joe8mofo
Contributor
So my wife and I took a 10 day trip to the Island of Hawaii (also known as Big Island) and we had a blast on this trip. First I would like to elaborate on the ease of packing 2 complete BP/W setups into a rolling carryon, with the regulators and wetsuits going in another rolling carryon. We encountered no issues going through security at any point during our travel; which actually surprised me.
We decided to dive on our second day there and we went to Jacks to rent tanks and weight. We then arrived at Old Airport and started to gear up but the surf proved to be too high so we called it and decided to go to Mile-Marker 4 instead. This was a very shallow dive and entry/exit was somewhat difficult as there were many rocks to walk over with heavy gear. Once in the water we had to time putting on our fins to the surf. This was a very shallow dive and the coral and fish were abundant. This was my first attempt at towing around a dive flag and I had to fight it mostly the whole time. We never got deeper than 36 feet and we made it to the entrance to a lava-tube but didnt proceed through it due to swell-conditions. We ended the dive and went to grab lunch and fill the tanks. Due to the worsening swell conditions we decided to go to 2-Step (also known as Place of Refuge). What was surprising was the lack of surf and current. Entry was a giant stride off of a natural lava formation and was by far easier than entering over the typical lava rocks that we had previously encountered. This dive started shallow, but we navigated over the coral fields to the drop-off point of the reef. The reef steeply drops off to a sandy bottom starting at around 90; we kept our max depth this dive at 72 and traveled along the reef wall, again surrounded by numerous fish, large and small jutting in and out between coral fingers. We followed the wall until we encountered a ravine within the reef with a sandy area and followed the sandy area back to about 40 and then proceeded to navigate towards our exit point. At this point the dive flag line tangled around my fins and 1st stage; I gave the trouble sign and floated motionlessly while my wife untangled the line. At this point we say a very large sea turtle swimming right beside us in the opposite direction; we followed him a bit and then headed back towards our entry point and the water got progressively shallower, so we did our safety stop on the way to the exit. In order to properly exit you had to time the swell so that you would float on top of the entry rock and then you had to grab on to prevent getting dragged off of it with the surf. There were rock-boring urchins that had drilled nice hand-holds for this exit. This ended our first day of diving on the Big Island.
On our fifth day on the island we had to get back in the water. We rented 4 tanks the night before from Jacks so we could get an early start and try to get 4 dives in that day. We started out for Crescent Beach at around 7:30 in the morning. We hadnt a clue what we would be in for when we arrived. Crescent beach is located directly beside the Honokohau harbor and is actually one of the top boat diving sites in the area due to the extensive reef. The one gotcha with this dive site is that if you want to access it for a shore dive you have to haul your gear over an uneven and rocky trail that run across a lava field. It probably would have been easier to kayak to this site with our gear as that would avoid the painful trek across the lava field. Once we were geared up we entered at the south side of the beach and were able to put on our fins and head out. There was a current that had to be fought the entire way out of the shallows due to the ocean swells. Once we got to around 30 feet the current became decreased. As we made out way towards the west we were paralleling lava rock walls. After the rock walls the ocean opened up and we were in a colorful and vibrant coral field. At about 50 feet of depth we encountered another diver who appeared to be diving solo with a video camera, he flashed me the OK sign and I responded with OK. The reef drops down to a depth of 70 feet and is met by a sea of sand with small coral structures dotting the white sand. I immediately spied a larger than life spotted eagle ray, flying elegantly about 10 feet above the white sand. The cameraman turned to follow the eagle ray; Tina and I decided to parallel the eagle ray as it headed north. The ray was approximately 12 feet in length, including its tail. After the ray disappeared from view we turned north and hovered above the reef and gradually came up from 66 feet to around 50 feet. We arrived at a very structured area of coral with coral that ranged from 3 feet tall to 7 feet tall. It was easy to swim between the coral structures as we gradually made our way back north and then east to our exit point.
After an hour surface interval we had to haul the old tanks to the car to swap for the new tanks. We geared up and entered again via the beach. This time we went south first over the main reef and passed by one of a few mooring stations that are used by the boat charters. After exploring the main reef we immediately noticed a slightly larger eagle ray heading north, but this time we were only about 30 feet away from it. We descended to be closer to it and swam beside it and it continued to swim north and began to ascend towards the surface. We leisurely made our way along the south edge of the reef wall and we then turned the dive and headed east to shallower water. When we completed the dive we surfaced in a cove that was south of our entry/exit point. As the surf was pounding we dropped down to 5 feet and swam around the point and into a smaller cove which had a channel to the main beach cove. Once we made it back to the beach, my wife asked if I had seen the large moray eel in the channel area; I had obviously missed it. As we began to pack our stuff up we ran into a rather sketchy homeless guy who was rambling on about mental-illness, free-diving and visions, and on how he grew and sold pot and apparently clashed with the local community. We grabbed EVERYTHING and trekked back over the lava field to the car to go grab lunch as the guy was clearly a nutcase.
