Maxine Markert

Diving with M&M 9/17

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Max and Manolo were the instructors on today’s afternoon charter. Starting out in the pool with Hannah and Anthony getting more comfortable with diving refreshing and discovering the experience all over again. On the Seafox we pulled up to our first dive site, Koko craters for about 35 minutes, seeing multiple eels and turtles hiding around the site. Whit and Casey two certified divers stuck with me to get a better idea of where they were going and did an excellent job staying alert, seeing plenty of beautiful marine life. Jennifer and Jon came out today as well with DVP s that they were trying out having a good time zooming around under water. We also had some open water training commencing with Manolo and his two students. Great job at finishing up today! The second site we dove was Anglers’ reef  again diving for 35 minutes, with plenty more eels. Great visibility today 40- 50 ft. Little to no current all in all great day for diving and Everyone seemed to have a good time and I was glad to spend the day diving with all of them! I can’t wait for you all to come back and dive with me very soon.

Manolo is EXCITED!

Manolo is EXCITED!

Anthony and Hannah

Anthony and Hannah

Open Water adventurers

Open Water adventurers

Casey and Whit

Casey and Whit

Staff: Captain Joe, Instructors Maxine and Manolo

Larry Hogan

SQUID HEAD!! 17 september

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A blast diving today – winds are down, so hot and sticky above water, but perfect under the sea!!  Captain Joe took us over to the LCU, as we were hoping for some sharks hanging around under the wreck.  Still some south swell, but basically pretty flat seas, so real nice surface conditions.  We moored up and dropped in, lots of moving plankton, but decent viz, around 80 feet.  The sharks were there, at least five good sized white tips, who posed for our photogs!  No eagle rays in sight, but some nice eels!  2nd jump was a drift of the world famous Spitting Cave, and it came through big time.  So much to see over there, with majestic, dramatic walls, canyons, and caves to explore, as well as myriad types of marine life, from large to small.  Huge turtles, big eels, scorpion fish, a baby octopus, and a flock (Davy’s word) of 8 squid.  Thanks to squid head mike (see photo), Joshua from Seattle/arizona (hot!), William from disneyland, and the boys of HSU drew, jon, and neal for safe diving.  larry and captain joe

 

LCU  90 feet  30 minutes  80 viz

Spitting Cave  50 feet 50 minutes 80 viz

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Mark Savel

A Change of the Normal Pace 9/16

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It was another one of those great Oahu diving days off the Sea Fox this morning.  With the large group of divers we had today we decided on hitting the Corsair for the first dive and the conditions couldn’t have been better.  We had crystal clear water and no current as we dove the wreck.  We had a large school of goatfish on the site and hundreds of garden eels in the sand around the area.  There was also a large yellow margin morey by the engine and a titan scorpionfish in the cockpit.  Soon it was time to leave the site and make our way to the next site.

For the second dive we dove Fantasy Reef and since we had no current at all we decided to tie up on the site and spend plenty of time exploring the whole site.  It was a great dive with turtles all around site and fish everywhere. We found a few more eels on the reef and even found a small white tip reef shark hiding under a ledge.  We had a wonderful time today and theses days are what make diving in Oahu great.

Corsair Eel scorpion fish! Turtles!

Manolo Cabasal

Swimming in the Surge with Team Switzerland 9`16`2014

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This afternoon on the Sea Fox we were joined by Team Switzerland: Tanja, Bettina, & Salome. All of which were students completing their first and second dives of the PADI Open Water Course.

Showing up early, they drew their gear and assembled their SCUBA equipment under the watchful eye of their instructor. The trades were light and the surface conditions were ideal, despite the large southern swell.

Dive 1 was at Angler’s Reef. Having mastered the skills in the pool, they demonstrated their proficiency to their instructor. Weight system/SCUBA unit remove and replace, tired diver tow, and cramp release were all completed on the surface whilst half-mask flood and regulator recover and clear were completed on the bottom. The southern swell brought visibility down to 20ft, at best, but didn’t hinder the student divers from maintaining perfect trim and outstanding neutral buoyancy. A huge turtle, trumpet fish, Long nosed butterfly fish, and a school of porcupine fish made guest appearances for the students. Much to the delight of their instructor, Team Switzerland was able to pull off a 45 minute with a 3-minute safety stop to boot.

