DukeAMO
Contributor
Jack's Diving Locker, Kona:
This is a first-rate operation. Nice shop, nice boats with plenty of room to move around and tasty snacks, helpful instructors and crew, excellent gear. My only feedback to them is that on both days we showed up right when they told us to, and had to wait around about 15 minutes while they helped shop customers, and then we were running late. They should just tell people to arrive 15 minutes earlier than they do.
May 4th:
DH and I decided to do the Manta Ray Specialty class and two dives with Keller Laros. He's a true expert on Manta Rays, and also fun to be around. He has over 10,000 logged dives! We did some reading up on mantas ahead of time, with an e-book he sent to us. At the shop, he spent some time going through the class material with us and sharing some of his manta stories. We learned about the rays' life cycle, physiology, behavior, habitat, how to identify the sexes and individuals, and a few of their names. Keller's enthusiasm is obvious. We took our written tests and got our gear ready for diving.
Evening dive - Garden Eel Cove
Visibility: 100+ feet, Bottom temperature: 79 degrees, Nitrox
Boat dive, tiny waves, some surge
Max depth 81 feet, multilevel, 33 minutes
For us, this was an easy "shake out" dive to get back into the water and work out the kinks. We did weight checks and so on. Once underwater, we went to check out the garden eels on the sand flats for a few minutes, and played around with our GoPro settings a bit. There was a flounder on the sand flats too. Higher up on the reef, we saw plenty of nice Hawaiian coral and reef fish (butterfly fish, long-nosed butterfly fish, yellow and black tang, parrot fish, angelfish); many urchins; two manta rays gliding above us, near the surface; and a large green moray eel. We also checked out the "fire pit" ring of stones where the night dive would be held. John & I reached our ascent PSI first, so we had a shorter dive than some. We spent our surface interval on the boat, chatting and snacking while we waited for darkness.
Manta ray night dive - Garden Eel Cove
Visibility: 75+ feet, Bottom temperature: 79 degrees, Nitrox
Boat dive, tiny waves, significant surge
Max depth 37 feet, multilevel, 50 minutes
Some words to describe this dive: epic, magical, amazing, heavenly. We could see mantas from the boat, even before we got into the water. Keller identified 17 different mantas, and at times we could see 8 or 9 at once. We also had a close encounter with a hawksbill turtle right after we arrived at the "fire pit" area. The manta rays are huge (many are 10-12 feet across) but so graceful, and they swam within a few inches of us, over & over again. We could clearly see into their mouths, or the detail on their gills. We recognized a few of the individuals we learned about in class. I had trouble staying stable with the surge, so my videos are not great, but we did get a bit of video for the folks at home. After about a half-hour with the mantas at the "fire pit", we toured around the reef for a while, until it was time to head up. This was quite possibly our best dive ever.
May 5th:
We decided to do the Pelagic Magic black water dive. Before leaving the shop, we had a thorough briefing (really more like a class) from our instructor (and shop owner) Jeff Leicher. He has more than 15,000 logged dives! He taught us about the setup of the black water drift dive, how to safely use the equipment (tethers and lights), the ecology of the deep ocean where we would be diving, and the deep water and pelagic creatures we would see. We got our gear ready and took a boat ride out about 2-3 miles. In the course of the dive it's not unusual to drift 2-3 miles, but you can't feel it because the boat, divers, and sea life are all drifting together. There were six of us tethered to 50ft drop lines with 8ft tethers, plus Jeff with his video rig, not on a tether. The depth of the water is a few thousand feet, which naturally is a little unnerving at first, but you soon forget about it.
Pelagic Magic black water night dive - 2-3 miles off the Kona coast
Visibility: 50 feet, Bottom temperature: 79 degrees, Nitrox
Boat dive, small waves, drift dive
Max depth 43 feet, multilevel, 53 minutes
This dive is trippy and unique. It was dreamlike. Most of the sea life we saw was small and transparent, but these creatures reflect light, so they are shiny or even prismatic and sparkly in the lights. They move in strange ways too. Some squish along like jelly fish, others spiral through the water, some swim like shrimp or fish, and others move like worms or gnats. We saw larval octopi, lobsters, crabs, and fish, as well as many creatures not usually seen on the shallow reefs in the daylight, such as salps, pyrosomes, siphonophores, squid, pelagic shrimp, venus girdles, and several types of jellyfish, including comb jellies. We floated along and looked at shiny things. We never had to wait too long before finding the next interesting thing to look at. It was very relaxing, actually.
