Manolo Cabasal

Half-way done! 8/20/2014

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Today on the Sea Fox, among other fun divers from around the Stats, we were joined by Nick. Nick completed his first two open water dives of his Open Water course and breezed through his required skills with ease and deft precision.

Moving along onto the underwater exploration of the dive, Nick’s buoyancy control was on par with the other seasoned divers on the boat. His father being one of them.

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Koko Craters and Angler’s Reef yielded 100ft & 70ft visibility, respectively, and was host to a numerous amount of under water critters. Spotted Porcupine fish, snowflake eel, giant green moray, dragon moray, trigger fish, green sea turtles, and a rather large octopus.

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Good skill tomorrow, Nick! Keep on diving!!!

Dive Stats:
Koko Crater & Angler’s Reef
41ft – 50min & 46ft – 55min

Big shout out to Captain Joe, Kellan, Max, Sam *the dive dog*, and Brent!!!

Larry Hogan

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADISON !! 20 August

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what can I say?  another beautiful day of diving in Hawaii!  Today was Madison’s 8th dive, as well as her 16th birthday!  She is a beautiful young lady, so it was her choice of dive sites today!  after getting certified at ‘the Crater” in Utah, she wanted to see some marine life! So we decided on Baby Barge, and it was excellent, offering up multiple turtles, a shark, an eagle ray, a moray with some banded coral shrimp on his nose, plus great viz and mild current.  Bill, madison’s dad was along, as were glen and lorraine from Vegas (do you own a casino?), Paul from LA, and Vicky from Brazil, who spoke english with an american accent!!.  2nd jump was a drift of spitting cave, with an unusual current heading toward Hanauma bay.  so we drifted to fish gardens, seeing turtles,frog fish,  sea stars, urchins, cow fish, and huge schools of fish in shoaling behavior.  plus beautiful topography, thanks to the volcano!  thanks to all for safe diving,  larry, joe, maxDSC04937 DSC05015 DSC05014

baby barge 80 ft 35 minutes

spitting cave 50 ft 45 minutes

 

Mark Savel

The Sleeping Monk Seal 8/19

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Max and I had a great group of people on the boat today as we headed out for the morning advanced dives off the Sea Fox.  It was wonderful conditions at the LCU for the first dive as we had little current and excellent visibility. Right away we found a frogfish on the bottom and schools of goatfish swimming around the wreck. There were also butterflyfish everywhere with pennant and mittetseed butterflyfish all about the area.  There was a quick siting of a sandbar shark but it quickly left with all the divers about.  Soon it was time to head up and make our way to the second dive.

For the second site we chose Spitting Caves but the current was a bit unusual today as it was going toward the east despite the rising tide. It was still great visibility and wonderful sea life in the area. We quickly found a white tip reef shark and even a Hawaiian turkeyfish hiding in the reef.  There were also turtles all about the area swimming about the reef and getting cleaned but the fish around.  We were even lucky enough to find a Hawaiian monk seal resting in one of the large caves along the site. It was a great day for diving.IMG_5911 My Project

Marnie Cadden

Turtle Tuesday (AUG19)

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The sun was shining for our afternoon out on the bay. With groups of families and students alike, we decided to head out into the ocean. There were so many families out on the boat today, it was fantastic! We made our way to Koko Crater for our first dive of the afternoon.

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We had separated into two groups to ensure that the families stay together in groups, despite some being students. I feel that this was a great move because most of the time we spent exploring the shallows of the bay. We came across many different kinds of fish that were doing a great job of blending into their surroundings.

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We got a chance to explore a lot of the coral heads that surround the site and they were teeming with marine life. It was awesome to see all the different kinds of schools of fish. We eventually made our way back up to the boat and enjoyed a light snack before we hopped in at our second site.

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When we dropped in at our second site, we came across this wonderful sea star that made a great way to start to dive. We made our way to the end of the mooring and checked out the rocks that are covered with fish.

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Once we got a good look at some of the marine life at the beginning of the site, we made our way down the wall and got to check out some really cool eels that were hanging out along the wall.

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Of course, one of the interesting things that inhabit the reef wall are the urchins that make their homes in the cracks among the reef. They wedge themselves in the holes and are protected enough to withstand the currents. We again made our way back aboard the Sea Fox and headed back into the harbor.

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Congrats to the newest certified divers!

