Lauren Smith

Diving with old friends and making new ones!

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Today was a  beautiful day at Island Divers Hawaii! Customers who traveled from Germany, Puerto Rico and the Midwest where diving with us for a 2 tank advance dive. With winds coming from the South, the captain and crew talked over the dive sites and planned for 2 drift destinations on the east side of the island. Once the boat and divers had geared up we unleashed the Sea Fox and motored out and around Kaihuokapua‘a. Our 30 minutes boat ride was smooth and relaxed while we cruised passed Hanauma Bay, looking for the most ideal place for our first dive. Skimmin Ledge became the prime location, with a max depth of  80 feet and NE current it was a new experience for all of our customers.  Soon the divers where suited up and 100% ready for negative entries. As the Capt. prepared the for the drop, we eagerly waited for the OK… Divers Ready!? DIVE DIVE DIVE!

Below the water divers started to buddy up and began shinning lights and taking photos of the marine life below. With a slight current we drifted easily passed ledges and through couple large swim through! Doctor fish, turtles and trumpet fish decided to come along for the ride.

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After a 39 minute drift we were back on the surface drying off and warming up in the sun while we moved the boat to our next dive destination. After a friendly surface interval we prepared for our next drift in front of Hanauma Bay. Descending down at Palea Point we started drifting passed rubble and with small holes hiding scorpion fish and wrasse. At max depth of 62 ft we had a chance to visit a few small caves occupied by sleeping turtles! Towards the end of our second dive we drifting into the blue to begin our safety stop while listening to whales singing to each other, everyone was surprised and excited on how close these deep sea mammals sounded!

So happy to of had the chance to dive with an old friend from the Caribbean and new friends from all over the world!

Mahalo guys!

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W: Bradley (instructor)   Kendal (captain)

CONDITIONS: Partly Cloudy, Mid 70′s , 74*F water, visibility 60+ft

DIVE PROFILES: Skimmin Ledge: 69ft max depth, 39min dive time & Palea Point: 62ft max depth, 40min dive time

MARINE LIFE: Scorpion Fish, sleeping Sea Turtles, Nunu Trumpet fish and the WHALE SONG!

 

 

Larry Hogan

HITTING THE WALL !! 12 january

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No, not the Honolulu Marathon, we were hitting the wall for some great diving!  we have a number of world-class sites on the wall of Koko Head crater.  today we hit Palea Point, the outside eastern tip of Hanauma Bay.  really dramatic wall, with deep canyons, caves, and a swim through.  I’m always expecting the spectacular when i dive here, and everyone that dives it, also loves it, whether or not we see monk seals or manta rays.  joining me were Heike, brian, allinson, and mark, a great international group!   Palea was our 2nd dive, and it delivered, as usual.  good viz and mild current showed us turtles, needle nose barracuda, and large shoals of reef fish!  first dive was a drift of Skimmins reef, which is rapidly becoming a real favorite amongst our divers and staff.  an offshore wall, with canyons and swim-throughs, plus a colorful coral-covered top at about 30 to 40 feet.  a great multi-level dive! thanks to all for safe diving!  larry, kendal, liz

Skimmins    70 feet   150 viz  41 minutes

Palea Point  60 feet   120 viz  44 minutes

 

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David Sanchez

Sea Cave Tuesday! Jan 13

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Another awesome day greeted our divers today on the Sea Fox. Perfect weather, good visibility, and calm seas all contributed to beautiful Maunaloa Bay dive sites. Enjoying the great conditions:; Don, Shawna, Jim, Mark (certs), and Irena (AoW) joined Greg and myself out to our first destination…LCU.

While relatively (and unusually) quiet, many reef fish, a puffer fish and cruising slowly by…

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a Great Barracuda visited the wreck and swam off into the distance…

Soon all divers were back on the Fox and off we motored to a favorite site… Sea Cave!

Well it was soon apparent why LCU was so quiet… all the fun was in the cave.

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5 White Tips cruised around the site…

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a single Squid floated against the wall…

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and just outside the opening Don made friends with a juvenile Green Turtle making its way to parts unknown…

Thank you to all our divers for a Safe and Fun day of diving out on the Sea Fox! Aloha!

LCU 85ft/ Vis 90ft/ 74*/ 30 min

Sea Cave 50ft/ Vis 75ft/ 74*/ 40 min

Dave- Lead

Joe- Capt

 

Mark Savel

Perfection on Oahu 1/10

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Today was a perfect day on the waters on the southeast side of Oahu this morning.  For the first site we decided on the Corsair and as we got out to the site we see the bottom clearly from the surface.  We had almost no current as we got down the line and there fish life all around the plane wreck. There were schools of goatfish and butterflyfish swimming about as well as garden eels in the sand all around the site.  It was a great first dive and we were soon off for the second dive.

