Epic Diving at E-Beach....and no camera

Wow! Hit up E-Beach with my dive buddy Scott today. We're trying to get as much diving in as we can before he heads off to Florida. We got a late start this morning, and we both forgot to bring your cameras today. Funny thing is, I told Scott that we would probably see some really cool $H!^ today since we left our cameras at home. So on the first dive we went scurrying across the reef looking for small creatures hiding in the nooks & crannies and BAM, the largest spotted eagle ray I've ever seen he in Hawaii! He must have been at least 7ft from wing tip to wing tip. He was so large I thought we had a Manta Ray at first. We also ran into a couple turtles swimming around as well. Right at the end of this hour long dive, I thought I could hear dolphins chirping in the distance. As we got back up to the parking lot, we noticed a group of people standing at the cliff overlooking the water, watching Spinner dolphin playing RIGHT WHERE WE WERE DIVING. For our second dive, we decided to head back out where we were on the first dive and hoped to get lucky. All the way out we could here chirping, so I was thinking, just maybe today is the day. We got to the end of the reef with nothing but sand and water in front of us, and some really loud chirps now. I looked at Scott and he gave me the "what the hell" look and off into the blue we went. Not two minutes out right in front us, DOLPHIN! We just sat down in the sand and watched these incredible creatures. We even got to watch one dart to the surface and jump straight out of the water! As the pod of 10-15 headed out to deeper water, and us getting down on air it was time for the long swim back in. We cut in over the reef to save some time when Scott noticed one of the largest sea turtles we have ever seen hiding in the mouth of cave. Must be nice to be that big, cause right next to him, not 5ft away, was a 4ft White-tip reef shark sleeping in the same cave with him. So there you have it, Shark, Turtles, Ray, and Dolphin in one day of diving, just epic. I found some pics on the net to share, these are pretty close to how we saw these guys today. Guess it time to start taking my camera with me again!

Diving the Westside

Wow, first update since July! Well no worries, I’ve been diving, just haven’t posted anything in awhile. Today I went out for some Westside diving with Gabe, Lisa, and Tom. The four of us had Captain Scotty’s “Hapa” all to ourselves today and got some great dives in today. Our first dive was one I requested, the LCU. This is an old Landing Craft used back in WWII, just think about the guys storming the beach at Normandy, and you can make out the kind of wreck we were diving. I like to refer to this as the SEAL (Sea & Air & Land) Dive. First you have the boat wreck itself to check out, then off to the right is the frame of an old truck, and hiding in the reef behind the wreck is an airplane fuselage that was recently sank for an artificial reef. We did our second dive across a series of small ledges near the harbor. There was a ton of fish swimming around these ledges and made for nice leisurely dive that lasted almost an hour.


Crown Puffer













Scorpion Fish, kinda of ugly till you see the color behind their fins













Gabe was trying to find an octopus, but he was having mask problems!












Ohau's newest artifical reef, airplane fuselage from the TV show "29 Down"

Bad Day gone Good

Started the day by meeting up with the gang from Kaimana Divers today as we set out to attack the YO-257. We packed the boat with nine divers today and even throw in a few NITROX tanks as well. Once we got out to the site, my wonderful dive computer decided that it didn’t want to go diving today. So as the rest of the gang was getting wet, I was stuck on the boat trying to decide if I was going to throw my computer over board or not. As luck would have it, the computer finally came to it senses as everyone finished up their dive (I guess if you cuss at something long enough, it will come around to your way of thinking). For the second dive we made our way over to Gabe’s Grotto (yes, named after our fearless leader). With the computer working, we took a peek under the ledge where we have been spotting a little white-tip reef shark hiding during the day, and yes he is still there. As soon as we got over the other side of the ledge a nice little turtle came out from his hiding place for us. Right as we got to our turn around point Gabe located an octopus for us all to watch. So after missing the first dive, the second definitely made up for it. Enjoy the videos!!

Fireworks, Anniversary, and a little diving!

Wow, what a week! Spent the 4th of July Bar-B-Qing and watching fireworks on the beach. Suzy & me then spent the 5th celebrating our wedding anniversary with a nice dinner cruise out past Waikiki and up to Diamond Head. On the way back we got to watch the sunset over Oahu, just stunning. We followed that up by catching the amazing Magic of Polynesia show. We finish up by spending the day with Scott & Gretchen (next door neighbors) at Shark’s Cove. Scott & I got a dive in first thing. We headed out towards the point were we heard from a fellow diver (thanks Big Zack) that the elusive Hawaiian Monk Seal was hiding out. Unfortunately we weren’t able to spot him. We did run into a couple baby turtles frolicking in shallow water up against the wall to start the dive. We then spent the rest of the day snorkeling and playing with the little ones on the beach. Let’s just say it’s been a rough couple of days living the good life here in Hawaii, and make sure you check back tomorrow as I head out with Kaimana Divers to check out the YO-257 shipwreck off Waikiki Beach.


