Scuba Dive Reports Oahu - Page 61 of 96 - Island Divers Hawaii

Happy Turtle Day from IDH!

September 10, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Amy Bossler

Swimming in the schools

Not so shy..

Weather Conditions: Clear, sunny, slight breeze
Dive Sites: LCU and Fantasy Reef
Dive Conditions: Medium Koko Head current and 100′ of viz
Marine Life Observed: White tip reef sharks, green sea turtles, blue dragon nudibranch, frog fish, a variety of eels and reef fish
Staff: Capt. Jo, Amy, Everett, and Max

Aloha,

Thanks for choosing to dive with Island Divers Hawai’i. We had absolutely lovely conditions on the Fox today. We had David and Robert joining us from Australia and Heinz and Chris joining us from Switzerland. Our entire boat were a bunch of dog lovers so Cammie, my little scuba diving dog, was requested. She came to provide puppy kisses and cuddles in between and before/after dives. All of my men were great divers and eager to hop into the warm and clear Hawaiian waters. Captain Jo and Max led our group out to our first site, LCU. This wreck sits in about 90′ of water. We enjoyed great underwater conditions today! The sharks at back to cruising under the wreck so we had the opportunity to check out three white tips reef sharks, a large frog fish, a variety of eels, and a school of small ahi (tuna). For dive #2 we headed over to our IDH favorite, Fantasy Reef. This beautiful reef system in found in about 55′ of water. We had a strong Koko Head current used it to our advantage! Our team had a nice leisurely :50 dive. We counted 11 turtles!!! That’s right, I said ELEVEN turtles! The turtles were everywhere today. We also found some beautiful eels, nudibranch, and reef fish. Overall, it was a great day of diving. Thanks again for choosing to dive with Island Divers Hawai’i. Stop by one of our shops if you are interested in getting certified to go out and explore our beautiful underwater world! Until next time, dive easy!

Aloha,

Amy

A Great Turtle Day 9/9

September 9, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Mark Savel

What a great afternoon we had on the Sea Fox today. There was a wonderful group of divers as we headed out for a couple shallow reef dives. For the first dive we hit Koko Craters and had perfect visibility and a slight current as we descended to the bottom. Right away we found a couple turtles resting under some ledges and fish swimming all about. There we a couple more turtles about area and eels hiding all over the site. There were a couple large yellow margin moreys and small stout moreys. It was a nice dive but soon it was time to surface and head for the next site.

The second dive we dove Turtle Canyons and had a spectacular dive. There was little current and fish everywhere. We had schools of wrasses and butterflyfish all over and more eels hiding in the reef. We also came across a few leaf scorpionfish and a devil scorpionfish blending into the bottom. It was a great day and congratulation to Adam for finishing his PADI open water class today.

What to bring on a Scuba Diving Trip in Hawaii or Anywhere!

September 9, 2014/in Uncategorized/by Lauren Smith

What do you bring on a dive trip?

When you spend valuable vacation time and hard earned money to go on an exotic (or not so exotic) dive trip it’s essential to make sure you are fully prepared.

Many of the best dive locations in the world are in remote areas, some are even out of the country. This means the accommodations may be removed from cities and other populated areas. You aren’t necessarily going to have a mall or convenience store at your fingertips. What about a fully equipped dive shop with a repair center? Pharmacy?

These lists aren’t just for faraway places, if you do shore dives or go out on a pals boat some of these tips for your kit may save your own or your buddies dive.

Experienced divers usually have some sort of a save a dive kit, but you may need to beef it up a bit for international trips. Having gone on 13 international SCUBA trips, I would like to think we learned a thing or two on how to prepare and what to bring along.

Of course you know to pack your clothes, toiletries and dive gear. Now that we have you thinking about dive travel and how location can necessitate what you may need, here are some ideas you may want to incorporate into your dive kit in the future.

Prepare

If you have not been diving in a few months or longer, it would be best if you did a dive or two prior to taking off on a trip. Diving prior will let you know if your body is in shape for diving. This is also a great opportunity to give your gear a once over.

Make sure your BCD and regulator has current yearly service and is working properly.
Get a fresh battery in your computer.
Dive and trip insurance. There are plenty of places to buy these, but Dive Assure makes is quick and easy on with on the web sign up. Bookmark the link below.

