Electric Beach 11-06-04

[roguediver]

Nice weather for change, so me and my dive buddy made up our minds to get wet one way or the other. Surf report was good so we headed down to Electric Beach. When we got their there was not a lot of people there, so we started gearing up and a few cars came in full of locals. One came up to us and asked for some change to make a phone call so his mom can bring him some gas for his car because he had ran out. We gave him the change and he made his call. I told my buddy that he had been looking at all or gear and that I did not feel good about leaving it in the cab and know one to watch it, so we were going to just leave which to me was just sad, not being able to trust people because of thevies. As we were getting ready to leave a car pulled in and four people got out, a lady, I forget her name asked if we were going or getting done. I told her we had not dove and that we were going to leave. She asked why with a look of concern on her face. I told her we just did not fill good about leaving our car hear without any one looking out for it, and told her why. An older man that was her father said he and his wife were not diving and was going to watch there car and would be happy to look after ours as well. Great, dive on again. The lady asked about the Tiger that is said to hang out around the end of the pipe, and asked if I have ever seen it. I told her that I had not, and that I have never seen any sharks at all at this site, which made her happy. She told me that it had been a few years from when she had last dove and was wondering if they (her and her husband) could tag along with us. I said that would be fine that we were not going to stay long, and the vis looked real bad anyway. I did not know how bad it was until we got into the water. As we were walking to to the water I saw our out of gas buddy get into his car and leave, along with another car that had came in with him. The vis was real bad, I would say 12-15 feet at the most. I did see two green sea turtles which is always a good thing. Is the vis going to stay like this for the next few months or or so? And is there any other beach dives that offer better vis around the island? Thanks.

 

[Turtleguy9]

Aloha Rogue Dive
If the rains slow down for a bit, the vis will be back to normal. I dove the YO-257 today 11-07-04, and the vis was over 90 feet, horizontal. There was a surface runoff layer about 15 feet deep, of dirty colder water on top. Also did Kewalo Pipe in the afternoon, it had a dirty layer about 20 feet thick on top, bottom vis was about 40 feet horizontal. we are just experiencing the effects of the runoff from all the streams.
Turtleguy

 

[bluemagoo]

Right on instincts; those guys had you in the bullseye for a ripoff.

Pelagics do come in close at Electric Beach and nearby Kahe Park. They seem to be attracted by the broken reef topography and the baitfish around the warmwater discharge from the powerplant. There was a nasty incident there with a very large tiger (estimated 14ft+) back in 1988-89; I saw some of the aftermath. There're beens tales of a resident tiger cruising the coast for generations but it's hard to confirm; they do frequent that coast however. Just keep situational awareness (beat feet if the fish start acting odd) and never go in when the viz is cruddy or there's runoff/trash in the water. Personally, my warning array goes full active whenever I see turtles or dolphins; they're prey.

The viz should clear after a week of good weather.

 

[chepar]

If the rains slow down for a bit, the vis will be back to normal. I dove the YO-257 today 11-07-04, and the vis was over 90 feet, horizontal. There was a surface runoff layer about 15 feet deep, of dirty colder water on top. Also did Kewalo Pipe in the afternoon, it had a dirty layer about 20 feet thick on top, bottom vis was about 40 feet horizontal. we are just experiencing the effects of the runoff from all the streams.

Yup, whenever it's been rainy the vis close to shore is bad. You'll have to get further out (boat dive) for it to be decent.

You have to watch out at Electric Beach - the area is pretty dicey now as far as the number of car break ins and theft. Used to be that there were a bunch of locals that pretty much lived at the pavilion - and if you were a regular and got to know them, they would kind of keep an eye out on your stuff and your car. Since they've been chased away, the drug activity in the area has increased a lot. I know several people that won't dive there unless they have someone on shore watching the car for them.

 

[roguediver]

If not for the old man offering to watch or truck, we would not have dove. There is a car over in the corner of the parking lot, that has people living in it. Thats where the other cars went to when they came into the lot.

I would love to do some boat dives but just do not have the money right now. But I had to get wet, I dive the rivers back home so im use to have low or no vis. However in the river I do not have to worry about a 15ft tiger shark. I have only done one boat dive here, and it was on the sea tiger, and the pipe. Night dives. They were great, and can not wait to dive some of the others.

Jeff

 

[SteveDiver]

We went two days ago and the vis was excellent. A little rough entry but it was worth it! We saw many seat turtles....

 

[roguediver]

Thats good news Im going to try and go there today.