For the second dive we hit Sea Cave and again it was a great dive.  We got into the cave we found 5 white tip reef sharks as we swam about inside it.  As we got out of the cave we found a few turtles swimming about as we moved along the reef.  We had a nice fast current as we drifted the reef we had schools of damsels and butterflyfish all over the place. There were also a few eels hiding around the area as well. The current was moving so strong that by the time we surfaced we were almost into Hanauma Bay floating at Baboon Nose.IMG_6793 IMG_6814 IMG_6823 IMG_6832

David Sanchez

Why We Dive! Jan 7

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Perfection: (noun) something that cannot be improved : something that is perfect… its why we dive here in Oahu… for days like today! All the conditions were perfect: from a great group of divers (Diana, James, Joe, Nikoli, Nicolas, Sebastion, Timothy, William, and Jamie), to the conditions (small current, GRREAT visibility), to sea life… couldn’t ask for anything better than what we had today.

First stop… LCU. Down the lines our divers went and under the wreck site. Reef fish of all kinds swam amongst the concrete blocks, as the group made its way under the craft…

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there swimming slowly was a lone 7ft White tip… what a beauty! As we made our way around the site Jamie pointed out a large Scorpion fish bouncing on the bottom… and then coming into view…

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an awesome group of 7 Spotted Eagle Rays flying in formation buzzed the group! Soon it was time to surface. Next on the agenda…  A drift of Fantasy Reef.

A parachute jump onto the reef and off in search of sea life… and so much there was! Threadfin Butterflies, Yellow Tangs, Trumpets, Moorish Idols, Goat fish, Yellow Margin Morays, Snowflake Eels, and an Octopus darted about the reef… and of course…

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Turtles! and boy they were definitely curious about our group! Seemed like they were wondering what we were looking at and wanted to see it too! Especially at our safety stop when a juvenile turtle swam all the way up to 15 feet, circled the group once, then swam back down to the reef. That was cool.

It was PERFECTION in every sense of the word… and thank you to all our divers for a SAFE and FUN day of diving… it was a pleasure!

LCU 85ft/ 20 min/ 74*/ Vis 100ft

Fantasy Reef 55ft/ 40 min/ 74* Vis 100ft

Dave- Lead

Capt- Joe

Crew- Greg

 

 

 

David Sanchez

A Boat-full (of FUN!) Jan 5

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A beautiful Monday, calm seas, and 20 excited and eager divers joined us on the Sea Fox for an afternoon of certified, open water certification, and refresher course diving…

Bob, Carol, David, Doreen, Joe, Meg, Lucas, Jackie, Matt, Becky, Robert, Anthony (CERTS), Chris, Priti, Wendy, Courtney, Emily (OW3/4) and Ken (DSD) all were ready to get into  the Maunaloa Bay shallows known as Koko Craters… after a few skills were mastered by all students a small turtle cruised by to see what all the commotion was about…

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Up to the surface for some Dive Flexibles and back on the boat to proceed to our next destination… Anglers Reef. With all skills completed the group of students got to relax and enjoy the dive. Threadfin Butterfly, Long nose Butterfly, Moorish Idols, Squirrel fish, Reef Trigger, and Puffer fish darted about the reef. And of course…

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Our Friend the Yellow Margin Moray Eeel… and a rare siting…

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A Sponge Crab looking for something to eat under the reefs ledge…

A great day of diving… Thank you to all our divers for a safe and fun day out on the Sea Fox! And congratulations to our 5 newly Certified Open Water Divers!

Koko Craters 34ft/ 25 Min/ 74*

Anglers Reef 42ft/ 30 Min/74*

Dave – Lead

Larry – Support

Jeremy – Suport

Kendal – Capt

David Sanchez

The Calm AFTER The Storm! Jan 3

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After a wild storm rolled through the island Friday, the day after began with a great sunrise and softer winds. By the time the Sea Fox was ready to get under way on Saturday the sun was shining and the seas were calm. A great crew of divers boarded (Aya, Carlos, Carlos Jr, Christine, Christopher and Priti OW1/2, David, Richard and Evan OW3/4, Douglas, Greg, Gustavo, Haley OW1/2 , and Voreen) and off we went to Koko Craters. The green water let us know the visibility was down a bit due to the storm the day before, but all the divers pushed on and got down to the site, After all the students aced their skills, off we went to find some residents of the deep…

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Turtles slept under the ledge, taking refuge from the surge in the crater…

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And a puffer hid out in the calmer water under the dwarf statue…

Once all our divers were safely aboard the Fox it was on to Anglers Reef… a bit better visibility was had on the site, where skills were mastered by all our divers after which it was a quick dive on the wall…

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Green Morays peeked out from their temporary homes…

while reef fish of all shapes and sizes swam about the hard coral.

A great day of diving… thank you to all our divers for a safe and fun day of diving! Congrats to Richard and Evan on competing their open water certification!

