Kona, HI Dive Report for my SoCal Buddies

[Diver_Jan]

Aloha my friends!

I am sorry to hear that you all are having rain. Our rain here has ceased for the moment enabling me to do four boat dives today from Kona, Hawaii!!!

Dive #1: Kaiwi Cove

Surf: 0

Swells: 0

Surge: 0

Viz: ENDLESS

Water Temp: 72 degrees at depth

Time: 50' for 104" (I came back with 1250 PSI)

Bountiful colorful coral reefs; tons of tropical fish not native to California (I will post names later, for I am learning them); lave tubes and arches (swim throughs).

Dive #2 Pyrmid Pinnacle 61' for 103"

Ditto to the above info with the exception of a variety of some really cool eels in all shapes and sizes! Also saw an 18" trumpet fish. Too Cool! Also saw a variety of sea urchins and a huge star fish called 'Crown of Thorns' that is pretty poisoness if stung.

Dive #3 Garden Eel Cove 72' for 100"

This was a pretty cool area. At depth, it gets pretty sandy where these little eels poke up out of the sand. They look like garden snakes. Coming back up the wall of coral, we poked around and saw all kinds of marine life including more varieties of eels, fish, urchins, and sea cucumbers. I was bringing up the tail end of the group when something really unusual caught my eye deep down into the coral and lava rock. I spotted a round ball with long thin spikes that look like it had rust on it. I am glad that it was deep, for I believe it to be an old WWII mine. I plan on calling the marine gaurd tomorrow to check on active mines in the area. Pretty scary! On our way back to the boat, two HUGE Manta Rays graced us with their presence. They had a wing span of about 12' or better. The captain told us for every foot, it equals 100 pounds! I was so stoaked, for this was my purpose for visiting Kona!!! Onto Dive #4...........

Dive #4 Manta Heaven (Night Dive) 37' for 48"

Conditions remained status quo. GIANT Manta Rays were surrounding our boat before we even hit the water. What a rush of adrenaline!!! Once I got in the water, the Manta's were immediately attracted to my Light Cannon. OMG! They are HUGE!!!!!! I actually got 'swiped' by two of them. Once the group was in the water, we all dropped down and made our way to the Manta Camp Fire Ring to begine the experience of a life time! There were about 4 dive boats out tonight. Each dive boat puts a light box in the middle of the ring, then divers kneel around the ring with their flashlights pointing up in the air. The light attracts plankton which attracts the Manta Rays. There must have been 8 rays with us, the largest having a wing span of 20 feet!!! They are soooooooo graceful. It was like watching an underwater ballet. The would do flips and turns right in front of you. They would also swim right, and I mean RIGHT over your head. I had my digital camera with me, so I got lots of pictures, PLUS VIDEO!!! I can't tell you the excitement that I had from this dive. The BEST ever!!! I was so excited, I signed up to do another Manta Dive on Friday night. I can hardly wait...so worth the money.

The boat and crew are top notch. If you want info, please email me privately and I will forward you info.

More Kona Reports to follow tomorrow. I am on a boat the next three days.

Mahalo

Jan

 

[sapphire]

Aloha Jan!

I am so glad you are having a great time in Kona! The night Manta dive I did there was one of the best dives I have ever had! Your description was excellent and brought back the whole experience for me, thank you!!

Why not tell us all who you are diving with??

We look forward to seeing your pictures when you return. Have a great time!

ciao!

jennifer

 

[divinman]

Thanks for the report. We were in Kona last March and made a bunch of dives there. Great diving I think. Different from the Caribbean but nice.

We had lots of Mantas on our dive and words do not do it justice. There was a videographer there from the shop we went out with and we bought the DVD of our week of diving. Price was high but soooo glad we did. Great fun to show at parties!

Keep the reports coming.

Terry

 

[saf_25]

Why not tell us all who you are diving with??

She took my buddy, Nap, with her, so they're having all of these great dives, and left me here buddyless. :sad:

That's ok, I get to do a pumpkin dive on Sunday, in the Laguna sewage runnoff, so it's all good.

Seriously, Jan, I'm glad that the rain has stopped and you guys are having such a great time! I can't wait to see your pics when you get back! Has Nap gotten his new SLR camera to work yet?