Baby Turtle at Shark's Cove

View of Oahu from Dinner Cruise

Looks like Suzy and Ski weren't the only ones with an anniversary

Large school in the shallows of Shark's Cove

Ski & Kelsi dancing on the beach

Back to Where it All Began!

That right friends, I got back in the water today at the best dive site on Oahu - Shark's Cove! This is the dive site that got me running to the dive shop to get dive certified. Almost a year ago, I was out snorkeling here, when low and behold, a sea turtle was in the water 30ft below me. I was thinking “this is so cool!” Not 2 seconds later, I see two SCUBA divers swim right up to this sea turtle and you could tell they were thinking “this is so cool!” Less than and hour later, I had signed up to get my Open Water certification from Gabe Scotti over at Kaimana Diver. So with my diving ending for the next week or so to visit family, I called up Gabe, loaded up the "Scuba-Ski Dive Van" and off we went. So for once Gabe got to do some diving just for fun, no students, no worries. So how did the dive start off, off course with a “keiki” turtle! Just a great day at this wonderful site today, the underwater terrain here is almost as amazing as the wildlife. I was so thrilled to be back here that I kept forgetting to use the camera today, but we saw it all today – eels, giant scorpion fishes, thousands of reef fish, and finished with a giant trevally! Gabe, thanks for taking sometime off from the “job” and enjoying sometime for yourself, I had a blast!

Little baby turtle - what a great start to a dive!

Scorpionfish - biggest I've seen yet

Opeining above one of many swim-thrus

Incredible!

That's the only way to describe these dives! The FOKD (Friends of Kaimana Diver) crew hit the waters near Barber's Point on a private charter today. Along for the dive today was Nav, Jason, Chase, Lisa and our newly engaged leader Gabe with his better half Michelle. Rock solid divers! First site was Ewa Pinnacles, probably one of the best dive sites I’ve been to. Just an incredible amount of fish here, you name it, we probably saw it. I’m already drooling for the next time I get to hit this site up. After a long surface interval and shooting the breeze with everyone, Gabe decided we should drift dive the nearby fish cages. These large cages are where they raise Moi for harvest. Check out this photo of one from NOAA http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/fish5214.htm. As impressive as these were, they don’t compare to all the sharks swimming below them. Not sure what kind they were, but they definitely weren’t the little white tip reef sharks I usually see! A big mahalo to Kaimana Divers and the crew of the Kai Runner II, today was just INCREDIBLE because of you guys!

Make sure you check out Kaimana Divers Dive Report for some more photos of this dive. Link is on the right


Can you name all the fish in this picture?

View of the side of Ewa Pinnacles

Spotted Boxfish

It's JAWS!

Ans his brother!!

Turtles Rule!

The reason I learned to dive was turtles, but we see them so often, that I’ve kind of forget that fact sometimes. Rich called me this weekend and asked if I could take his cousin Jimmy out diving this weekend (twist my arm!). Called Gabe over at Kaimana Divers, and off we went. We tied off to the San Pedro and made our decent. Once down, Gabe & Jimmy were peeking into the old wreck checking a white-tip reef shark, while I drifted off the edge snapping shots of a Green Sea Turtle, when I realized, this little camera has video! Got a nice panoramic of him as the two of us floated in the current. It was nice to spend sometime enjoy these majestic creatures again! Next, we were off to a new reef discovered by another dive instructor named Eric. So as far as I know, the new site is being called, what else, Eric’s Reef. Not a bad shallow little reef. Tons of reef fish swimming around. We did find a Zebra Eel eating away on an urchin. Word is that there are some Hawaiian Stingrays off one side of the reef, but no sightings today. Think I’ll have to dive here a couple more times to get a good feel for it, but it was nice to dive a new site for once. Enjoy the video and pictures, and if you’re looking to an awesome dive operator in Hawaii, give Gabe at Kaimana Divers a call.

Video of sea turtle off the San Pedro



Still shoots of the same guy

Zebra eel

Hawkfish can't hide from me!

Triplets, had to add a picture of a Moorish Idol