Kona, hammerheads

[George Scherman]

Konaphiles,
Does anyone know where a good spot to go would be to get a glimpse of hammerheads in late November? Also do you know if any dive operators go to 3 room cave south of Cap'n Cook? Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[friscuba]

Konaphiles,
Does anyone know where a good spot to go would be to get a glimpse of hammerheads in late November? Also do you know if any dive operators go to 3 room cave south of Cap'n Cook? Thanks for any help you can offer.

November's a possibility, it seems the we tend to see them (usually the Kaiwi point area) in town most often in the months clustered around January/February. On occasion they are seen way south, say like on your long range 3 room cavern trip, during other parts of the year.

Any of the dive ops which have "long range" three tank dives usually make it down to Au Au crater and 3 room cavern as part of the trip.

Happy diving

 

[gkndivebum]

I've seen hammerheads several times at Ule Pinnacle (south of Au Au)

 

[friscuba]

How is the pinnacle as a dive? I'm thinking about making are fun run down that way for the pinnacle and the Hive one of these days.

Later,

Steve

I've seen hammerheads several times at Ule Pinnacle (south of Au Au)

 

[saildiver]

Konaphiles,
Does anyone know where a good spot to go would be to get a glimpse of hammerheads in late November? Also do you know if any dive operators go to 3 room cave south of Cap'n Cook? Thanks for any help you can offer.

Aloha George-I saw the school of hammerheads(about 300) in 73 or 74 while diving from a boat a few miles south of Milolii-I'm not sure that anyone has ever believed me before! I think they were mating. Sorry but I can't remember the exact month they were seen-but I'm pretty sure it was in the coldest half of the year-prob. Nov. Feb. or Mar..The huge upwelling currents,and high density if fish to eat near south point is probably why they are in this area. In diving,researching and mapping most of the kona coast back then,thats the only place I saw schools of hammerheads. I have seen solitary great hammerheads,but usually in southern kona as well. Let me kmow if you find them....peace...Saildiver.

 

[friscuba]

About 3 februarys ago, a school came by the Golden Arches dive site on the north end of Pine Trees near the airport. I haven't actually seen the picture, but I have a friend who took a shot and they could count something like 68 hammerheads in the photo. She guestimated there were 90-100 in the school.

I hear about seeing groups (not as big as the one mentioned off town) on occasion down south, say in the Hookena - Milolii stretch, on occasion.

They're out there. Not finding them could probably just be a matter of so few boats on the water in that stretch on any given day .

later,

Steve

Aloha George-I saw the school of hammerheads(about 300) in 73 or 74 while diving from a boat a few miles south of Milolii-I'm not sure that anyone has ever believed me before! I think they were mating. Sorry but I can't remember the exact month they were seen-but I'm pretty sure it was in the coldest half of the year-prob. Nov. Feb. or Mar..The huge upwelling currents,and high density if fish to eat near south point is probably why they are in this area. In diving,researching and mapping most of the kona coast back then,thats the only place I saw schools of hammerheads. I have seen solitary great hammerheads,but usually in southern kona as well. Let me kmow if you find them....peace...Saildiver.

 

[gkndivebum]

How is the pinnacle as a dive? I'm thinking about making are fun run down that way for the pinnacle and the Hive one of these days.

Hey Steve --

Sorry for the long delay in replying; thank {$DEITY} that the Kona Classic is finally over.
I've been keeping track of two photographers all week, and it seems like they were never
closer than 100 yards apart and often deeper than 90 FSW. Sigh.

Anyway. Ule Pinnacle. My favorite dive site here in Kona. The pinnacle itself is in fairly
shallow and surgey water, but there are usually tons of fish around it. The best part IMHO
is the canyon just to the south of the pinnacle. There's a mooring pin in 52 FSW on the
south rim of the canyon. Unless you're a really good freediver you'll need to set it on scuba.

The canyon is the shape of a horse shoe, with the open end of the shoe pointing seaward
and down. This is a deep dive, and by deep I mean DEEP. Au Au? Peh.

