Scuba Dive Reports Oahu - Page 74 of 96 - Island Divers Hawaii

A Special Kind of Diving

June 27, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Mark Savel

We had a slight departure from our normal afternoon charter off the Sea Fox today. We got to head off and do a drift dive for the PM trip instead of basic reef dives. But for the first dive we tied up at Anglers Reef to make sure everyone was good on weighting and comfortable in the water. The water was nice and clear but there was a bit of a current as we headed down the line. The worked our way into the current as we checked out all the life on the reef. There were colorful reef fish everywhere and a few eels hiding in the coral. We also found a small red frogfish blending well with the bottom. Soon we surfaced and headed for Spitting Caves.

The water was great along the wall with nice viz and a bit of a current. As we dove along the site we came across all kinds of sea life. We had a few turtles swimming about and another frogfish on the reef. We also had a couple white tip reef sharks hiding out in one of the caves. As we got near the end of the dive we also found an octopus on the reef and a few eels hiding among the coral. It was a great afternoon on the southeast side of Oahu.

Pa’a’awa Fun

June 27, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Marnie Cadden

Conditions were fantastic this afternoon for another dive off the Sea Fox. We had a great group of divers from first timers to experienced veterans. We had some students who were competing their Open Water certifications on board as well.

We hopped in at Koko Crater, our first dive site, to check and see if some of the locals were hanging around this afternoon. As expected, the divers had the opportunity to check out the many green sea turtles that hang out under the ledges of the crater.

Cruising the crater

The students did fantastic completing their skills with Instructor Jessie and had their first look at life underwater. It was a real eye opener for our first time divers!

Reef Triggerfish

After a brief surface interval, divers were ready to hop in at our second dive site, Pa’a’awa. Here the divers had an opportunity to swim with large schools of our most observed reef fish and check out the small wall that follows along the dive site.

Threadfin Butterfly Fish

The small ridge that we followed was covered in urchins and the divers were fantastic at controlling their buoyancy and avoiding the spines of this rather hazardous reef creature.

Urchins

The students did fantastically, again, completing their skills and our certified divers got to spend a little more time at the bottom exploring while the first time divers were thrilled to explore the ocean floor.

All in all, it was another fantastic day in the Maunalua Bay area with some great divers. Thanks to all who came out and joined us and congratulations to PADI’s newest certified divers!

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DIVE STAFF: Marnie (Instructor) Jessie (Instructor) Kendal (Captain) Carlos (Divemaster) Steve (Crew)

WEATHER CONDITIONS: 82*F Slight Diamondhead Breeze

DIVE PROFILES: Koko Crater: 80*F water, Diamonhead current (W), slight surge, 40ft max depth, 36 minute bottom time, 80+ft visibility

Pa’a’awa: 80*F water, Diamondhead current (W), slight surge, 42ft max depth, 32 minute bottom time, 70+ft visibility

MARINE LIFE OBSERVED: pincushion seastar, sea urchins, green sea turtles, butterfly fish, nudibranch, triggerfish, trumpetfish

6/27 Day 20 of Strong Current in the AM

June 27, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Kellan Bernhardt

Friday – At leas that’s what it feels like. Moving out to the corsair, we find that we’re unable to dive the location because of super strong current. So we make our way over to the LCU, an awesome site for seeing schools of fish, and, it turns out, escaping the current. While the water ripped 50 feet above our heads, we finned around rather calmly. Saw some eels, some fish swimming upside down, and a ton of relatively unexciting concrete. From there we went over to Fantasea, where we got dropped a little far to the west because of that same strong current, and caught the north edge of the dive site. Saw some awesome dascillus, tried not to get bit by a green headed eel, and surveyed some huge coral stag heads. I made that name up. Deal with it.

Green head eel, not happy I woke him.

Gotta get those shakas in.

Just the one Jeff this time.

Weather conditions: Warm, sunny, and slight breeze, small swell
Dive Sites: LCU 9:17am 88ft 39min and Fantasea 10:40am 60ft 40min
Dive Conditions: 70+ viz, strong Koko head current
Marine Life Observed: Dascillus, Green head moray, Spotted moray, Horned helmet
Staff: Capt. Joe, Kellan, David, Greg crew

June 26- Titan Diving

June 26, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Davy Eleen Vercoe

The ocean’s creatures never cease to amaze me. Our diver Carly found a Titan scorpionfish today at a dive site called Fish Gardens. This fish was a little over a foot and half and it was sitting near the wall underneath a little ledge. That was my first time ever seeing a Titan scorpionfish.
It was truly awesome, and it makes me wonder how many countless creatures and fish I haven’t even seen yet. I gotta get back into the water now if I’m going to see it all. I love my job.
I also had the privilege of diving with some extraordinary divers who listened almost better than they dove. They were perfect guests on our boat and in our ocean. Thank you and way to go Alan who persevered and was rewarded with some great dives.

