Fishhy
Contributor
I just got back from an amazing family vacation to Kauai for 12 nights. While things are opening up, we had some challenges, mostly with restaurants with our large group of 18.
I planned three dive trips while I was there, One local reefs, one dusk/night dive at Koloa landing, and one big 3 tank trip over to Lehua rock off the coast of the "forbidden" island of Ni'ihau.
Sadly the night dive was cancelled due to a southern wind that blew it out.
The 2 tank local dives were great and full of turtles.
The bucket list trip was to Ni'ihau.
I chose Bubbles Below based on my readings in a scuba magazine recently and because of the proximity to where I was staying.
The boat was adequate (maybe a bit small) for the 2 hour trek to Ni'ihau, but it was a great experience.
The captain and crew were first rate and took care of setting up my gear and changing over my tanks between dives. They take your gear off as soon as you are out of the water, so you don't have to stumble back to a seat with all your gear on.
The trip included lots of delicious food and snacks, and while I brought all my gear, they had Atomic regulators and scuba pro gear for rent.
It's been over 20 years since I last dove in Kauai, and I did a resort dive up in Princeville... Other than that, my ocean diving has been all in Key Largo. Quite a different view with very little soft coral and a lot more hard coral than Key Largo; but the star of the show for the day was definitely the monk seals.
As soon as we hooked the mooring ball, we had multiple seals come visit close to the boat. I had to keep reminding myself that these were huge wild animals that could tear me up, even though they looked like giant Labradors!
I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of fish on the reefs (not really seen in this video, still working on the "other critters" from the day).
On the way back we heard a spearfishing free-diver was missing from close to our port (Port Alan) from "Glass Beach" . Last I heard, they found his gear, but no sign of him
There aren't many local breweries on the island, but we did manage to find one right by the port called "Kauai Island Brewery & Grill" which had great food and beer!
While it was a 3 tank dive with lots of awesome stuff to see, so far I've only had time to edit down one video. I focused on the interactions with the monk seals. Hopefully I can post the others oon, but for now, here you go!
I planned three dive trips while I was there, One local reefs, one dusk/night dive at Koloa landing, and one big 3 tank trip over to Lehua rock off the coast of the "forbidden" island of Ni'ihau.
Sadly the night dive was cancelled due to a southern wind that blew it out.
The 2 tank local dives were great and full of turtles.
The bucket list trip was to Ni'ihau.
I chose Bubbles Below based on my readings in a scuba magazine recently and because of the proximity to where I was staying.
The boat was adequate (maybe a bit small) for the 2 hour trek to Ni'ihau, but it was a great experience.
The captain and crew were first rate and took care of setting up my gear and changing over my tanks between dives. They take your gear off as soon as you are out of the water, so you don't have to stumble back to a seat with all your gear on.
The trip included lots of delicious food and snacks, and while I brought all my gear, they had Atomic regulators and scuba pro gear for rent.
It's been over 20 years since I last dove in Kauai, and I did a resort dive up in Princeville... Other than that, my ocean diving has been all in Key Largo. Quite a different view with very little soft coral and a lot more hard coral than Key Largo; but the star of the show for the day was definitely the monk seals.
As soon as we hooked the mooring ball, we had multiple seals come visit close to the boat. I had to keep reminding myself that these were huge wild animals that could tear me up, even though they looked like giant Labradors!
I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of fish on the reefs (not really seen in this video, still working on the "other critters" from the day).
On the way back we heard a spearfishing free-diver was missing from close to our port (Port Alan) from "Glass Beach" . Last I heard, they found his gear, but no sign of him
There aren't many local breweries on the island, but we did manage to find one right by the port called "Kauai Island Brewery & Grill" which had great food and beer!
While it was a 3 tank dive with lots of awesome stuff to see, so far I've only had time to edit down one video. I focused on the interactions with the monk seals. Hopefully I can post the others oon, but for now, here you go!
