wow, a flat surface, sunny blue skies, and ripping current gave us a great day of diving, boating, and exercise!  LCU was the people’s choice for dive one today, and the viz was spectacular at 150 clear, blue feet!!  no sharks today, but the frog fish is still fun to find, and we saw eagle rays, and a couple of great barracuda.  dive two was one of our favorites, the YO 257. After a smooth trip over to waikiki, we tied up and shimmied down the line, spotting turtles and submarines, as well as a huge school of moorish idols.  dive three was a drift dive over at world-class dive site, Spitting Cave.  jackpot!  sharks, turtles, octopus, frogfish, and great topography.  of course, the ripping current had disappeared by then!!  haha, that’s the ocean for you. special thanks to kelsea for working all weekend as crew, as well as to Flora for hooking the boat up in the midst of epic current!  and  thanks to all for safe diving,  larry, kellen, flora, joe, kelsea

Landing Craft Unit – 90 ft, 30 minutes

YO 257 – 90 feet 30 minutes

Spitting Cave – 50 feet, 45 minutes

Haha, a bit of current today on Kahala Barge.  Actually it was about as strong as i’ve felt in all my years of hawaiin diving. But by using the excellent line set up on the Fox, divers can get to the dive sites with minimal effort and no wasted air.   wrecks also have some protected spots where the current is redirected, so an aware diver can still enjoy long and relaxed dives by using those techniques.  one of those protected areas was inside the wreck, which had 4 huge trevelly, locally known as ulua, hiding inside.  they took off pretty quick, but always great to see a big, fierce fish like that.  2nd jump was a spectacular drift of Spitting Cave, and the conditions were perfect.  blue, clear water, mild current, and loads of sea life.  schools of fish, turtles, eels, an octopus, and a big green frogfish were all viewed along the way.  thanks to all for safe diving,  larry, kendal, joe, kelsea

 

 

kahala barge 90 feet  35 minutes

spitting caves 50 feet 45 minutes

Another fantastic afternoon for diving here in Oahu. It seems as though we have been blessed with awesome weather (of course) for the beginning of the summer dive season. Today, we had a lot of of help on the boat, since David and his lovely group of Divemaster trainees came out to do some skills. With just two customers, we had a lot of opportunity to explore.

Since we had some practice before we hopped in at our first site, Koko Crater, our first time divers were more than prepared. We were lucky enough to make it off of Little Buddha and spot a 7ft hammerhead! A rather uncommon site in these waters, Liana and I were stoked to have had this kind of opportunity.

We spent about 23 minutes at the site exploring the crater and checking out some cool sea creatures before we made our way back aboard the Sea Fox.

We spent about 40 minutes at the surface chatting and enjoying a light snack before we hopped in at our second site, Angler’s Reef.

Over at Angler’s Reef, we hopped in and had a great conditions for exploring the ridge. Visibility was fantastic and allowed the diver’s to look in all the small nooks and crannies for some small eels.

Divers were much more comfortable jumping in at the second site which made it a lot easier for us to explore and see some really cool sea creatures.

We spent about 21 minutes at the site and got to see a lot of different fish and a huge moray eel before we again boarded the Sea Fox and made our way back into the Hawaii Kai marina.

We really had another great day out in Maunalua Bay and again the weather made for some really awesome diving off of the coast of Oahu.

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CREW: Marnie (Instructor), Dave (Divemaster), Neil (Captain), Greg (Boat Crew), David (DMC Instructor)

WEATHER: 84*F, Sunny, Slight Breeze

DIVE PROFILES: Koko Crater: 79*F water temp, 40ft max depth, 23 minute bottom time

Angler’s Reef: 79*F water temp, 40ft max depth, 21 minute bottom time

MARINE LIFE OBSERVED: wrasse, hammerhead, pincushion sea star, moray eel, helmet conch, sea turtles, white mouthed eel, trumpetfish, butterfly fish

How many sea hares does it take to get to the bottom of a scuba tank?

Sea hares get their name because someone thought their two rhinophores sticking out on top of their head looked like bunny ears. They actually have good sense of smell, which explains why they were following Liam our youngest most advanced diver around.
Honestly, what goes through these scientists minds when they discover something like a sea hare. It expels purple ink, as Angela found out today, and it can actually get around using jet propulsion like a squid. Let’s call it a sea hare!

The real question is why are they floating in the water in mass at what seems to be random intervals?
I had so much fun diving with you all today, thanks for coming out to have some fun with me and the Island Divers Hawaii Crew. Great job drifting today, you guys nailed the second dive. I smell a drift specialty, you will all be ahead of the game.

Safe Diving,
Davy

Weather Conditions: Slight Drizzle, sunny
Dive Sites: Fantasy & Turtle Mound towards spitting caves
Dive conditions: Rippin’ current, VIZ was harey at spitting, but clear at Fantasy
Crew: Captain Joe, Maxine, Davy, Marnie, Bodhi

 

 

What a great morning for diving! We left the Hawaii Kai Marina on schedule at 8:30am with a total of 10 divers from all over the world. We had some divers who had been with us before and some new divers to the area which made for a very exciting morning aboard the Sea Fox. The divers also had a varied range of experience from Advanced to Rescue which made for an enjoyable experience. For some it was the first time going deep diving!

We decided that our first dive would be at Kahala Barge, which proved to have awesome conditions. Visibility was fantastic and divers had the opportunity to swim through and explore the shipwreck.

We had a good 30-35 minute dive on the wreck and saw a lot of really awesome marine life, there was even a potential hammerhead shark that was spotted, but that is yet to be determined!

The divers did a fantastic job monitoring their deco times and safely made their way back up the descent line and back to the Sea Fox. We had a surface interval of about 45 minutes, which allowed our divers to enjoy the morning sun and share stories with their fellow divers.

We decided for our second dive that we would drift over Fantasy Reef. This is one of our favorite sites to visit because its is teeming with marine life and has so much to offer. We saw loads of turtles and had some rather close encounters with a few of them!

Divers got to swim through some of the reefs formations and had a rather easy time drifting over the coral covered ocean floor. With so much to see, divers had the opportunity to observe Hawaii’s marine life at its best.

We spotted many different marine animals including pufferfish, turtles, and a white tipped reef shark!

After 40 minutes, we made our way back to the Sea Fox and headed back into the marina. I would say this dive was a fantastic way to spend my morning!

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Crew: Marnie (Instructor) Kendal (Captain) Parker (Crew)

Weather: 82*F Sunny, Slight Breeze

Conditions: Strong Koko Head current (E), Mild Surge

Dive Profiles:

Kahala Barge: max depth 97ft, visibility 90+ ft, 37min dive, 82*F water temperature

45 minute surface interval

Fantasy Reef: max depth 54ft, visibility 85+ft, 35min dive, 82*F water temperature