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CREW: Marnie (instructor) Carlos (divemaster) Amy (instructor) Joe (captain) Max (crew)

WEATHER: 88*F Sunny, Slight breeze

DIVE PROFILES: Koko Crater: 81*F water temp, 40ft max depth, 38min bottom time, surge

Pa’a’awa: 81*F water temp, 43ft max depth, 32min bottom time

MARINE LIFE: green sea turtle, pincushion seastar, brittle star, squirrel fish, pencil urchin

Kellan Bernhardt

8/18 Afternoon Family Time on the Fox

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Monday – It was all about family on the fox this afternoon as we had Sarah, Max, Brock, Wade, Cliff, Katie, Hannah, Homayoon, Pariya, Other Max, Kay, Jacob, Tobi, Kim, Keith, Alan, Amanda, Danelle, and Josh all out with us. Some were diving, some snorkeling, and Max, Kay, Jacob, and Tobi were all learning to dive on OW day 2, dives open water 1 and 2. We jumped in at main crater as a wave of low visibility washed over us. That’s what happens at a super moon low tide. Everyone was undaunted and we saw a bunch of turtles, eels, sergeant major fish, and leaf scorpionfish. After that we moved to Turtle canyon where one of the DLNR moorings wasn’t functioning, so we moved to the next one, and got to work. This time we saw a baby tiny turtle sleeping, some remains of a crab, lots of spiral shells, and a heart urchin. Sorry we didn’t see any octopus, maybe tomorrow. Thanks for being there, and keep diving.

Eel Face!

Eel Face!

Serious case of Bubble Eye

Serious case of Bubble Eye

Woot

Woot

Pillow stars are candy. Delicious, delicious candy.

Pillow stars are candy. Delicious, delicious candy.

Thanks to Larry for the photos.

Weather conditions: Warm, sunny, small wind, small swell
Dive Sites: Koko Craters 40min 35 ft, Turtle canyon 40min 40 feet
Dive Conditions: 40+ viz, 82F
Marine Life Observed: Spotted Moray, Green sea turtle, Pencil urchin, Scorpionfish
Staff: Capt. Kendall, Instr. Kellan, Marnie, Larry, Parker crew

Matt Negaard

Counting Eels-8/17

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It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon for some diving adventures on the Sea Hound. We left Kewalo Basin a bit early and soon arrived at the Sea Tiger. What a great start – a few Honu, a White Tip Shark, a variety of Eels, and some Trumpetfish along with a  large school of Blue Stripe Snapper all on our first dive! Next we motored down to Pinnacles where we found more Eels as we swam around this really interesting reef. There were quite a few fish on the reef, Jim and Mike found a large Octopus too. On the surface we refueled with sandwiches, snacks, and fluids, then headed for our third dive at Secret Wreck. We started with great visibility at this shallow wreck site and were again treated to a variety of Hawaii ocean wild life. Another White Tip, small kine, was cruising around, Izzy found a nice Leaf Scorpionfish, and yep, more Eels. The wreck is an old tug and sits tilted and has lots of great hiding spots for critters. Looks like we’ll see Jason on a few more dives before He heads to the mainland. It’s a little sad ending such a nice day on the water here in Paradise, but there’s another great trip just around the corner. Thanks for letting us support your diving habit, and thanks for safe diving everyone!

Tug.

Tug.

Not quite Twins

Not quite Twins

Must Love Sharks!

Must Love Sharks!

Yellow Margin Moray

Yellow Margin Moray

Leafy

Leafy

Weather: Warm, Partly Sunny, Wind 10-15, Seas 4 ft.
Dives: Sea Tiger- max depth 105 ft, mild current, vis. 80 ft, temp. 79 F
Pinnacles-max depth 93 ft, mild current, vis. 50 ft, temp. 79 F
Secret Wreck-max depth 60 ft, mild current, vis. 80 ft, temp. 79 F
Staff: John (Captain), Sarah (Crew), Karl (Divemaster), Matt (Instructor)

 

Maxine Markert

Corsair Spitting Cave special 8/18

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Corsair was an excellent choice on this splendid Monday morning, 90 ft visibility slack current and a giant octopus hanging out under the right wing of the Corsair. Very fun dive, during our surface interval we had jumping spinner dolphins all around the boat by China walls. Great fun to watch the energetic dolphins playing in the waves. Vic my advanced open water student did an amazing job for not having dove in 10 years! Absolute treat to dive with, also Glen and Lorraine were happy easy going divers enjoying the nice easy day of relaxing diving. Andrew my last but not least diver hoped in with us at Spitting Caves and almost beat me on air even more relaxed about being underwater clearly happy to be drifting along the Wall on the East end of Oahu. Thank you all for making my job so easy and fun by diving in a very respectful manner. I hope I get to see you all soon, I know Lorraine and Glen will be back Wednesday looking forward to seeing you two again. ALOHA!DCIM100GOPRO DCIM100GOPRO DCIM100GOPRO

Weather conditions: 4 to 6 foot swell, Slight east current and 20 knot trade winds
Dive sites and conditions: Corsair, max depth 107 ft, 20 minutes, temp 74 bottom, slack current; Spitting Caves, max depth 55ft, 35 minute, temp 78 bottom, east current.
Staff: Captain Kendal, crew Parker, Instructors Maxine

Marnie Cadden

Eel Mania! (AUG17)

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Despite the rain early this morning, the skies cleared up for another great day on the south shore of Oahu. A rather empty boat left the docks at midday and set out to the open water to some really great diving.