Koko Craters was the site for Dive 2 and the surge was more noticeable this time, but that didn’t deter Team Switzerland. Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent, full-mask flood & clear, and alternate air source stationary were completed with Swiss Army Knife precision. While diving they noticed other aquatic animals getting pushed by the force of the surge. A turtle, giant moray eel, and a huge school of trigger fish couldn’t match the trim and control of the students. With coolness and control, the students glided effortlessly through the water. The alternate air source ascent was completed at the end of the dive with ease.

Not bad for a day in the classroom, right? Bettina and Tanja, we’ll see you tomorrow. Salome, we’ll be seeing you again Thursday!!!

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Much love to the crew! Captain Kellan, Ashley, Carlos, and Bryan.

Dive Stats:

Angler’s Reef & Koko Crater
39ft – 45 minutes & 38ft – 43 minutes

 

Kellan Bernhardt

9/14 Sometimes Surf Is The Enemy

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Sunday – We started with an amazingly hot and beautiful day, and boarded the Argie Bargie to get some diving/teaching in on the afternoon. The first site up was Koko craters, our familiar and incredible turtle watching site. We jumped in to low visibility as a result of a huge south swell that decided to spring up that morning. That didn’t stop us from having a super productive dive however, and it’s almost more exciting when the people you’re leading around have no idea where they are. We got to see some turtles sleeping off the big swell, the statues were getting mildly buried, and the sergeant majors were as cross as always. Next site we moved to Anglers Reef, where we attempted to flee the bottom getting kicked up by waves, it’s a little bit deeper, and easy to navigate in low visibility. On this site we saw tons of big morays, a bunch of little ones, a horned helmet snail, and urchins all over the place. As the ocean rocked us to sleep we had to keep a vigilant eye on our positioning. Nice work everybody, we’ll see you around.

"Reference-chain"

“Reference-chain”

Octomom

Octomom

Where am I?

Where am I?

Photos courtesy of Larry Hogan

Weather conditions: Warm, sunny, small wind
Dive Sites: Koko Craters 35 min 35 ft, Anglers Reef 45ft 30 min
Dive Conditions: 20+ viz, 82F
Marine Life Observed: Spotted Moray, Green sea turtle, Pencil urchin, Scorpionfish, Horned helmet snail
Staff: Capt. Kendal, Instr. Kellan, Larry, Amy, Everett

Mark Savel

Unforgettable Views 9/14

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There were some wonderful dive conditions today despite the large south swell. On our way out to the LCU this morning we had a pod of dolphins cruising in the bay and such clear skies you could see Molokai, Maui, and Lanai.  When we got the wreck we had great visibility and very little current. There were a few white tip reef sharks found right away hiding under the wreck and reef fish all about the area. We found a frogfish sitting on the side of the wreck and an undulated morey hiding on the top of the wreck. Soon we were off the the next site.

We decided to head to the east and do Skimin’s Reef and again had great viz and we dropped in for a drift dive. The site is great with cool swim-throughs and archways and nice drop offs. We had fish all about the area with butterflyfish and wrasses swimming about the reef.  We also had a spotted eagle ray come cruising of the top of the reef but quickly took off from all the divers.  As we finished the dive we cruised around to China Walls to have a great view of the large surf and watched the surfers on our surface interval.

There was a bit of a surge on the shallower sites so for the last dive we picked a deeper reef.  We dropped in on Keanu Reef for the last dive and it was a wonderful chose for the end. There were reef fish everywhere. We had schools of tangs and butterflyfish all over the reef as well as damselfish protecting small patches of the reef that they claimed as theirs. We found a few more eels about the area including a large yellow margin morey.  It was a great Sunday and a perfect time to be out on the water.

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Larry Hogan

OCTOPUS DATING !! 13 september

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Blue skies over the incoming large swell greeted us this afternoon as we headed out for some diving at Koko craters. The waves were growing and there were lots of surfers out catching.  Tomorrows’ waves are predicted at 6 to 8 foot!  grab your boards!  Kokos had some real surge, which churns up the bottom and lowers the viz, but we had a great time as all the turtles came out to swim with and around us! If you haven’t been swimming with a big green hawaiin sea turtle you have not dove!! 2nd jump was over to Angler’s Ledge, where we saw huge eels, lots of reef fish, helmet conch, urchins, hard corals, and a pair of octopus on a date.  check out the photo, see if you can see the white colored octopus slightly behind  the brown one!  thanks to all for safe diving,  larry, joe, kelsea

koko craters 38 feet 50 minutes 4o viz

anglers ledge 48 feet 44 minutes 80 viz

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Marnie Cadden

Fishy Friday (SEPT12)

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What great conditions we had this afternoon on the Sea Fox! Visibility was over 100ft and the waters were calm for us to enjoy some Oahu diving.

