David Sanchez

Mind Blowing Tuesday… 4 10 2018

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Well fellow divers as I write this blog entry my mind is still a bit numb from the event of yesterday. So bear with me…

The day began as a blustery Tuesday morning broke while we exited Maunalua Bay. On board the Sea Fox were an excited team of divers consisting of Adam, David, Duane, Joe, Kate, Robert, Taylor, Stacey, Bailley,  and Tom. We decided to drop on our first dive site: LCU.

Landing Craft Utility sits at 90 ft and can host a variety of sea life. It can also make you work hard to see it due to some moderate currents… today she made us work! As we descended down the swim line it was apparent that we were in for some kicking. We dropped down and entered the wreck…

A single 6 ft white tip was lounging inside the wreck… it circled the group a few times and then decided to exit stage left!

After a few laps around the wreck site all our divers ascended safely back to the Fox.

On to the main event!

The Wall. One of my favorite sites due to my recent run ins with Mantas and Monk Seals… its been my year so far! We dropped down to 50ft and proceeded westward as we observed the various fish going through their daily grind.  Now due to my recent Manta action I have a habit of looking out away from the wall, into the open ocean, because that’s where my luck has been. So as I turn to look out I see an object cruising bye about 60 feet away from us…

ME CHASING THE BEAUTY!

 

 

A 30-40ft WHALE SHARK! WHAT THE? I GO NUTS! I start pointing and I put it in gear! My group sees me going in the opposite direction and see the Whale shark and we all give chase! AMAZING! After a few seconds the Whale Shark kicked it into gear and swam off into the blue… I LOST MY MIND! All my divers were happy and fist pumping after this crazy encounter… the rest of the dive was a blur…

Well back to the boat and all the chatter… what a fantastic day to be a diver. Thank you to all our divers for being safe and joining us today… Till we dive again… ALOHA!

Dave INSTRUCTOR

Calli INSTRUCTOR

Kelsey CAPTAIN

LCU 90ft

Spitting Caves 50FT

Water 73*

David Sanchez

Manta Monday ! WOOHOO! 1-29-2018

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A beautiful Monday broke out on Island this morning with a light breeze, sunshine, and a band of fun loving scuba divers consisting of Aaron, Brian, Hannah, Jaya, Jonathan, Stephanie, and Andy. The Sea Fox pulled away from the dock right on schedule and after a brief vote it was decided to try Corsair. As fate would have it the current was RIPPING as it sometimes is, but the luck of Poseidon looked up at us and we redirected to do a double drift: Sea Cave and Spitting Caves!

After a short dive briefing we did a negative entry down to the opening of Sea Cave, and as we entered we were met by two White Tip Reef Sharks:

After a short trip through the cave we exited and caught the current west. Lots of reef fish, and a few White Mouth Eels

Then as we rounded a coral formation the highlight of our day:

A beautiful specimen of a MANTA RAY flying right in front of us: talk about EXCITEMENT!

Well that was CRAZY!

Back to the boat and lots of talk of the awesome sight! After a short surface interval it was on to Spitting Caves:

Again dropping down to the wall sight the current picked up and we were on a fast ride! But we did find time to stop at a few of the sites of interest:

Inside a small cave swam another White Tip Reef Shark

and of course more HONU!

What a fantastic day out in Maunalua Bay! Magical seeing the Manta Ray! Thank you to all our divers for being such safe and friendly divers! Till we dive again! ALOHA

Dave INSTRUCTOR

Joe CAPTAIN

Sea Cave 60 Ft

Spitting Caves 50 Ft

H20 73*

 

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!

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

 

 

 

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!

Club Dive Members
Daniel Bond

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

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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.