Next, we drove down to 2-step (place of refuge) again and dove in search of rare coral formations and archways. Unfortunately we got turned around and had a fairly shallow but lengthy dive. Fortunately along our 45 dive we encountered 3 different turtles; one of which was hovering serenely at 15 feet as yellow tangs and other fish nipped algae off of his back. Oddly enough none of the turtles seemed disturbed or concerned by our presence, so we hung out and watched them for a while. We proceeded to our exit point and as it was near time to return the tanks we headed back to town.
Two days later we had booked a 2-tank charter with Big Island Divers. There were 6 other divers on the boat with us. Our first stop was Aquarium and the excitement started right away. Those who were first in the water descended to see a tiger shark swiftly swimming away. My wife jumped in the water and started to descend to find that she was 4 feet from a bottle-nose dolphin. Once everyone had descended we swam along a wall that was mostly barren of coral and life. The divemaster apparently didnt find what he was looking for so we proceeded to the main reef area that had surprisingly good structure and some extremely large and active parrotfish. The divemaster broke up some coral and the parrotfish went crazy over it. There were some impressive rock formations which had small caves in them; we were able to shine a flashlight inside to see the fish hiding inside. I located a well hidden devil scorpionfish hidden between a rock and the sand. We were told to go back to the mooring line and do our safety stop when we each hit 500 psi, so those with better SAC rates would have more time to explore the dive site and not be encumbered by those who were novices.
After lunch and a 1 hour surface interval, we were taken to Kamanu. As the boat was tied to the mooring line, a whale surfaced and descended approximately 15 feet from the port side of the boat; needless to say it was a very impressive sight to see a large marine mammal up close in its natural environment. We all descended and the current was noticeable from the swells but not terribly bad. On this dive there were more interesting rock formations and I encountered a rare orange-mouthed lizardfish up close. We also found a dead crown jellyfish and encountered a moray eel holed up in a hole in a rock. Visibility was excellent and there was much to see on this dive as far as fish. On the boat we discovered that one of the divers was on the Island by himself and he wanted to do some shore diving. We invited him to join us for shore diving so he could dive without having to do it solo. We rented tanks and weight from Big Island Divers for the next day.
The very next morning we met Donnie at Puako the end of town. We found an entry point that we carried out gear down to gear up, then it was simple to swim out of this low-lying area into the ocean once the swell filled the entry point with water. Note that from this dive onwards I had ditched the use of my dive flag as it was too much of a pain to pull through the swell and kept getting tangled. I did however carry my 6-ft SMB and 150 ft finger spool if necessary to surface away from shore.
We headed straight out and found our entry point in what looked like a collapsed lava tubes. Visibility was alright at 100, there was a lot of sediment in the water, but it didnt prevent us from enjoying this dive. We could hear the whales talking off and on throughout this entire dive. There were colossal archways and impressive lava formations abounded at this entry point. We encountered 2 impressive starfish and as this was the first dive that I brought my camera on, I was able to get photos of them along with some fish, such as the rock-mover. The reef was so extensive that I doubt it could be fully explored with even 20 dives. Near the end of the dive we were in an opened area of a lava tube and we encountered 3 turtles. I was able to get a few photos of them as they werent skittish around us. Our max depth was 57 for this dive. Exit was not a piece of cake as the surf had picked up and we had to fight our way in to our entry point as it was the safest way out of the water.
We went to a dive shop and swapped tanks during our surface interval and then headed to Mahokona, which is further north than Puako. Mahokona is positioned at somewhat of a boat-launching area as there is a boat lift and ample parking. Entry is a giant stride that drops you 5 feet to the surface of the water below; it was deep enough to safely do a giant stride into the water. Immediately upon heading out there is debris from a wreck; a boiler, an engine with shaft and propeller still attached, a steering wheel, chain, and twisted-up metal. What was surprising to me was the condition of the reef and the sheer number of fish that exist at this site. Coral was overtaking every piece of debris that was down there; it was quite a site to see actually, you could barely make out the chain from the coral. The entire dive was loudly backfilled with whales singing; mixing the whales with the beautiful coral and numerous fish made this dive truly memorable. Max depth was 54 for this site. Exit was easy, just climb up the ladder near your entry point and there was a naturally hot-water faucet to rinse off with. Once out of the water we called it a day and rinsed off and headed back to Kona.