Safe Diving,

Davy

Little Turtle bomb

Goldlace Nudibranch

Weather Condition: Rainy & Sunny
Dive Sites/Conditions: Baby Barge 75 ft Viz, Medium East Current
Dive Site 2: Fish Gardens 40 ft viz light current plus surge
Staff: Captain Kendal, Lead Davy, David training DMC’s -Phil, Jeff, Slim, Izzy, Chris, Bodhi (DM), New crew Steven

6/25 Is the World a Sphere or is That Just My Head?

June 25, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Kellan Bernhardt

Wednesday – The day starts off with a couple of awesome people trying scuba diving for the first time ever through our Discover Scuba Diving program. Josh, Gillian and I went over to Makai and rolled around in shallow waves for a little bit. We attempted some skills, and they smashed them all. From there we got on the boat with 6 others and went diving for reals! Turtle canyon was first where we saw some eels, some urchins, I used a cucumber as a slate, and we found an octopus! The next site was Koko Craters where we saw ONE turtle. Blasphemy. But we did see some Hawaiian lionfish and played frisbee with a pillow star, and Conolly and Tony did the skills they needed to to finish their Open Water Certifications. Congrats All! Come back and see me again.

Divemaster Students?

OW Students!

DSDs!

Weather conditions: Warm, sunny, and slight breeze
Dive Sites: Koko Craters and Turtle Canyon
Dive Conditions: 70+ viz, mild Diamond Head current
Marine Life Observed: Turtles, eels, Hawaiian Lionfish, Pacific Octopus
Staff: Capt. Joe, Kellan, David, Greg crew

HAPPY DIVERS !

June 25, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Larry Hogan

fun day today with sunny blue above and below! brian and dave were finishing up their advanced certs, aussie Dale and shop favorite Mel were also out having a great two dives. we started at the Kahala Barge and did a fantastic swim thru the imploded deck, thru the rooms below, and out onto the superstructure on the back. lots of fish and coral, but no ulua (big jacks) or sharks today! after a nice surface interval we did a fantastic drift of world-famous Spitting Caves, seeing sharks, turtles, frogfish, and lots of reef fish. the current was perfect, and the viz was good. lots of smiles and happy faces on the boat heading in! congrats to brian and dave, and thanks to all for safe diving! larry, joe, david

Kahala barge – 90 feet for 31 minutes, viz 90/100

Spitting Cave – 50 feet for 45 minutes, viz 80/90

Easy Breezy Tuesday Afternoon

June 24, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Amy Bossler

Weather Conditions: Sunny with a slight breeze
Dive Sites: Koko Craters and Angler’s Reef
Dive Conditions: slight current, 79 degree water, 150+ feet of visibility
Marine Life Observed: Green sea turtles, green moray, zebra moray, snowflake moray, giant moray, blue dragon nudibranch, gold lace nudibranch
Staff: Capt. Kendal, Amy, David, Carlos, Parker (crew)

Aloha,

Thanks for choosing to spend your Tuesday afternoon with Island Divers Hawai’i. It was our pleasure to take you diving. Today, we had a ton of fun stuff happening on the boat. We had Mac and Tony working on their open water course, Michael finishing up his AOW, and Ashley, Huyn, Jeff, Josh, Emily, Ann, Duane, Kyle, Brandon, Brooke, and Jackson getting some bottom time. Capt. Kendal took us out to Koko Craters to find some sea turtles. We hit a max depth of 40′ for a total bottom time of :35. The turtles blessed us with their presence and we ended up seeing two turtles!!! After cruising with the turtles and getting photos with the statues, we headed back to the Sea Fox. We had a quick surface interval and headed back into the water. Since our divers were all comfortable and competent in the water, we headed to Angler’s Reef for dive number two. On this site we had a max depth of 50′ and had a total bottom time of :47! Woohoo, great job divers!!! On this site we saw tons of eels: green moray, zebra moray, snowflake moray, and a giant moray. We also saw blue dragon nudibranchs and a gold lace nudibranch. Overall, it was a great day of diving! Thanks again to our fantastic team of divers and congratulations to Mac, our newest certified diver! Until next time, dive easy!

