Labor Day Party Boat (aka Club Dive)

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Weather Conditions: Sunny (87 degrees), slight breeze, flat waters
Dive Site: Corsair
Dive Conditions: Strong Diamond Head current, 100+ viz
Marine Life Observed: Garden eels, scorpion fish, moray eels, schooling reef fish
Staff: Captain Kellen and Amy

Aloha,
Thanks for choosing to dive with Island Divers Hawaii.  This afternoon we held our annual Labor Day Club dive.  One of our divers referred to it as the “Party Boat.”  It honestly was a party boat today!  We had IDH regulars: Vanessa and Fred, Lew, Rill, Claire, Stacy, Andrew, Chris and Shadaya, and Heather and Robert.  We were all advanced divers and being in the festive mood we convinced our captain to take us on an adventure!!!! For the first time in my memory the Barge took on the Corsair!  Woohoo!!!!  We hit the water around 5:00 pm and had near perfect conditions.  The Navy F4 Corsair rests in about 108′.  We had a total dive time of :25.  We saw: garden eels, scorpion fish, moray eels, and beautiful schooling reef fish.  After we completed our dive we headed back to the shop for a great group BBQ.  Max fired up the grill ahead of time so the coals were hot and ready for our return.  Fred manned the grill with Claire and Lew as assistants.  The spread was plentiful and the company was great.  Overall, it was another fantastic afternoon of diving and eating with our IDH ohana.  Please watch out for news on our next club event coming up in October.  IDH will host our 7th annual underwater pumpkin carving!  Get those dive knifes ready!  Until next time, dive easy!

Aloha,
Amy

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Manolo Cabasal

Lazy Labor Day Diving 09.01.2014

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This afternoon on the Sea Fox we had a full load of 8 divers out for some lazy labor day diving.

Before the herd arrived @ 1200, Michael showed up @ 0900 with his wife Vanessa to complete his Discover Scuba Diving orientation. Vanessa, already a certified PADI Open Water diver, relaxed at a nearby coffee shop while her husband completed his orientation video and brief training dive at the Makai Research Pier.

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Boarding the Sea Fox @ 1200, they were joined by 4 other certified divers and 2 students completing their PADI Open Water Course. The first dive site on the agenda was Koko Craters. Met with 100ft visibility, the divers could see straight to the bottom from topside, and out as far as they could see down below. Divemaster Carlos led the certified divers while MSDT Instructor Manolo led the 2 students and DSD Diver. Numerous turtles of all sizes swam around the divers along with a scorpion fish, a school of trigger fish, banner fish, and trumpet fish.

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After a 37 minute surface interval, the divers re-entered the ocean @ Turtle Canyons. Despite the name, Turtle Canyons is know of octopus and giant morays. Both of which were spotted on the dive. Asides from the local celebrities, numerous hermit crabs were spotted on coral along with the rose pedal-like eggs of Spanish Dancers.

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Congratulations to both Soongup, Kate, and Michael for completing their open water courses and DSD experiences, respectively.

Dive Stats:
Koko Crater & Turtle Canyons
38ft – 43min & 40ft – 44min

Big shout out to the Crew: Capt. Kendal, Carlos, and Manolo.

Larry Hogan

not so GIANT SQUID !! 1 september

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close call today as a (not so) GIANT SQUID visited us on our safety stop on Skimmins Ledge.  well, not really a close call, as the squid was really pretty small, but truly amazing to see!  i believe it’s called a Big Fin Squid, and they are fascinating, as their side fins ripple rhythmically  up and down, and lights flash from front to back!  really beautiful, and this squid stayed right next to us throughout our 3 minute safety stop.  check out the photo!  Skimmins ledge was crystal clear, easy 150 of viz, and mild current, perfect for an easy drift, which we did.  lots of fish, plus a giant sponge crab!  2nd jump was another drift, and we decided to do  Sea Cave, another world-class wall dive!  a bit surgey, but the four sharks we saw inside, more than made up for that! out on the wall we saw turtles, large schools of fish, and an eagle ray cruised right by us!  great day of diving,  thanks to all for safe diving!  larry, davy,  and kendal

Skimmins ledge  75 feet  40 minutes  150 viz

Sea Cave    60 feet  40 minutes  130 viz

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Mark Savel

Fun for All Ages 8/30

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We had a wonderful group of divers today with a couple of 10 year olds finishing their PADI open water course and divers all the way up into their 60’s diving. The water was great with a small swell and clear water as we headed for Koko Craters for the first dive. There is always a great chance for turtles at this site and today was no exception.  Right away on the bottom we found a couple turtles and reef fish all about us. Swimming around the reef we found a couple yellow margin morey eels and a very small turtle hiding out in the reef.