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We spotted tons of pufferfish today at our first dive site, Koko Crater. We even saw a baby pufferfish that was only a few inches long! So cute!

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As usual, Big Buddha was surrounded by massive schools of fish and we had a chance to swim through them for quite some time. With both students and certifieds, we spotted tons of turtles hanging out under the ledges of the crater.

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We made our way back onto the boat and headed to our next site, Angler’s Reef. The conversation was great aboard the boat during our surface interval and everyone had a great time swapping stories and interacting with each other during the break.

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Over at Angler’s, the visibility cleared up quite a bit and we got to see a lot of really cool marine animals along the wall.

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There were a ton of eels along the ridge today and divers got to see quite a variety of the different species underwater. Its so interesting to see the different sizes of each of the different species, from the massive moray to the small whitemouth.

Thanks to all who joined us out on the boat today, and congrats to the newest certified divers!

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CREW: Marnie (instructor) Amy (instructor) Greg (instructor) Carlos (divemaster) Neil (captain)

CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy with a slight drizzle, breezy

PROFILES: Koko Crater: 40ft max depth, dive time 32 minutes, Koko Head current (E), 60ft visibility, 81*F

Angler’s Reef: 44ft max depth, dive time 34minutes, Koko Head current (E), 80ft visibility, 81*F

MARINE LIFE OBSERVED: moray eel, green sea turtle, pencil urchin, pincushion seastar, white mouthed eel, squirrelfish

Maxine Markert

Stoked to be diving Sunday 8/17

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Sunday fun day, Our famous 3 tanker went out with 9 excited divers. We began our day to a shaky start at the LCU but saw 2 white tip reef sharks, and a large frog fish! Having our father son pair, Gramod and Josh having an awesome dive sticking out their tongues at me under water great fun to dive with you two, Mike Oxley one of our regular divers always such a positive energy to have on the boat best dive buddy ever always smiling and having a good time. Ric and Manny also clearly enjoyed themselves judging by the huge smiles on their face after the YO 257, which was our second dive, zero current and some huge turtles to enjoy as they swam by. John and Hag were on Nitrox diving together great examples of the benefits of diving with nitrox had an extended bottom time at each site. Last but not least starting out Homayoon and Pariya’s week of diving with us started at our third site Turtle canyons which we saw 4 turtles two were actually hawksbill! Not our typical turtles that we get to see on a regular basis. Thank  you guys for a great day of diving it’s days like this that make me love my job.

Mike being a moose

Mike being a moose

YO 257 swarmed with fishy!

YO 257 swarmed with fishy!

Hawks bill

Hawks bill

Weather conditions 6-8 ft surf, 20 knot trade winds, Off and on rain
Dive sites and conditions: LCU; max depth 95ft, 35 minutes, temp 77 bottom, current west; YO-257, max depth 98ft, 30 minute, temp 79 bottom, no current:); Turtle Canyons; max depth 42 ft, 45 minutes, temp 79 bottom, current west.
Staff: Captain Joe crew Lauren Instructor Maxine

Manolo Cabasal

It just comes naturally…

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Today on the Sea Fox, we had a large group of Discover SCUBA Divers, students finishing their Open Water, and SCUBA Refreshers. The conditions were spectacular as usual in Oahu, 60-80 ft viz at both Koko Craters and Pa’a’awa with mild surge and current.

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A whole HOST of aquatic animals came to out to greet the new and refresher divers. Green Sea turtles, sergeant majors, trigger fish, puffer fish, giant green morays, devil scorpion fish, an expired 7-11 crab, and an octopus delighted the undersea heroes.

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Congratulations to:

Bryan – DSD 1st and 2nd dives EVER!!
Peter & Mark – 1st dive in 5 & 15 years respectively
Clay & Jake – Completion of the PADI Open Water Diver Course

Many thanks to you guys for coming out. You guys looked great in the water. Diving, for you guys, definitely comes naturally.

Shout out to the CREW!! Capt. Joe, Alex, Marnie, & Jess

Dive Stats:
Koko Crater & Pa’a’awa
36ft – 44min & 40ft – 48min