Aloha,

Amy

June 24, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Mark Savel

Larry and I had a wonderful morning with some great divers and perfect dive conditions off the Sea Fox. There was a small south swell and light winds as we headed for the Corsair for the first dive. Getting out to the site we could see the plane from the surface and had a light current as we descended down the line. There were colorful reef fish all around the wreck including pennant butterflyfish and sergeant damselfish. There were also garden eels in the sand around the Corsair and a large sponge crab hiding in the tail of the plane. Soon it was time to surface and make our way to the next site.

We decided on Sea Cave for the second dive even with the surface being a little choppy the conditions under water were spectacular. We again had 100+ft viz and a light current as we entered the cave. There were fish about the cave but sadly nothing big hiding out in the cave. As we drifted along the wall we found eels hiding all over the reef and turtles swimming around in the current. It was a great dive and everyone had a wonderful morning.

23 June – Don’t Be A Mollusk, Dive With Island Divers

June 23, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Neil Abrassart

The charter this afternoon was full of new divers, divers working on their certification, finishing certification and advancing their skills. On board today we had Alan, Brandon, David, Mac, Jeff, Natalia, Nick and Joe. Our first dive we ended up at Koko Crater where we found fantastic visibility and very minimal current. The conditions were really in our favor for having some beautiful dives, as we began our descent onto the crater we found ourselves immediately in the middle of a school of Moorish Idols and Sargent Majors. As we continued on our dive, the ocean seemed to be happy for us choosing this day to dive, we saw Green Sea Turtles and much more all wrapped up in shimmering light rays reflecting off the beautiful white sand bottom. Once we completed the skills required for our individual courses we finished touring around the site and then headed back to the boat. We got back on board and we were off to the next site, during surface interval and our signature red vine and cookie snack, we all took the time to meet each other. We had visitors from all over the country today including even one student from Chile named Natalia who finished her open water certification! Congratulations to Island Divers newest certified diver! After our surface interval we headed back underwater at Turtle Canyon. Once again we were gifted with nearly perfect conditions. We got to explore this coral encrusted reef and all of its inhabitants such as Snowflake Morays, Green Sea Turtles and Divided Flatworms which just so happens to carry the same poison as pufferfish. We finished up our dives and then got back on board and headed back to the dock. It was quite the beautiful day out on the water and truly one of those times you had to be there…

Weather Conditions: Wind (SE @ 15kts), Seas (1-2ft Slow Rolling Swell), Sunny and Beautiful

Dive Sites: Koko Craters, Turtle Canyon

Dive Conditions: 40 ft Max, 32 min & 45 min, 80 degrees, Mild – None Current

Marine Life Observed: Snowflake Morays, Green Sea Turtles, Divided Flatworms, Moorish Idols

Staff: Captain (Joe) Crew (Greg) Instructors (Kendal and Neil)

BIG day of diving!

June 23, 2014/in Dive Reports/by Amy Bossler

Weather Conditions: Sunny, slight breeze, mid 80s
Dive Sites: LCU and Fantasy Reef
Dive Conditions: 150+ feet of viz, slight chop, strong current
Marine Life Observed: Spotted eagle rays, green sea turtles, moray eels, white tip reef shark, and tons of schooling fish
Staff: Capt. Jo, Amy, Greg (crew)

Aloha,

Thanks for choosing to dive with Island Divers Hawai’i. We had a great morning of diving. Today we had Derek, Adrian, Julian, Jay, Christine, Troy, Drew, and Sean joining us for a fun filled Monday of diving. Capt. Jo headed the Sea Fox out to our first dive site at the LCU. Our max depth was 90′ for a total bottom time of :30. On this site we saw a squadron of spotted eagle rays!!! It was super exciting! After completing our dive we enjoyed some hot chocolate, tea, cookies, and Red Vines. For dive two we headed to an IDH favorite, Fantasy reef. Fantasy offers a max depth of about 65′ giving us a bottom time of about :40. The currents were ripping, but we had fantastic viz!!! We saw about 10 turtles, two baby white tip reef sharks, lots of nudis, and swam through two swim-thrus. As you can tell, we had a great time diving! Thank you again for choosing to dive with IDH. It is our pleasure to guide you through Hawaii’s underwater world. Hopefully, we’ll see you all diving again soon. Until next time, dive easy.

Aloha,

Amy