For the second dive we dove Turtle Canyons and again had a great dive.  There were eels hiding out all over the reef including a couple large white mouth moreys and a few stout moreys.  We also found a few leaf scorpion fish and a large porcupine puffer swimming about. It was a wonderful afternoon and congratulations to John and Julia for finishing up their open water today.

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Larry Hogan

I’VE NEVER BEEN WRONG – JEFF SANTOS !! 30 August

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HAHA, the worlds greatest salesman, Jeff Santos (cannonballing in photo above), told us today that the weatherman who predicted small craft advisories, big swells, and rough conditions. was totally full of it, and instead, the weather was going to be beautiful.  well, Saint Jeff was not wrong as we had a spectacular day of diving!!  the sun was shinning, the breeze was gentle, and the waves were smooth. everyone wanted to see the famous Corsair airplane wreck so off we went, mooring up in the mild current, and the viz was so good i could see the plane from the mooring!  huge schools of fish, fusillers, moorish idols, and big jacks were milling above the wreck, with the garden eels surrounding it. 2nd jump was a drift of Fantasy reef, and there were plenty of huge turtles, eels, a whitetip shark, as well as loads of reef fish!  viz was down a bit but the current was nice and we had a blast checking out the marine life in Fantasy’s beautiful topography!  thanks to all for safe diving, and congrats to Ty for his EAN cert, and joseph for completing his AOW!  much love to Ron and Jan, two of our favorite regulars who have dove with us for the last 8 years, whenever they come out to visit!  also Happy Trails to the aforementioned superstar Jeff (who has never been wrong, right Matt?) is off on his bi-annual vacation.  have a blast buddy!   larry, joe, and kelsea

 

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Larry Hogan

ENJOY THE RIDE!! 29 august

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it was a awesome, fun, and wild ride today, as sunny blue  skies above gave us a great day for diving!  underwater was the thrill ride, as Koko craters was full of big turtles, octopus, scorpion fish, schooling fusiliers, all swaying back and forth in the powerful surge with us. lots of buoyancy and surge practice today!!  we had to stay tight, as the viz was way, way, way down.  maybe 20 feet!  but we all hung together and saw lots of cool stuff, one of the highlights being a huge peacock flounder!  2nd jump was over to Anglers ledge, where we found some blue water, giving us 80 feet of viz.  sweet!!  it was the eel show there today, as we saw big and small morays, lots of juvenile reef fish, and some huge helmet conch canoodling on the bottom.  lots of current also!  thanks to all for a great effort of staying alert and together as a group in challenging conditions!!  larry and lord kendal

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Kellan Bernhardt

8/29 Sometimes You Just Gotta Double Wreck Double Deep

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Friday – What started as a beautiful morning with Stu, Alecia, Ben, Klaus, and a bunch of HSU guys and gals with Amy and John turned into an awesome day of diving. We jumped into the Kahala Barge, one of my personal favorite spots to dive, and saw a bunch of huge trumpet fish, some spotted crabs in the coral while John and his crew buzzed around with a bunch of DPVs- Diver Propulsion Vehicles. From there we went to the LCU, just a short jump away and saw some White tipped reef sharks! I also dropped my camera immediately, but then got it back. Yes! Nice work everyone, we’ll see you next time.

Ben is solving the problem of world hunger in his head

Ben is solving the problem of world hunger in his head

Stu snapping a better pic than I

Stu snapping a better pic than I

Ben and Klaus

Ben and Klaus

Klaus

Klaus

Stu looks at a hole.

Stu looks at a hole.

