Sharks Cove (Oahu) Info

[mccabejc]

Does anyone know the depth of the sandy bottom at Shark's Cove, in the area right near the big cave on the left side (I guess it's the west) side of the cove?

The reason I ask is I was skindiving there the other day, and I want to know if it was deeper than 15 feet. I need to dive to 15 ft and put on a weight belt for a class I'm taking.

Thanks.

 

[bluemagoo]

Does anyone know the depth of the sandy bottom at Shark's Cove, in the area right near the big cave on the left side (I guess it's the west) side of the cove?

The reason I ask is I was skindiving there the other day, and I want to know if it was deeper than 15 feet. I need to dive to 15 ft and put on a weight belt for a class I'm taking.

Thanks.

Looking seaward (makai), from what I remember:
The large sandpatch in the center of the Cove, where most of the training goes on, goes from about 18ft to 30-35ft further out. The sandpatch on the Waimea Bay side (west) outside of the Cove is about the same; maybe a bit shallower. There's another sandpatch just off the shelf on the righthand, Sunset Beach side (east) which is 30-35ft.

There's a cave on the left/lagoon side? I remember some deep overhangs and a structure some people call the "Cathedral". The "real" caves are mostly on the right; there's a large cavern in the area of the far point, some dead-end tubes and deep overhangs along the base of the shelf, some swim-thru's under a large slab, a nothing arch, a very shallow swim-thru hidden back in the sharp limestone formations, and the infamous "toilet bowl" (people have died -- once, 3 Marines diving together) which has a double swim-thru, one shallow (exits high on the shelf, can't fit wearing a scuba tank) and one deep (exits at the base of the shelf, can just fit with a tank and can silt up bad). Inside of the cove, there's a sort-of chimney in a very large slab; you swim under the slab and up through a vertical hole in it.

Yep, that was me wearing the black&white Quiksilver rashguard shirt and with the wife and dog. Now see if my backside looks familiar in this pic posted in your other thread: http://www.scubaboard.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=20922

 

[mccabejc]

Yeah, what I call a cave is shown in the image below (I lifted it from Shorediving.com). I guess it's really an overhang, but you can get inside it and hear the cave breathing as water belches under the cutouts in the rock. Very cool. There was a long sand patch in front of it where I was diving to the bottom and seeing how long I could cruise along before I had to come up.

 

[bluemagoo]

Oooohhhh, I gotcha now... Yeah, that is a cave of sorts; more like a body-length tunnel connecting the lagoon with the cove. It's possible to swim through but you have to be ultra-careful with timing the surge to not get slammed into the roof or rolled over the bottom; a large breathable pocket of air forms inside when both openings get shut by a surge wave. It's about 12-15ft in that area; very popular spot to make the 10-12ft leap off the rocks.

The areas I was mentioning are almost all outside of the cove. Most of caves/tunnels/overhangs are just off the shelf in the the lower right corner of your provided pic. The "toilet bowl" is there too -- lots of fissures which hiss and belch with the surge; lots of small cowrie shells too (most empty, some with hermit crabs). Years ago, the tidepools there were full of life; many juvenile convict tangs (manini), butterfly's (raccoons, milletseeds, threadfins), silvery flagtails (a'holehole), sergent majors (mamo and kupipi), wrasses, rock skipper (pao'o) -- living aquariums. Now, sadly, the tidepools are usually deserted bowls.