We decided to dive on our second day there and we went to Jacks to rent tanks and weight. We then arrived at Old Airport and started to gear up but the surf proved to be too high so we called it and decided to go to Mile-Marker 4 instead. This was a very shallow dive and entry/exit was somewhat difficult as there were many rocks to walk over with heavy gear. Once in the water we had to time putting on our fins to the surf. This was a very shallow dive and the coral and fish were abundant. This was my first attempt at towing around a dive flag and I had to fight it mostly the whole time. We never got deeper than 36 feet and we made it to the entrance to a lava-tube but didnt proceed through it due to swell-conditions. We ended the dive and went to grab lunch and fill the tanks. Due to the worsening swell conditions we decided to go to 2-Step (also known as Place of Refuge). What was surprising was the lack of surf and current. Entry was a giant stride off of a natural lava formation and was by far easier than entering over the typical lava rocks that we had previously encountered. This dive started shallow, but we navigated over the coral fields to the drop-off point of the reef. The reef steeply drops off to a sandy bottom starting at around 90; we kept our max depth this dive at 72 and traveled along the reef wall, again surrounded by numerous fish, large and small jutting in and out between coral fingers. We followed the wall until we encountered a ravine within the reef with a sandy area and followed the sandy area back to about 40 and then proceeded to navigate towards our exit point. At this point the dive flag line tangled around my fins and 1st stage; I gave the trouble sign and floated motionlessly while my wife untangled the line. At this point we say a very large sea turtle swimming right beside us in the opposite direction; we followed him a bit and then headed back towards our entry point and the water got progressively shallower, so we did our safety stop on the way to the exit. In order to properly exit you had to time the swell so that you would float on top of the entry rock and then you had to grab on to prevent getting dragged off of it with the surf. There were rock-boring urchins that had drilled nice hand-holds for this exit. This ended our first day of diving on the Big Island.
On our fifth day on the island we had to get back in the water. We rented 4 tanks the night before from Jacks so we could get an early start and try to get 4 dives in that day. We started out for Crescent Beach at around 7:30 in the morning. We hadnt a clue what we would be in for when we arrived. Crescent beach is located directly beside the Honokohau harbor and is actually one of the top boat diving sites in the area due to the extensive reef. The one gotcha with this dive site is that if you want to access it for a shore dive you have to haul your gear over an uneven and rocky trail that run across a lava field. It probably would have been easier to kayak to this site with our gear as that would avoid the painful trek across the lava field. Once we were geared up we entered at the south side of the beach and were able to put on our fins and head out. There was a current that had to be fought the entire way out of the shallows due to the ocean swells. Once we got to around 30 feet the current became decreased. As we made out way towards the west we were paralleling lava rock walls. After the rock walls the ocean opened up and we were in a colorful and vibrant coral field. At about 50 feet of depth we encountered another diver who appeared to be diving solo with a video camera, he flashed me the OK sign and I responded with OK. The reef drops down to a depth of 70 feet and is met by a sea of sand with small coral structures dotting the white sand. I immediately spied a larger than life spotted eagle ray, flying elegantly about 10 feet above the white sand. The cameraman turned to follow the eagle ray; Tina and I decided to parallel the eagle ray as it headed north. The ray was approximately 12 feet in length, including its tail. After the ray disappeared from view we turned north and hovered above the reef and gradually came up from 66 feet to around 50 feet. We arrived at a very structured area of coral with coral that ranged from 3 feet tall to 7 feet tall. It was easy to swim between the coral structures as we gradually made our way back north and then east to our exit point.
After an hour surface interval we had to haul the old tanks to the car to swap for the new tanks. We geared up and entered again via the beach. This time we went south first over the main reef and passed by one of a few mooring stations that are used by the boat charters. After exploring the main reef we immediately noticed a slightly larger eagle ray heading north, but this time we were only about 30 feet away from it. We descended to be closer to it and swam beside it and it continued to swim north and began to ascend towards the surface. We leisurely made our way along the south edge of the reef wall and we then turned the dive and headed east to shallower water. When we completed the dive we surfaced in a cove that was south of our entry/exit point. As the surf was pounding we dropped down to 5 feet and swam around the point and into a smaller cove which had a channel to the main beach cove. Once we made it back to the beach, my wife asked if I had seen the large moray eel in the channel area; I had obviously missed it. As we began to pack our stuff up we ran into a rather sketchy homeless guy who was rambling on about mental-illness, free-diving and visions, and on how he grew and sold pot and apparently clashed with the local community. We grabbed EVERYTHING and trekked back over the lava field to the car to go grab lunch as the guy was clearly a nutcase.
