Matt Negaard

Circling Sharks – 10/4/2014

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What an amazing day to be out in the waters of Maunalua Bay! For the morning aboard the Sea Hound, we had Peter and Rick out for fun, Robert and Jesse working on their Advanced Open Water Certifications with their Instructor Juan, and DMC Jarrod was there helping out. At our first dive of the morning, LCU, conditions were fantastic and we found five White Tip Reef Sharks hanging out inside the wreck being their usual mellow selves. Just outside were a pair of baby Spotted Eagle Rays cruising around and a large school of Mackerel Scad. Second drop was a drift at Spitting Caves, a little surgy, but still great conditions. We explored a few caves and drifted along the wall accompanied by a couple Green Sea Turtles, a Stout Moray Eel, and some colorful Squid. It was another beautiful dive to end a memorable morning. Great times with a fun group of Divers, Mahalo to all..

The Shark Circle

Squid

Squid

Rick and Peter

Rick and Peter

Who's Hungry?

Who’s Hungry?

Honu

Honu

Weather: Mostly Sunny, 85 F., Wind Calm, 2 ft. SW Swell
Dive Sites: LCU, Depth 90 ft., Visibility 100 + ft., Mild West Current, Dive Time 30 mi
Spitting Caves, Depth 50 ft., Visibility 80 ft., Surge and West Current, Dive Time 40 min.
Staff: Capt. Kellan, Crew Kelsea, Instructor Matt

Marnie Cadden

Return of the Trades (Oct3)

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We had fantastic weather this morning for our dives! With the trade winds gracing us with their presence today, it was nice to have a breeze to send us off into the bay. With such a small group aboard the Sea Hound for our morning dives, we had a request for a shipwreck with some swimthroughs. We decided that the wreck that best fit those needs would be Kahala Barge, so we headed west.

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We dropped down onto some great visibility and a very slight Diamond head current. We got to explore the wreck and divers enjoyed swimming in and around the debris. We even saw a spotted eagle ray feeding on the stern of the ship!

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He hung around for a bit, giving divers a chance to watch him graze. After about 28 minutes or so, the divers made their way back up the line and aboard the Sea Hound. We enjoyed a nice surface interval chatting about recent diving and the current state of the Hawaiian marine life.

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Since we had such great conversations about the coral life in the region, we chose Fantasy Reef for our second site. We got up close with some of the hard corals that inhabit the bottom of the Maunalua Bay area.

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Exploring the coral formations always proves to be enjoyable when you find many different kind of marine life inside. We spotted many different kinds of eels and fish, and enjoyed the colorful corals that make up the bottom topography.

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After about 30 minutes, we decided to send up the surface marker buoy and make our way back to the surface. We really had a great time enjoying the warm Hawaiian waters this morning. Thanks so much to all of you who came out this morning!

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CREW: Marnie (instructor) Kendal (captain) Clara (crew)

WEATHER: 89*F air, 83*F water, Sunny with a Breeze.

DIVE PROFILES: Kahala Barge: 92ft max depth, 31min dive time, 110+ft visibility

Fantasy Reef: 58ft max depth, 33min bottom time, 100+ft visibility

MARINE LIFE: green sea turtle, eagle ray, trumpetfish, crown of thorns, wrasse

Larry Hogan

FANTASY IN THE AFTERNOON !! 2 Oct.

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Nice treat today as we had 5 certified divers, so we decided to head out to Fantasy  Reef, which is usually only a morning dive on the advanced boat!  it is such a great dive site, and despite the low viz (lots of plankton, low tide, and big waves) we had a great dive with the huge turtles that inhabit the nooks and crannys of this wonderful volcanic creation!  several great barracuda were cruising around, big eels, and lots of various reef fish.  steve, gayle, courtney, and kerlyn, a great family of Kiwis from NZ were out, as well as rachael and andrew, with andrew doing his first ocean dive, after getting certified in a quarry back on the mainland!  2nd dive was Turtle Canyons, and it was very nice, seeing more friendly turtles close up, plus eels, and schooling fish.  thanks to all for safe diving!   larry, kellen, max

Fantasy  50 feet   40 minutes   50 viz

Turtle Canyons  35 feet  40 minutes  30 viz

 

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David Sanchez

Surgin on Wednesday! October 1

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The excited crew of the Hound set off for adventure on the surgin seas… Tamika (OW3/4), Sina (AOW) , Catalina, Hanna, Sandy, Andrew, Raymond, Lils all ready to test their mettle in the open water. We tied up to Koko Crater and dove down to Little Buddha where the divers were met with a swirling ocean. Tamika and Sina flew through their tests with flying colors while the fun divers dealt with the surge with equal abandon. Lead by Pete K all enjoyed the limited views of turtles and assorted fish. Soon all were back on board and off to Anglers Reef for our next dive.

The visibility was a bit better and we were met by a variety of fish hanging close to the wall. A squid made an appearance and also quite a few Puffer fish swam in formation. All in all a great day of diving and congrats to Tamika for Certifying Open Water and Sina for Certifying Advanced Open Water… Great Job Guys!

