Foodland Kayak Scooter Dive

[MauiScubaSteve]

Conditions were close to perfect Saturday afternoon, so I loaded up for the long drive across the street.

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My parking spot / launch location is a stones throw over the trees, on line with the truck's back windows.

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Trailering today; paddling to and fro w/ gear on & Scooter in front kinda sucks. Heading pretty much straight out searching for moorings; there are at least 3.

Early in me not having any luck finding the mooring I've been to twice by dive boat and scootered past at least twice (but never surfaced), the Four Winds II motors past me to what the 'hand called "probably the deep ball" and pointed back to the East-ish saying another was "maybe 100-200 yards that-a-way."

Surprisingly soon I was tied off over a quarter mile from my kayak launch point, to another "new to me" mooring. After three splashes, I dropped to nearly the bottom of the 26 foot deep sand channel. Continuing on the same bearing taken from shore, it was only 13 minutes to the drop off at the end of the coral covered lava fingers; ~ half the time and air as scootering the whole way from shore.

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So, I have heard mention of "Foodland" out some where "off Olowalu" and I like that name for this spot. There is a pretty old Ghost Net snagged at 75-80' where I regularly see big Barracuda and once a big Ulua.

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I'm pretty green at this video stuff so it is just P&S, the deeper the bluer; but I still think it looks cool in full screen mode with the stretch ON! Here's the Ulua from a couple weeks ago, with just a flash of 'Cuda ...

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So now with the kayaks so close, I can run my tank down to less than 1200 before heading back, but I still pretty much followed a "boat briefing" always keeping ndl time above 5 min. Back in the neighborhood of the mooring (26' deep sand) I play around the 20' reef tops for a few minutes, then SS while searching for the mooring; gently finning the mostly dead scooter until deciding to surface with 500 psi, less than 20 yards from the yaks.

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70 minute dive, 86 foot max depth, 3.5 hours shore to shore. At least 20 minutes futzing around after the dive taking line up pics. My truck parking spot is right at the left edge of the water line.

Great way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Looks like paradise to me, the cuda looks good size, do they get bigger, and is it good eating. The area looks like a great playground for a diver, I could spend many of hours there, is there a drop off, or just gradual to a few hundred feet or so.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

The fish ID sites / books mostly say great barracuda grow to about 6' and the one in the video is about 5'. Here is a nearshore Wailea scooter encounter that I think was over 5' and over 100 lbs.

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Hawaii Skin Diver magazine lists the HSD record as 73.2 lbs, back in '01 off the Honolulu Airport's Reef Runway. HSD records are "human powered breath hold spearing" records.

Ciguatera is more likely in the older reef predators, but my very dry local chef landloard says "young kaku" is delicious.

At around a half mile off shore the reef drops from 60-ish to 100-ish, ending at the edge of Kanaloa's halimeda covered sand, and I have scootered out a couple minutes at 110' and the bottom was at least 150' deep. Maui Nui is the term for the 4 Islands of Maui County, which at on time was theoretically one Island. Max depth between the Islands is only ~300'; the most dramatic drop off is the backside of Molokini, which goes to 300' in very little horizontal distance. I just moved to Olowalu 5 weeks ago, and also just bought my own scooters, so I am still in the initial exploration stage.

Olowalu, HI - Google Maps

The above map link actually shows the Four Winds II (imo) on the "deep ball" and the ball I used Saturday is ~ 200 m East (1/4 of the way to the "East" boat). That other boat is likely beyond the ball I have prior experience with, anchored. According to this, my Saturday mooring is nearly 600 m off my launch, and these new Google images actually show all the way to the end of the coral, which on my Saturday heading is at least another 600 m; so ~1200 m off my launch.

My next kayak investigations will be SW from the deep ball, where the drop off seems closer. There are also medium deep sand pockets in the coral, with the one equal distant from the two boats having a 69' deep "rim" (69 foot hole). Google Maps shows a darker blue hole (deeper than 70'?) ESE of the East boat, and relatively close to shore, that is also now on my investigation list!

The craziest rumor I've heard is that there is a humpback whale, back scratching wall somewhere off Olowalu, where you can find pieces of whale skin.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Ok your on what I say the inside not near costco side of Island. The cuda in vid did not look narrow like the last post pic ypou put up, so I thought id might have been a different cuda, yet same family.

5 weeks, lots of exploring to do at your new residence.

The gray whales turn the sand up, to get the sand shrimp up for a gulp, maybe the hump is creating a disturbance on the wall for a little taste.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Here is the best vid I have of my new Barracuda dive buddy; he is definitely a same ocean buddy.

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I am pretty jazzed by my new front yard; camera battery on charger for the "deeper hole" exploration run as soon as the light is green!

 

[justleesa]

OH, did I miss you moved? to a different part of Maui?
Did you take the footage with your Canon S95?

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Yes I moved out of Kihei in August, to Olowalu, which is pretty much the East-est one can live on the West Side of Maui.

Yes, I have not been taking my strobe on the new home dive site scooter exploration runs, and I have been shooting a lot of video with the S95.

Here's something shallow ...

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Nice having a Mac; really easy for the clueless!

 

[Shaka Doug]

Cool bro, where you living now?

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

If only the Honopiilani Hwy had the half mile markers like Hana Hwy now has.

I'm at mile 14.5; half a mile from the Tiger Shark sign.