia made it half-way through her Advanced Open Water certification, and Melissa was an Advanced diver by the end of the night! Awesome job to all our divers!

Fantasy Reef: max depth 55ft

Angler’s Reef: max depth 46ft

Awesome divers: Melissa, Silvia, Thea, Brad, Ben G, Allison, Courtnie, Jeremy, Larry, Ben J, Mark, Brian, Brittney, Donald, Daniel, and John.

Amazing staff: Capt. Kendal; Instructors Chelsea and Matt