Koko Crater 32Ft/ 74*/ 30 Min

Anglers Reef 43Ft/ 74*/ 25 Min

Dave- Lead

Everett- Support

Joe- Capt

Greg- Crew

 

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Under the Sea

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Lots of sunshine with light winds today while motoring out of Island Divers Hawaii Kai into Maunalua Bay. With a boat full of advanced divers we stopped and tied up to one of our favorite wrecks, the WW II Corsair fighter plane. Sitting at 107 ft. the group descended down to check out a sea full of garden eels dancing in the sand with hundreds of pennant butterfly fish swimming around the sunken plane. At the bottom divers spent time looking into the cockpit for a big green moray eel, frog fish and other critters hiding under the wreck. After a total dive time of 33 minutes the group boarded the boat again for a nice surface interval while we motored around the east side of the island past Hanauma Bay.

Preparing for our next dive the Sea Fox divers switched tanks and began a pre-dive safety check for our upcoming drift dive. With conditions just right we heading towards Palea Point! This time we broke into two smaller groups as we made a “parachute drop” and negatively descended below the boat to begin drifting, and drifting fast! Currents where strong as our dive group descended to a max depth of 60 feet along a sloping sea wall covered in hard corals and schools of damsel and surgeon fish. Along our drift we slowly began ascending to a depth of 40 feet, where we came across moray eels and sponge crabs hiding in holes along the reef. In a particular lava tube we found a white tip reef shark napping and a green sea turtles tucked away  not much farther down the reef. Swimming through a a large swim through and around the corner we noticed several different kinds of bird wrasse and a school of Aha Needle fish. After a 42 minute dive the group moved away from the wall where we made a safety stop in blue water. Popping up to the surface right in front Hanauma Bay we were soon picked up by the Sea Fox. On our way back Captain Joe spotted Humpback Whales in the distanced as he turned on the under water microphone for us to listen to their song as we cruised back into the harbor.

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There was a lot of active marine life underwater with great weather above. Another successful day spent under the sea!

 

W: Bradley (instructor)  Larry (instructor) Joe (captain)

CONDITIONS: Sunny, Mid 70′s , 75*F water, visibility 60+ft

DIVE PROFILES: Corsair: 107ft max depth, 33min dive time & Turtle Canyons: 60ft max depth, 42min dive time

MARINE LIFE: white tip reef shark, green sea turtle, sponge crab, moray eel

David Sanchez

New Years Eve Currents! Dec 31

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Wow where did 2014 go? A great year of diving was finished off with a great day of diving! Caroline, Scott, Todd, Penny, Steve, Heike, Christy (AOW), John, Len, Ryan, Oliver, Julie, Ruth, and Sarah joined Everett and I on the Hound as we headed out to LCU to begin our day. The current was hitting hard at the wreck, but all our competent divers used the lines and made it down to see a pair of white tips resting comfortably under the ship…

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As we tried to work our way around the ship a curious Barracuda swam up and eyed the group, and then darted back out into the open water. Even the fish were struggling against the strong current to stay bye the ship. All our divers used the lines back to the surface and made it safely aboard. For safety reasons we decided to tie up at Anglers Reef, where there was no current, great visibility, and lots to see!

First up…

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Several Eels were seen around he site: Green Morays and Snowflakes poked their heads out all around the reef.

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A chill Nudibranch was walking along the reef

and  the end of our dive  one of my favorite sea creatures cruised bye…

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A beautiful Spotted Eagle Ray flew bye and gave our divers a photo op!

A great day of diving was had bye all; a special Thank You to all our divers for a safe and fun day of diving… HAPPY NEW YEAR!

LCU 85ft/ 74*/ 25min

Anglers Reef 43ft/ 75*/ 40 min

Dave – Lead

Everett – Support

Sophie – Capt

Manolo Cabasal

Sharks and Monster Sponge Crabs!!! – 12/29/2014

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Another beautiful sunset preceded tonight’s night dive here in Hawaii Kai. Conditions were amazing: no wind and no swell. The surface was glass like with rays of sunlight streaking across the top. The four divers on the Sea Hound paused their gear assembly to take it all in. The first dive site of the evening, the LCU.

*The LCU*
86ft – 30min
75 degrees

Dark and deep, the LCU always presents itself as an adrenaline pumping night dive. Throw in a moderate Koko Head current, and you’ll feel like an Advanced Open Water student descending into the darkness for the first time. The LCU didn’t fail to excite. Underneath the wreck a 6ft mama white tip reef shark circled the group, followed in town by a baby 2 footer. Swimming in the darkness over the z-blocks and the wreck yielded a couple of nudibranches and star fish.

*Angler’s Reef*
47ft – 52min
74 degrees

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Angler’s Reef is a regular circus during the day time, and the craziness only gets better when the sun goes down. With the current completely dead, the divers enjoyed a lazy and thorough dive along the ledge. Right off the line the divers spotted a sponge crab the size of a grapefruit with legs strolling across the bottom. These things looking goofy in full stride. Swimming a long the ledge the divers also saw a scribbled file fish, sleeping parrot fish, night octopus, slipper lobsters, giant conchs, and a peacock flounder the size of a door mat.

Special thanks to Captain Kellan for bringing the boat out!!