Kayak Diving Maui

[howard4113]

We tried our new dive kayak yesterday. Weather was too rough on most of the island - but old airport beach was OK. Saw way more divers there than usual! We added a couple of outriggers to the kayak for stability. They work great - no chance of tipping. They'll extend out another foot too - just pull the pin and reset. Lashing the center down is a pain - need to work out something more elegant there.
The wind was fierce - so we tied up to a mooring ball close to shore (yea we probably shouldn't do that - tough). There was a ton of current - especially close to the surface. I think Dave went "overboard" on the anchor line - he got 3/8" instead of 3/16". I thought it would be OK - but the current puts a great deal of pull (drag) on the anchor! The line was actually vibrating. He got a tiny ocean kayak anchor - 1#. http://oceankayak.stores.yahoo.net/foldinganchor.html . We put a couple of feet of chain on it - and a #3 dive weight to keep it from lifting and it holds surprisingly well in the sand (once a prong hits some rock..). It took forever to get in the water and forever to get packed up again. Part of this was discovering how to do things - but a lot of it was packing things in the kayak, assembling the gear on the boat, break down and packing back to the vehicle. Next time, we'll assemble the scuba gear and put it in that way. It's a lot easier to transport this stuff assembled. Takes a long time to assemble/disassemble in the water due to concerns about dropping stuff over the side!
All in all a great success. I'm looking forward to better weather next weekend.
More pix on my web site http://www.msh-co.com/maui_diving/DiveKayak/index.html

Mark

 

[Samalolo]

That is very cool. I would actually prefer to be tied up to a mooring ball instead of anchoring. I thought moorings were for anyone who wanted to tie up to them, including kayaks.
We went Kayak Manta Snorkeling a few weeks ago as warm-up to eventually doing some kayak diving. We used (4) two pound weights tied together as an anchor (too much weight), We huli'd (flipped over) once and dropped our lights .. this was at night. We did get to see some Mantas though

How do you have your outriggers attached to the Kayak? And did they get in the way at all during paddling?

Aloha,
Sam

 

[kidspot]

That was YOU! I saw you coming ashore - just as a friend and I were going out snorkeling ... lol didn't recognize you, but I remember that kayak. How funny.

The outriggers look like a good idea.

Saw you putting it away after we got out of the water, but without my glasses on I didn't have a chance recognizing you. Next time I'll know

Aloha, Tim

 

[scubaboy_mark]

Mark you have all the cool toys! We can't wait until next week!

 

[tankboygreg]

We tried our new dive kayak yesterday. Weather was too rough on most of the island - but old airport beach was OK. Saw way more divers there than usual! We added a couple of outriggers to the kayak for stability. They work great - no chance of tipping. They'll extend out another foot too - just pull the pin and reset. Lashing the center down is a pain - need to work out something more elegant there.

That's what I needed on my old Royak! That thing was built like a torpedo. It was great for ploughing through the ocean and rough water and it was designed for diving. This was in the days before back inflation. I had to put my tank on while sitting in the thing. It was also pain to get back into after a dive. It would have been nice to have been able to deploy an outrigger.

BTW, they still make Royaks. The design has changed somewhat though. The bottom looks flatter so it's probably more stable now. There were also two compartments and not just one as pictured.