Make a few copies of your passport. Stow one copy in a different bag than your original passport. Give one copy to a family member or friend along with your travel itinerary for emergencies. Email yourself these travel documents as well. Most international travel means your passport needs to be good for 6 months upon landing in your destination.
Have the nearest embassy phone number and address as well as phone and address of the nearest hospital and chamber.
Call your credit card company to let them know where you are going to be. You don’t want to be stuck with a non-working credit card like I was in Egypt several years ago. Not fun!
A lot of international dive locations use DIN valves, but not all. Make sure you have a compatible first stage or an adaptor.
Some airlines have special baggage rates for sports equipment, do your homework, it could save you some money. Have the airline put a “fragile” sticker on your gear. It’s free and couldn’t hurt. Carry on your regulator.
Bring your certification card/nitrox card!

Dive Kit:

Extra mask
Defog
Mouthpiece for your regulator
Zip ties
Dive tables (What happens if your computer conks out?)
Surface marker (This should be part of your everyday dive gear!)
Unbroken glow stick for your BCD pocket. (night emergency)
Back up light (Always take batteries out for travel, fire hazard.)
Fresh batteries for lights
Fin and Mask strap
O-rings
Pen and log book

Extra stuff to bring:

BYO toilet paper. In many countries this is not complimentary in public restrooms. I usually have small tissue packets in my bag at all times. (We learned this the hard way.)
Plug adapter and power strip. Phone, camera, razor, computer, e-reader…. You can’t plug them all into just one adapter.
Rash guards are awesome. Less sunblock, washable in the sink, dries quickly. Can’t beat them for travel.
Small chamois or sarong instead of a big bulky beach towel. They dry quicker, take up less room and if you are like me you will end up wearing the sarong.
Lady products. Some countries have different, unfamiliar brands and styles. It’s best to bring what you know works.
Sunblock
Bug repellant
Hat

Where ever you are going for your next dive excursion its important to be prepared and aware of your diving environment. Again if you haven’t dived in a while schedule a check out dive before you leave with us at Island Divers Hawaii. Remember a confident diver is a safe diver! Contact us today to get back in the water or to find out where we are diving next! www.oahuscubadiving.com/dive-travel/

Matt and Sheila on the liveaboard vessel Siren at the Voli Voli resort in Fiji

You’re a natural…9/8/2014

September 8, 2014/in Uncategorized/by Manolo Cabasal

Being proclaimed ‘a natural diver’ is probably the highest compliment a dive instructor could give you, especially if you are doing your first Discover Scuba Diving experience. Having one in a group isn’t uncommon, but having ALL 4 in a group take to SCUBA diving in the first 5 minutes is just downright unheard of!!!

Today’s natural born divers were Jordan & Sarah, from Canada, and Jumpei and Shimpie, from Japan. The fabulous foursome met this morning @ 0900 in the morning at IDH’s Hawaii Kai location. There they filled out paperwork, watched the intro video, and were fitted for gear. Before they knew it, they were in the water at the Makai Research pier and absolutely crushed their skills in a matter of minutes. They even had time to see a turtle during their neutral buoyancy swim practice! You’re lucky enough to seen your buddy 10 feet next to you, muchless a turtle on your first training dive. After a short lunch, the prodigies joined the rest of the divers and students on the Sea Fox.

Koko Craters was the first dive site on the agenda. Upon entry the divers were met with 80 foot visibility and 80 degree Fahrenheit water. An assortment of sleeping, feeding, and swimming turtles delighted the divers. Also spotted were sergeant majors, trumpet fish, a pincushion starfish, and a spotted porcupine fish. The brand new divers were also able to pull off a 36 minute dive.

After some coaching on relaxation the divers entered the water at Angler’s reef. The visibility was spectacular, 100+ft! This time the divers saw many different morays. White, zebra, and a couple of giant morays astounded the divers with their massive size. 3-4 ft long and as thick is your leg. Yup, pretty thick. The divers also swam through a large school of banner and trigger fish before slowly ascending back to the boat. This time they pulled out a 43 minute dive. The coaching paid off.

Congratulations to Jumpei, Shumpei, Jordan, and Sarah on completing your first open water dives. You guys are indeed natural born divers and I expect to see you guys certified, traveling, and diving the rest of the world.

Also congrats to Adam and Gino (far left) for completing their Open Water Course. Honorable mention, Robert (far right), you’ve completed your first two open water dives! You’re halfway there!

A big shout out to Captain Kendal and Marnie! Thanks for helping out on the boat.