Koko Craters

Depth 35 ft

Anglers Reef

Depth 43 ft

Larry Hogan

SHARKS AND EAGLE RAYS !! 1 October

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After last night’s thunderstorm, today’s weather was spectacular!  we had sunny blue skies and warm water, as well as some big waves!  surfers are happy today!  out at the LCU the waves weren’t a problem, and the current was mild, as we went looking for sharks.  and found them!!  three big whitetip sharks were hanging out beneath the wreck, and we had a great view!  heading out we found a couple of eagle rays cruising off in the blue, and then it was time to surface.  Sina was working on his AOW, today was Wreck and Peak Perfomance Buoyancy, and Cat, Andrew, Hollis, and Jeremy were out for fun.  2nd jump was a drift of Fantasy reef and we had a great time!  huge turtles, eels, octopus, beautiful coral and swim-throughs!  the viz was down a bit, due to the big swell, and there is also a lot of plankton in the water, but that plankton is a crucial link in the ocean’s food chain, and often we see large schools of fish feeding on it, with larger fish stalking the feeding fish.  amazing world !! thanks to all for safe diving!  larry and capt. kellen

LCU  90 feet   30 minutes  90 viz

Fantasy reef  53 feet  44 minutes  80 viz

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Mark Savel

Unusual Afternoon Adventure 9/30

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It was an amazing afternoon today.  We had a great group of divers with not much wind but a larger south swell.  With all certified divers on the boat we headed for some deeper sites where the surge wouldn’t be as bad.  For the first dive we hit Baby Barge and had good viz but a bit of a surface current. Once we got to the bottom the current was much weaker and there were large turtles everywhere, resting on the bottom or swimming about the site.  We also found a couple large yellow margin moreys and reef fish all about the site.

For the second dive we drifted Fantasy Reef and had a nice dive.  Again there were turtles all over the site and more eels hiding in the reef. We had reef fish swimming about with large schools of damselfish and butterflyfish round us and goatfish and wrasses hiding about the reef.  It was a wonderful afternoon and a real treat to head out to some of our more advanced sites later in the day.

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Larry Hogan

BLUE AND BLUER !! 30 september

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just a beautiful day today above and below the surface.  sunny blue skies and waters,  with mild current at our first site the Corsair airplane wreck.  with me were Sina and Cat, a Persian and Columbian, with Sina working on his advanced open water cert.  also out were jon and matt, playing with their diver propulsion scooters!  lots of fish at Corsair, fusiliers, big eyes, and the ubiquitous garden eels, plus a big eel in the fuselage. no frog fish today!  2nd jump was a drift of Fantasy Reef, always a favorite.  great topography, with ginormous turtles everywhere!  also a baby octopus, barracuda, beautiful reef fish, and colorful coral!  thanks to all for safe diving!

larry, kellen, max

Corsair  107 feet    25 minutes  90 viz

Fantasy  52 feet   42 minutes   90 viz

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Marnie Cadden

Wild Waters (SEPT29)

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It was an enjoyable afternoon aboard the Sea Fox for today’s dives! We had a small group of only four divers and since we were all certified, we had a lot of options for our site choices.

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At Koko Crater, we dropped into some rather warm waters. There was a bit of surge, but it wasn’t anything that our divers couldn’t handle. We saw lots of turtles and eels and came across a rather unique crab that was something new to all of our divers.

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As usual, we saw lots of turtles who didn’t even seem phased by the surge that was coming across the crater.

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At our second site, we decided that we would drift along the ledge that connects Pa’a’awa and Secret crater, which was teeming with schools of fish. It was rather enjoyable mingling with this underwater crowd.

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We came across some rather large pufferfish as well, who seemed just as interested in us as we were of them. We surfaced and made our way back the boat, and made our way back to the marina.

 

Thanks for coming out this afternoon everyone!

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CREW: Marnie (instructor) Joe (captain) Chris (crew)

DIVE PROFILES: Koko Crater: 40ft max depth, 37 min dive time, 50ft visibility, 83*F water temp

Pa’a’awa Drift: 38ft max depth, 27min dive, 25ft visibility, 83*F water temp

MARINE LIFE: green sea turtle, pufferfish, white mouthed eel, brittle sea star, butterfly fish, Moorish idol

Larry Hogan

SUNNY AT SEA !!

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We enjoyed sunny skies while cruising to our dive sites today, and we really enjoyed watching the rain on the land!  great day to be at sea and diving!  trades were blowing, and the waves were happening, but the water was warm and clear.  first stop was LCU to visit the sharks who love it underneath that particular wreck.  4 whitetips, with 2 of them quite good-sized!  out and around the wreck we also saw an eagle ray, but no frog fish today.  YO 257 was next, and the current was fairly strong, but we had a great time seeing turtles, schools of fusiliers feeding on plankton, with big jacks trying to catch them!  quite the dance of nature! YO is always a fantastic dive! For our 3rd, we did a drift at Fantasy, and it was also fantastic, with a mind-blowing number of huge turtles cruising around us.  much more active than usual!  big eels and tiny octopus, porcupine puffers, and loads of reef fish surrounded us at various times.  a great dive site!

LCU  90 feet  30 minutes 90 viz

YO 257 100 feet  36 minutes  90 viz

Fantasy reef 53 feet  47 minutes  90 viz

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Larry Hogan

SO LUCKY!!

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WOW, such a beautiful day today!  of course, that is true of most days out here in Hawaii.  the trick is to remember how lucky you are to be living, visiting, and diving out here!  today Ben and Matthew joined me, along with steve, doing his AOW dives, for a great dive day!  First stop was Turtle Canyons and it was spectacular!  great viz and loads of sea life, including turtles, octopus, schools of reef fish, and some great eels!  2nd jump was more luck – a drift of Spitting Caves, not a usual dive site for the afternoon.  but all divers today were good, no OW students or intros, so off we went.  also out diving were crew- persons kelsea and brother danny, out for fun.  at spitting cave we saw cow fish, scorpion fish, more huge turtles, a big octopus, and lots of shoaling fish.  thanks to all for safe diving!  larry and captain joe

turtle canyons 35 feet  40 minutes  100 viz

spitting cave  50 feet  40 minutes   120 viz

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