Weather Conditions: Windy and Sunny, small south swell
Dive Sites: Kahala Barge & LCU
Dive Conditions: 90 FT 32 min & 85 Ft 20 min Temp 79 F
Staff: Capt Kendall, Dive Lead Kellan, Amy, John, Crew Catherine

Manolo Cabasal

Discovering SCUBA before Summer Ends! 8-27-2014

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Visiting from the Mainland Logan, Austin, and their mother Anna decided to fit in a couple of SCUBA dives before school starts next Monday. Their journey began @ 0900 at IDH’s Hawaii Kai location. After a short intro video and a gear fitting the vacationing trio went to the Makai Research Pier for a confined water skills presentation and swim practice. After completing their skills with ease the trio returned to Hawaii Kai for lunch, filled with confidence.

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Eager to document their adventure, they entered the water with a GoPro and a rental digital underwater camera. The first site on the agenda: Turtle Canyons. Despite the incoming swell, the divers were met with 50ft visibility, a mild current, and every moray eel in the neighborhood. Green morays, snowflake, dragon, and zebra. You name it and it was out there showing their teeth.

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Next site for exploration: Koko Craters. Immediately off the mooring line, the divers came face to face with numerous turtles under the Little Buddha statue. Besides the turtles, the divers encountered spotted and blotched porcupine fish, a couple more morays, pincushion starfish, sergeant majors, and a devil scorpion fish.

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Dive Stats:

Turtle Canyons & Koko Craters
41ft – 33min & 40ft – 43min

Very well done Logan, Austin, and Anna! Make sure you add a PADI Open Water Course to your extra curricular activities! Thank you for coming out!

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A special thanks to the Sea Fox crew: Capt. Kellan, Matt, Brent, & Sam the Dive Dog.

Larry Hogan

BIG SHARKS AT LCU !! 27 August

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fun day, especially if you are a shark lover!!  blue skies and nice breezes followed us out to the LCU where we divers hoped to see a shark or two. currents have been strong, and today was no different, as it took 2 tries to get the boat moored up.  strong current!  supermaning down the line, we were greeted by a hawaiin green sea turtle hanging out next to the prop. then on further decent we saw schooling fusiliers and checked out the encrusted brown frogfish, still in the same spot, and so hard to see!  amazing!! people love it when they finally make it out! today it was upside down.  heading underneath the wreck we saw 3 large whitetip sharks, pretty relaxed, but moving about a bit!  quite big for whitetips! 2nd jump was a drift of Fantasy, and it was spectacular as usual!  huge turtles, lots of fish and eels, a big octopus sitting out and flashing colors. thanks to all for safe diving,  larry and kellen

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LCU  –  90 feet  30 min.   100 ft viz

Fantasy  –  52 feet  45 min.   100 ft viz

Marnie Cadden

Tuesdays with Moray (AUG26)

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It was a very calm day this afternoon aboard the Sea Fox. With just a couple of divers aboard today, we had the chance to go around and explore some of the deeper sites. For our first dive, we decided it would be a good idea to drift over Fantasy Reef to get some great views of the reef.

 

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We dropped down onto schools of fish that were awesome! We headed west towards Diamond head so that we could avoid swimming against the current. Following the zig zag patterns across the reef, we got to see a lot that it had to offer.

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We got to spend some time with the green sea turtles that inhabit the reef and got much closer than we had expected!

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Wehad a great time going through the arches and through the canyons that the reef had formed. We came across tons of eels and all different kinds of marine life.

We made our way back aboard the Sea Fox to make our way to the next dive site, and we enjoyed a nice snack as well.

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We dropped into the second site to come across a ton of moray eels. It felt as though every corner we came across, we saw another one!

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We also saw a rather large and friendly pufferfish that swam with us for a bit, which is rather uncommon.

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We saw many fish that were camoflauging themselves with their surroundings. It was fun to spot them along the reef edge.

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We made our way back aboard the Sea Fox in record time and enjoyed a nice fresh cut pineapple on our way back in. Such a great way to spend the afternoon. Thanks so much for coming out!

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CREW: Marnie (instructor) Ashley (crew) Neil (captain)

DIVE PROFILES: Fantasy Reef: max depth 57ft, 80ft visibility, 33min bottom time

Anger’s Reef: max depth 43ft, 60ft visibility, 36min bottom time

MARINE LIFE OBSERVED: green sea turtle, moray eel, scorpion fish, trigger fish, trumpet fish