Next, we drove down to 2-step (place of refuge) again and dove in search of rare coral formations and archways. Unfortunately we got turned around and had a fairly shallow but lengthy dive. Fortunately along our 45 dive we encountered 3 different turtles; one of which was hovering serenely at 15 feet as yellow tangs and other fish nipped algae off of his back. Oddly enough none of the turtles seemed disturbed or concerned by our presence, so we hung out and watched them for a while. We proceeded to our exit point and as it was near time to return the tanks we headed back to town.
Two days later we had booked a 2-tank charter with Big Island Divers. There were 6 other divers on the boat with us. Our first stop was Aquarium and the excitement started right away. Those who were first in the water descended to see a tiger shark swiftly swimming away. My wife jumped in the water and started to descend to find that she was 4 feet from a bottle-nose dolphin. Once everyone had descended we swam along a wall that was mostly barren of coral and life. The divemaster apparently didnt find what he was looking for so we proceeded to the main reef area that had surprisingly good structure and some extremely large and active parrotfish. The divemaster broke up some coral and the parrotfish went crazy over it. There were some impressive rock formations which had small caves in them; we were able to shine a flashlight inside to see the fish hiding inside. I located a well hidden devil scorpionfish hidden between a rock and the sand. We were told to go back to the mooring line and do our safety stop when we each hit 500 psi, so those with better SAC rates would have more time to explore the dive site and not be encumbered by those who were novices.
After lunch and a 1 hour surface interval, we were taken to Kamanu. As the boat was tied to the mooring line, a whale surfaced and descended approximately 15 feet from the port side of the boat; needless to say it was a very impressive sight to see a large marine mammal up close in its natural environment. We all descended and the current was noticeable from the swells but not terribly bad. On this dive there were more interesting rock formations and I encountered a rare orange-mouthed lizardfish up close. We also found a dead crown jellyfish and encountered a moray eel holed up in a hole in a rock. Visibility was excellent and there was much to see on this dive as far as fish. On the boat we discovered that one of the divers was on the Island by himself and he wanted to do some shore diving. We invited him to join us for shore diving so he could dive without having to do it solo. We rented tanks and weight from Big Island Divers for the next day.
The very next morning we met Donnie at Puako the end of town. We found an entry point that we carried out gear down to gear up, then it was simple to swim out of this low-lying area into the ocean once the swell filled the entry point with water. Note that from this dive onwards I had ditched the use of my dive flag as it was too much of a pain to pull through the swell and kept getting tangled. I did however carry my 6-ft SMB and 150 ft finger spool if necessary to surface away from shore.
We headed straight out and found our entry point in what looked like a collapsed lava tubes. Visibility was alright at 100, there was a lot of sediment in the water, but it didnt prevent us from enjoying this dive. We could hear the whales talking off and on throughout this entire dive. There were colossal archways and impressive lava formations abounded at this entry point. We encountered 2 impressive starfish and as this was the first dive that I brought my camera on, I was able to get photos of them along with some fish, such as the rock-mover. The reef was so extensive that I doubt it could be fully explored with even 20 dives. Near the end of the dive we were in an opened area of a lava tube and we encountered 3 turtles. I was able to get a few photos of them as they werent skittish around us. Our max depth was 57 for this dive. Exit was not a piece of cake as the surf had picked up and we had to fight our way in to our entry point as it was the safest way out of the water.
We went to a dive shop and swapped tanks during our surface interval and then headed to Mahokona, which is further north than Puako. Mahokona is positioned at somewhat of a boat-launching area as there is a boat lift and ample parking. Entry is a giant stride that drops you 5 feet to the surface of the water below; it was deep enough to safely do a giant stride into the water. Immediately upon heading out there is debris from a wreck; a boiler, an engine with shaft and propeller still attached, a steering wheel, chain, and twisted-up metal. What was surprising to me was the condition of the reef and the sheer number of fish that exist at this site. Coral was overtaking every piece of debris that was down there; it was quite a site to see actually, you could barely make out the chain from the coral. The entire dive was loudly backfilled with whales singing; mixing the whales with the beautiful coral and numerous fish made this dive truly memorable. Max depth was 54 for this site. Exit was easy, just climb up the ladder near your entry point and there was a naturally hot-water faucet to rinse off with. Once out of the water we called it a day and rinsed off and headed back to Kona.