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There was a ton of marine life out enjoying the good conditions as well. At Angler’s Reef, we saw schools and schools of fish, all intermingling with each other. There was a huge crab, large moray eels, and the ever famous green sea turtle.

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One of the moray eels was eating a goatfish, and we were lucky enough to see it with our own eyes! Such a treat for our first site!

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Since we had such a small boat of divers this afternoon, we decided that we would drift on our second dive and head over to Spitting Caves. It was quite a treat to do this site in the afternoon, many of our divers don’t have great conditions for this site in the afternoon.

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Sure enough, we dropped onto some more great conditions along the southeastern tip of the island. Spitting Caves is a personal favorite of mine, and if you dive it, you know why. There is just so many amazing things to see!

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Again, there were schools of different kinds of fish and the visibility was again crystal clear. We were even lucky enough to see a spotted eagle ray swim by right after we exited one of the caves!

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Thanks to all the divers who made for a great afternoon out in the water! We even did a bit of a cleanup at our second site and collected a ton of fishing weights! I love to see other divers with a passion for the sea!

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CREW: Marnie (instructor) Carlos (divemaster) Max (captain)

CONDITIONS: 87*F, slight Koko Head current, 83*F water temp, sunny

DIVE PROFILES: Angler’s Reef: 44ft max depth, 38min bottom time, 100+ft visibility

Spitting Caves: 50ft max depth, 36min bottom time, 90+ft visibility

MARINE LIFE: eagle ray, sea turtle, crab, pincushion seastar, cowfish, triggerfish, cleaner shrimp

 

Larry Hogan

BLUES CRUISE !! 12 September

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Today was indeed a Blues Cruise and the ocean and the sky were just a combo of spectacular blue shades!  Hard to express how nice the diving was today, and much of that was just those shades of blue.  Water was crystal clear, viz being over 150 feet on both dives!  We were hoping for the wall, but the waves were a bit big, so we headed over to Baby Barge and moored up.  Current was strong, so we met up on the line and did a free decent toward the shark cave.  No sharks today though!  Heading up the ledge toward the barge we enjoyed the awesome viz and the light blue water.  Lots of coral, eels, and reef fish.   At the barge we saw several large turtles at the cleaning station, plus lots of fish in and around the barge itself.  2nd jump was a drift of Fantasy Reef, and it was excellent! We saw all the various reef fish, plus more huge turtles, eels, and a cute little octopus.  Thanks to all for safe diving.  larry, joe, max, clare

 

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Marnie Cadden

An Afternoon of Exploring (SEPT11)

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It was a very unique boat this afternoon. We had a variety of divers, all of which shared a passion for diving. With such a small group, we had the ability to split into two smaller groups, allowing us to maximize our dive.

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At Koko Crater, our first site, we explored the craters with some great visibility. There were turtles under all of their normal ledges and a large amount of sergeant majors that hung around the middle of the main crater. Divers got to spend anywhere from 35-50 minutes underwater enjoying the warm summer water.

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Looking at all of the smaller marine life is one of my favorite things to do, and there was so much to see today. From this tiny seastar to the nudibranch that crawl across the reef.

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We made our way back onto the Sea Fox and spent some time at the surface. We talked about all different kinds of diving and travel and enjoyed some light snacks before hopping back into the water.

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We first thought we would check out our new mooring at Hawaii Loa, however we were worried the visibility wasn’t too great. So we made our way over to Angler’s Reef and were blessed with clear waters!

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It seemed as though there was an excess amount of sea urchins that were lining the ledge, and the eels who were out seemed enormous! We got to spend almost an hour at this site looking at all different kinds of marine life. Such a great way to spend the afternoon!

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CREW: Marnie (instructor) Carlos (divemaster) Kendal (captain) Steve (Crew)

CONDITIONS: Slight Koko Head Current (E), Sunny, 86*F,

DIVE PROFILES: Koko Crater: 40ft max depth, 82*F water temp, 38min bottom time

Angler’s Reef: 43ft max depth, 82*F water temp, 44min bottom time

MARINE LIFE OBSERVED: green sea turtle, octopus, trumpetfish, nudibranch, helmet conch, moray eel