Dive Stats:

Koko Crater & Angler’s Reef
40ft – 36min @ 48ft – 43min

LOVE THOSE MONK SEALS!! 8 september

September 8, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Larry Hogan

Gorgeous day today above and below the surface. Great group, with 2nd day of diving for Mark, Amy, Jane, and Kurt. Also out were grubby (that’s right, he likes that name) and Jeanie from Virginia, plus Trina from Chicago! Max was out was some DMCs, and we tried to dive the Corsair, but the current was too strong, so we headed over to baby barge and drifted from the shark cave to big barge and beyond. Great viz and we saw turtles and octopus, plus large schools of fish along the way! 2nd jump was another drift, and we dropped at fish garden, seeing shoaling fusiliers and lots of feeding butterfly fish. Two big treats today as we cruised along, we saw four big fin squid, which did the squid dance for us. Always fun to see! Then inside the A-frame cave, a big monk seal, who just hung out in the cave, breathing from the exhaled air trapped on the surface! great fun, great conditions, and great divers! thanks to all for safe diving. larry, max, and kendal.

Sea worthy 3 tanker 9/7

September 7, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Maxine Markert

Incredible day for a dive charter light trade winds and 1 to 2 foot swells the conditions were once in a life time. We started out at the LCU with 5 white tip reef sharks, and two eagles and finishing with a football sized frog fish. I had the pleasure of having Pam, Jeff and Rene for dive buddies having a 35 minute dive with 100+ visibility and barely any current. Unbelievable start to our day, on our way to the Sea tiger spinner dolphins swam by providing an excellent show. David and his dive master candidate Heather were along as well to finish up our two advanced open water students Jimmy and Chad. Doing their deep dive on the Sea tiger, clearly having a good time. We descended on to the wreck right on to a turtle getting his shell cleaned, then saw a Spotted eagle ray which lead us to a yellow margin moray eel, and 2 viper moray eels. In between the viper eels was a giant octopus just hiding out in a crack in the wreck. Once we made it to the stern of the boat we spotted a white tip reef shark and 2 imperial nudi branchs mating. Another 25 minute dive at the sea tiger we came up and had a delicious lunch which we provide and another hour long surface interval, as we made our way back towards Sea cave. Upon arrival of the sea cave we descended to the entrance and were utterly baffled by the sheer beauty of the natural cave. In the back of the cave we found 2 more white tip reef sharks. In total we saw 8 sharks in one day of diving, unheard of! Thank for everyone coming out to enjoy all the sharks and the fabulous Hawaiian conditions. With 83 degree water and no current all day, that is enough to make my day incredible then you add all the marine life that we saw and this sunday was one of the best days of diving I have ever had the pleasures of experiencing. Thank you all for coming out on such an incredible day. Look forward to diving with you all in the future!

Heather and Jeff

Eagle ray on the Sea Tiger

Jeff shaka under water

Rene getting I am sure some great shots

Pam at the entrance to Sea cave

Staff: Captain Joe, Crew Lauren, Dive instructors Maxine and David

Saturday in the Sun (Sept9)

September 6, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Marnie Cadden

What an awesome day to drop down into the ocean! Despite the slight drizzle we had this morning, conditions for weekend diving were fantastic! We had a small group of divers, most of which had dove in these parts previously. We had decided that dropping down into Baby Barge was going to be our first adventure for today.

With almost no current, we had an easy descent to the wreck and ledges. We had no struggle navigating around the site, enjoying all of the sea turtles that we came across, there were so many!

At the barge, there were tons of fish cruising around the ship’s wreckage, enjoying the calm seas. It made for great visibility for our divers, and a nice easy way to start out the day!

For those of us that spent a significant amount of time searching around the ledges, there was tons of stuff to see there too! Eels were everywhere and the microlife was astounding. Its great to search for some of the smaller stuff, there’s some really cool stuff down there!

There was also a variety of corals and aquatic plants as well. Crazy to think that this man made ship is slowly becoming part of the earth again, but it is very apparent on the barges.

After 35 minutes, the divers (who were all very good on their air) made their way back up to the Sea Fox, where we enjoyed the afternoon sun and some light snacks. There’s nothing like fresh pineapple after a dive!

Jumping in after almost an hour surface interval. We again had a very mild current at Fantasy Reef. We dropped down on the west side of the reef and got to glide slowly across the reef below.

Fantasy is one of my personal favorites, there is always so much to see. From starfish to turtles, swimthroughs and bommies, there is never a dull dive at this site.

There is one little “cove” created in the middle canyon part of this site that houses many turtles. We try to hit it every time we come to this site. As usual, there were turtles enjoying the calm waters and the divers got up close to these graceful creatures.

A great thing about the coral formations at this site is that they house so much marine life. We spotted loads of eels and little shrimps that have created their home among the reef.