Ah, I do so love night dives!
This is a first-rate operation. Nice shop, nice boats with plenty of room to move around and tasty snacks, helpful instructors and crew, excellent gear. My only feedback to them is that on both days we showed up right when they told us to, and had to wait around about 15 minutes while they helped shop customers, and then we were running late. They should just tell people to arrive 15 minutes earlier than they do.
May 4th:
DH and I decided to do the Manta Ray Specialty class and two dives with Keller Laros. He's a true expert on Manta Rays, and also fun to be around. He has over 10,000 logged dives! We did some reading up on mantas ahead of time, with an e-book he sent to us. At the shop, he spent some time going through the class material with us and sharing some of his manta stories. We learned about the rays' life cycle, physiology, behavior, habitat, how to identify the sexes and individuals, and a few of their names. Keller's enthusiasm is obvious. We took our written tests and got our gear ready for diving.
Evening dive - Garden Eel Cove
Visibility: 100+ feet, Bottom temperature: 79 degrees, Nitrox
Boat dive, tiny waves, some surge
Max depth 81 feet, multilevel, 33 minutes
For us, this was an easy "shake out" dive to get back into the water and work out the kinks. We did weight checks and so on. Once underwater, we went to check out the garden eels on the sand flats for a few minutes, and played around with our GoPro settings a bit. There was a flounder on the sand flats too. Higher up on the reef, we saw plenty of nice Hawaiian coral and reef fish (butterfly fish, long-nosed butterfly fish, yellow and black tang, parrot fish, angelfish); many urchins; two manta rays gliding above us, near the surface; and a large green moray eel. We also checked out the "fire pit" ring of stones where the night dive would be held. John & I reached our ascent PSI first, so we had a shorter dive than some. We spent our surface interval on the boat, chatting and snacking while we waited for darkness.
Manta ray night dive - Garden Eel Cove
Visibility: 75+ feet, Bottom temperature: 79 degrees, Nitrox
Boat dive, tiny waves, significant surge
Max depth 37 feet, multilevel, 50 minutes
Some words to describe this dive: epic, magical, amazing, heavenly. We could see mantas from the boat, even before we got into the water. Keller identified 17 different mantas, and at times we could see 8 or 9 at once. We also had a close encounter with a hawksbill turtle right after we arrived at the "fire pit" area. The manta rays are huge (many are 10-12 feet across) but so graceful, and they swam within a few inches of us, over & over again. We could clearly see into their mouths, or the detail on their gills. We recognized a few of the individuals we learned about in class. I had trouble staying stable with the surge, so my videos are not great, but we did get a bit of video for the folks at home. After about a half-hour with the mantas at the "fire pit", we toured around the reef for a while, until it was time to head up. This was quite possibly our best dive ever.
May 5th:
We decided to do the Pelagic Magic black water dive. Before leaving the shop, we had a thorough briefing (really more like a class) from our instructor (and shop owner) Jeff Leicher. He has more than 15,000 logged dives! He taught us about the setup of the black water drift dive, how to safely use the equipment (tethers and lights), the ecology of the deep ocean where we would be diving, and the deep water and pelagic creatures we would see. We got our gear ready and took a boat ride out about 2-3 miles. In the course of the dive it's not unusual to drift 2-3 miles, but you can't feel it because the boat, divers, and sea life are all drifting together. There were six of us tethered to 50ft drop lines with 8ft tethers, plus Jeff with his video rig, not on a tether. The depth of the water is a few thousand feet, which naturally is a little unnerving at first, but you soon forget about it.
Pelagic Magic black water night dive - 2-3 miles off the Kona coast
Visibility: 50 feet, Bottom temperature: 79 degrees, Nitrox
Boat dive, small waves, drift dive
Max depth 43 feet, multilevel, 53 minutes
This dive is trippy and unique. It was dreamlike. Most of the sea life we saw was small and transparent, but these creatures reflect light, so they are shiny or even prismatic and sparkly in the lights. They move in strange ways too. Some squish along like jelly fish, others spiral through the water, some swim like shrimp or fish, and others move like worms or gnats. We saw larval octopi, lobsters, crabs, and fish, as well as many creatures not usually seen on the shallow reefs in the daylight, such as salps, pyrosomes, siphonophores, squid, pelagic shrimp, venus girdles, and several types of jellyfish, including comb jellies. We floated along and looked at shiny things. We never had to wait too long before finding the next interesting thing to look at. It was very relaxing, actually.
Ah, I do so love night dives!
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