Shark's Cove report 27Mar10

[kanonfodr]

I know a lot of peope have been on pins and needles, waiting for the North Shore to be open for diving and I'm proud to report it is!!! If you're fairly stupid. Found a break in the swell model so I scoped out the cove yesterday and liked what I saw, so made a plan to come back early this morning and give 'er a go before the tide really started coming in.

Well, that water is deceptive. There's a lot of movement underneath, even though the top is fairly flat. I took a right out of the cove towards the lava tubes and while it wasn't that rough in a few spots, for the most part it was pushing me around. Viz was a paltry (by Hawaiian standards) 35 ft, at it's best. Mostly 20-30. Lots of stuff in the water getting churned up.

Now for the good part: Plenty of fish hanging out all over the place. You name it I saw it. Nothing too big today; no sharks, octos, or eels. BUT there were whales outside the cove and on my return I heard them singing for a bit. Sweet!! Also, when I exited the water and parked my gear they were breaching and blowing, giving a good show for 10-15 minutes.

Moral of the story: DON'T GO!!! Unless you are an extremely competent diver or, in my case, not that bright, DON'T GO!!! We still need a few weeks for this current to finally start giving out. I managed only one dive today before the tide got high and things topside were getting really interesting. The current underneath made for more of a not-so-fun dive, when some snorklers asked me about it I told them to stay away from the deep blue water end.

Hope y'all enjoy the report, and I can't wait until conditions get a lot better at this site since I love it to death.

Peace,
Greg

 

[Diver Tim]

Gosh dang it, I was hoping for better news! Really looking forward to shore diving this year.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

This has been a very active winter for surf, one of the best by some measures, so it is not surprising that it is still too early in general. There are windows of opportunity on the North Shore of all Hawaiian Islands during the winter, although they rarely happen on weekends.

The max high tide in Hawaii is ~3' and that is not common; 2' is common. I have led hundreds of dives in Shark's Cove and made hundreds more by myself, and I have never looked at a tide chart for those dives. I do know of a killer North Shore dive site where tide is sometimes a factor, but it is not one anyone other than myself and some crazy hunters ever dives.

 

[kanonfodr]

Gosh dang it, I was hoping for better news! Really looking forward to shore diving this year.

Sorry to bear the news, man. Hopefully it will clear up within a month or so, but as Halemano stated it's been a very active winter for surf this year, enough for an opening of the Eddie. The best things we can do is keep checking the swell models and scoping out the site, diving it if we have a warm fuzzy.

Unfortunately, as halemano stated, those opportunities rarely fall on weekends. I've been looking at the surf forecasts a lot recently and they always are showing the calmest day as Monday. Son of a b***h.

Peace,
Greg

 

[vinegarbiscuit]

Damn! I'm so impatient for reliably favorable North Shore diving conditions, it's practically unbearable. Oh, for a full moon night dive at SC.

 

[scubadrewvideo]

I know a lot of peope have been on pins and needles, waiting for the North Shore to be open for diving and I'm proud to report it is!!! If you're fairly stupid. Found a break in the swell model so I scoped out the cove yesterday and liked what I saw, so made a plan to come back early this morning and give 'er a go before the tide really started coming in.

Well, that water is deceptive. There's a lot of movement underneath, even though the top is fairly flat. I took a right out of the cove towards the lava tubes and while it wasn't that rough in a few spots, for the most part it was pushing me around. Viz was a paltry (by Hawaiian standards) 35 ft, at it's best. Mostly 20-30. Lots of stuff in the water getting churned up.

Now for the good part: Plenty of fish hanging out all over the place. You name it I saw it. Nothing too big today; no sharks, octos, or eels. BUT there were whales outside the cove and on my return I heard them singing for a bit. Sweet!! Also, when I exited the water and parked my gear they were breaching and blowing, giving a good show for 10-15 minutes.

Moral of the story: DON'T GO!!! Unless you are an extremely competent diver or, in my case, not that bright, DON'T GO!!! We still need a few weeks for this current to finally start giving out. I managed only one dive today before the tide got high and things topside were getting really interesting. The current underneath made for more of a not-so-fun dive, when some snorklers asked me about it I told them to stay away from the deep blue water end.

Hope y'all enjoy the report, and I can't wait until conditions get a lot better at this site since I love it to death.

Peace,
Greg

I think I spoke to you guys on Saturday after you got out. We had the Conservation Outreach tent set up. Yes the cove can be deadly if you are not experienced diving it this time of year. It was good that you pointed out that the water underneath is not reflected by the surface conditions, especially with high tide swings as pointed out by Steve.

 

[Diver Tim]

I haven't been diving at Shark's Cove yet, but I did get a dive in at Firehouse last year, which is just up the road. I'm tired of having to rely on somebody else's boat (and schedule) to get any diving in, and it seems like the south shore is such a PITA to get anywhere good.

 

[kanonfodr]

I think I spoke to you guys on Saturday after you got out. We had the Conservation Outreach tent set up. Yes the cove can be deadly if you are not experienced diving it this time of year. It was good that you pointed out that the water underneath is not reflected by the surface conditions, especially with high tide swings as pointed out by Steve.

I don't think you spoke to us, we were out pretty early. Unless there was another pair of numbskulls out there going diving. I'm fairly ubiquitous on this island, I'm the only guy diving a DSS hog rig, with a huge steel tank on the back of my super-skinny butt. I've only seen one other DSS rig on this island, and he was visiting from Oregon.

But if you ever do see me, stop by and say hi.

Edit: Okay, I messed up. That day I was using one of my green AL80s. So either giant steel tanks or green AL80s. Mostly steel tanks, I'm still up in the air about what I'm going to do with the 80s. Also, I'm now diving with a bumble-bee colored hood, so between the DSS rig, X-Shorts, "definitely not rental" tanks, and now my uber-dork hood I'm unmistakeable. My next purchase will be yellow webbing for the hog rig, just so my hood will match something .

Peace,
Greg

 

[vinegarbiscuit]

I don't think you spoke to us, we were out pretty early. Unless there was another pair of numbskulls out there going diving. I'm fairly ubiquitous on this island, I'm the only guy diving a DSS hog rig, with a huge steel tank on the back of my super-skinny butt. I've only seen one other DSS rig on this island, and he was visiting from Oregon.

But if you ever do see me, stop by and say hi.

Edit: Okay, I messed up. That day I was using one of my green AL80s. So either giant steel tanks or green AL80s. Mostly steel tanks, I'm still up in the air about what I'm going to do with the 80s. Also, I'm now diving with a bumble-bee colored hood, so between the DSS rig, X-Shorts, "definitely not rental" tanks, and now my uber-dork hood I'm unmistakeable. My next purchase will be yellow webbing for the hog rig, just so my hood will match something .

Peace,
Greg

You have company on the DSS front! My fiance and I will be sure to keep a look-out for a bloke with a huge steel tank on the back of his super-skinny butt.

 

[jmcd16]

It wasn't just up on the North either. I checked the report when I went out this morning for my dive and didn't bother with the North Shore (although it's killing me that I haven't had a chance to dive Shark's Cove yet - just snorkel). We went to Hanauma Bay and the lifeguards wouldn't let us past the inner reef. I got stuck diving with the snorkelers! If I hadn't been so pumped to try out my new gear, I might have just gone home.

When will the surf be done already? I've had my fill of surfing for the season -- I'm ready to dive!