We stayed down drifting for about 36 minutes, and again made our way aboard the Sea Fox to head back into the marina. It really was fantastic conditions out in the bay, a great way to start the weekend!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

CREW: Marnie (instructor) David (instructor) Joe (captain) Kelsey (crew)

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Sunny, 88*F

DIVE PROFILES: Baby Barge: 72ft max depth, 95+ft visibility, 83*F water temp, 35min dive

Fantasy Reef: 56ft max depth, 90+ft visibility, 83*F water temp, 36min dive

MARINE LIFE OBSERVED: crown of thorns, sea turtle, pencil urchin, butterflyfish, trumpetfish, bubble shell, green eel, boxfish, wrasse

Refreshing the Open Water Experience 9/5

September 5, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Maxine Markert

Starting out with two joyous refreshers Missy and Derek, absolute treat to hang out with you two all day. Great energy and happy to be on the water making me love my job even more thank you! Heading over to Maka’i research pier we refreshed their open water skills, getting them back into the swing of things. After the pier I headed in to town to pick up Jimmy our advanced student and Kelley another certified diver. Getting off the dock with plenty of excited people. We were also joined by Cara and Charley for open water dives 1 and 2, as well as Dive master candidates Chris and Heather. Larry another instructor coming out to take advanced students Jimmy and Ashley one of our own crew. Making for a great group of people to enjoy the 80+ visibility at Koko Craters. After a 30 minute dive exploring the Craters and visiting the statues, and turtles, we headed over to Turtle Canyons. Where visibility was around 50 or so, but the ever beautiful corals and a spotted eagle ray dropped in to say hi! 53 minutes getting to explore the canyons of my favorite dive spot we stopped at a coral head underneath the boat to see a snarling viper moray to wish us a good bye. Thanks Larry for the incredible pictures it’s always appreciated, you are by far my favorite photography. Another big thanks to all our divers today for coming out and diving with us and conquering those fears I could see a lot of progress for most of you improving and becoming better divers. Great job.:)

Spotted Eagle ray

Viper Moray eel eek

Buddah Statue with Ashley and Heather

Staff: Captain Joe, Crew Clara, Instructors Maxine and Larry

TEAM BLUE DESCENDS !! 3 september

September 3, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Larry Hogan

sunny blue skies, and 80 degree water temp accompanied Team Blue out to Baby barge, as we saw that around the wall was a bit too rough. the current was moderate Diamond Head direction, but we visited the shark cave after a free decent. no sharks in the cave, but several turtles, and coming back along the ledge we found an octopus, and some big eels, plus lots of various reef fish. Team Blue out today were Jen, Stephanie, and Kevan, with me as an honorary! yay! first time ocean diver richard was out with wife carla, and he did great! audra and jon from florida, bob from wisconsin and dad, brinne and bruce were diving here before heading out Down Under. 2nd jump was a drifting of Spitting Cave and we had a blast. current was weird, but so many turtles, big and small, plus eels, cowfish, scorpion fish, frogfish a eagle ray, octopus, whew! you name it, we saw it! thanks to all for safe diving, larry, max, joe

baby barge -80 feet, 35 minutes, viz 90.

spitting cave – 50 feet, 50 minutes, viz 80

Tie up Tuesdays 9/2

September 2, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Maxine Markert

Today was a excellent day for diving, So calm that we tied up for both sites. Beginning our day at the Kahala Barge. Jonathan and myself got to explore the upper deck and the east end of the wreck with slack current and 100+ viz. Great conditions, the swell was 2 to 3 feet, making for a calming 45 minute surface interval. Driving just in shore of the Kahala Barge we again tied up at Rock pile several large schools of fish the visibility was in our favor again going as far as the eye can see. After watching David and his Dive master candidates, in the accelerated course at Hawaiian Scuba University, as they were attaching lines to the wreck and looking very professional. Great to see people enjoying to learn to improve their diving capability awesome job, Heather and Chris, it’s refreshing. Thanks again to Jonathan for coming out today and diving with me, I am glad that you continue to come out and dive with us on a regular basis, you were a treat to have on the boat.

Kahala Barge

Shaka

incredible tunnel shot

Staff: Captain Joe, Crew Ashley Instructor Maxine

Happy Turtle Day from IDH!

A Great Turtle Day 9/9

What to bring on a Scuba Diving Trip in Hawaii or Anywhere!

You’re a natural…9/8/2014

LOVE THOSE MONK SEALS!! 8 september

Sea worthy 3 tanker 9/7

Saturday in the Sun (Sept9)

Refreshing the Open Water Experience 9/5

TEAM BLUE DESCENDS !! 3 september

Tie up Tuesdays 9/2

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