I've not been past 165 FSW here, but oh man does it keep going and going. The first time
we made a trimix dive here we limited our depth to 165 (we were making multiple dives that
day and had to limit our O2 exposure); the dive team got down to our target depth and all 3
of us looked at ach other with that "S**t! We brought the wrong gas" look, as we looked
longingly below us ...

The most interesting part of the dive site within recreational limits is the shelf on the south
side of the horse shoe at about 85-90 FSW. There's a bunch of black coral and wire corals
growing under the shelf. I've also had 100% success finding Tinker's here - every single
dive - if you're calm enough they'll hang out with you as shallow as 80 FSW so you can
get some good pictures. I've also had good luck finding Bandit Angels here.

Did a dive there yesterday morning. Two teams - one deepish (150 FSW, 21/35 trimix),
one within recreational limits (EAN32, 30/30 trimix). Loads of Tinkers, a bandit, a Fellow's
Nudibranch (Hoover's, p172) under the mooring pin. Speaking of which (the mooring pin),
we installed a marker (aka bleach bottle) so it's easier to find. Don't tie up to it -- the line
isn't that strong...

The hammerheads seem to hang out shallow (20-30 FSW) here. It's an awesome sight to
look up from the depths in the canyon to see them silhouetted above you ...

Sometimes there can be current outside the edges of the canyon, so it's best to stay in the
lee of the canyon walls. The inshore side of the walls starts at about 40 FSW and drops
quickly to 100 FSW, where it plunges vertically to at least 200 FSW. Someday I'll find out
where it ends (maybe!).

 

[gkndivebum]

How is the pinnacle as a dive? I'm thinking about making are fun run down that way for the pinnacle and the Hive one of these days.

I forgot to mention The Hive. Another cool dive. It's mostly shallow and surgey, though
there is a pretty good dropoff. I have always stayed shallower than 80 FSW at this site.
The most interesting feature at the site are the nearshore caverns and arches. Bring a
light -- lots of lobsters and nudibranchs. There's a lot of near-shore surge, so taking
pictures can be tricky, but on a calm day you can get one of those
"divers-silhouetted-in-caverns photos" that look really cool :dazzler1:

There are some pinnacles outside the entrance to the caverns; there's a mooring pin in
about 75 FSW. I've only found it once. Usually we just give up and drop a hook into
a rubble patch ...

We were going to dive The Hive yesterday, but the Coast Guard boarded us on our
way out of the harbor and wasted 2 hours of our time, so we had to bag one of our
planned dives. Grumble. But that's another story.

 

[George Scherman]

Thanks, everyone for the great info. GKN you have really got me excited about the pinnacle.

 

[friscuba]

Thanks, everyone for the great info. GKN you have really got me excited about the pinnacle.

One suggestion on the Pinnacle, don't get too excited about any one dive site. On a cautionary note, prior to doing that one you might want to get some more deep and current related experience first.

It's apparently a deeper dive than Au-Au, therefore more tempting to many. Many people often attempt dives which are beyond their experience levels.

I'll share a couple of stories.

I have an old aquaintance who's worked for years for one of the highly regarded dive ops mentioned here frequently who I called when I was going on my first trip to Maui after moving here. I asked him about the backside of Molokini as a dive - since I was in the biz, he said it's a nice dive, but a significant portion of the people who request it shouldn't be doing that dive - a lot of people with a couple dozen dives and a AOW card and not all that much experience with depths and drift diving request it. Causes trouble sometimes. He said it was a hard dive to manage.

From personal experience, going to AU-AU with other operators a few years back, probably 20% of the people on those charters had no business being there. Thank goodnes I wasn't working, it's kind of scary hearing the DM's say in the briefing that the depth limit was 130' and then watch roughly half the group heading down to 170' or more with the DMs having to repeateldy chase and plead with people to come up. I've seen relatively new divers going into deco on each trip I've gone down there. A couple of them have complained about headaches later in the day. Not good.

That being said, you may very well be capable of the dive, get comfortable with the DMs at whatever dive op you go out with and sign up for the advanced stuff later. I only say this because I get relatively inexperienced divers, even those who've never even done an ocean dive, asking for the best most advanced dive we offer, 'cause that's the dive they want to do. When I get that question, I give purposely vague answers. There's lots of great dives here, some should only be done after building up to it.

Have fun,