 

[sapphire]

She took my buddy, Nap, with her, so they're having all of these great dives, and left me here buddyless. :sad:

Hee hee, what I meant was which operation they were using. But now I know that Nap is there we should have a report from him too :biggrin:!!

 

[jenazah]

Hi Jan, thanks for your report. So Kona Honu sounds like a pretty good charter huh ? I'm leaving on Saturday, already booked one AM dives and one PM Manta dives with them. Can't wait for my first tropical dive.

 

[headhunter]

Sounds like a great time!

Thanks for posting about it. I look forward to more fun filled trip reports from Hawaii.

Christian

 

[Diver_Jan]

Hi everyone,

Mahalo for all of your posts. I did not post the dive operation, for I posted the same report on an 'email' list that does not allow commercial posts. But...for here...I can tell you that I am diving with Kona Honu Divers. I met them last spring at the Long Beach Scuba Show and was very impressed by them. Trust me...I also looked into other dive operations, spoke with a few on the phone (California to Hawaii) and I still decided to dive with Kona Honu Divers. Their boat is top notch, easy in and out, the staff set up and rinse all your gear, if you are doing multiple days/ nights you can just leave your gear on board and it' set up for you when you arrive, BT is a plus for me...they allow me to be first in and last one out to maximize my time, and best of all, they are very low in cost in comparison to other operations.

I did two more dives this morning, but will post the report in a little bit. I'm sure that most of you are watching CSI right now and will be getting ready for work. It's still early here. We are headed to an ice cream social at the resort activity center.

Yes, I am diving with one of my long time buddies Nap who I met when we took our Advanced class together (See Stacy....He was MY buddy, before he was YOURS!!! LOL))) Unfortunately John is not here with me. ( And I did invite you to go Stacy...your choice! You snooze, you loose as I used to say as a kid. LOL

On a sad note, Nap did take his Canon Digital Monster Camera diving. Everything was fine up until our second dive when it somehow got flooded in the camera tank!!! Fortunately, he has insurance for it, but it basically has ruined his disire to continue diving. So...I am buddiless for the next four morning dives. Thankfully I'm a 'socialable' kind of gal, and I will do just fine.

Mahalo

 

[OCdiving Deb]

Hi everyone,

I did not post the dive operation, for I posted the same report on an 'email' list that does not allow commercial posts.

Aloha Jan!

The non-commercial policy is ONLY for local dive ops. You can post the whole thing to the OC Divebums list. Please do! Mahalo!

And I am so glad you're having a great time!
Deb

 

[Diver_Jan]

Hi everyone,

Mahalo for all of your posts. I did not post the dive operation, for I posted the same report on an 'email' list that does not allow commercial posts. But...for here...I can tell you that I am diving with Kona Honu Divers. I met them last spring at the Long Beach Scuba Show and was very impressed by them. Trust me...I also looked into other dive operations, spoke with a few on the phone (California to Hawaii) and I still decided to dive with Kona Honu Divers. Their boat is top notch, easy in and out, the staff set up and rinse all your gear, if you are doing multiple days/ nights you can just leave your gear on board and it' set up for you when you arrive, BT is a plus for me...they allow me to be first in and last one out to maximize my time, and best of all, they are very low in cost in comparison to other operations.

I did two more dives this morning, but will post the report in a little bit. I'm sure that most of you are watching CSI right now and will be getting ready for work. It's still early here. We are headed to an ice cream social at the resort activity center.

Yes, I am diving with one of my long time buddies Nap who I met when we took our Advanced class together (See Stacy....He was MY buddy, before he was YOURS!!! LOL))) Unfortunately John is not here with me. ( And I did invite you to go Stacy...your choice! You snooze, you loose as I used to say as a kid. LOL

On a sad note, Nap did take his Canon Digital Monster Camera diving. Everything was fine up until our second dive when it somehow got flooded in the camera tank!!! Fortunately, he has insurance for it, but it basically has ruined his disire to continue diving. So...I am buddiless for the next four morning dives. Thankfully I'm a 'socialable' kind of gal, and I will do just fine.

Mahalo

Dive #1 Wash Rock

waves 0
surge 0
swells flat
viz 60 plus feet
temp Toasty 75 degrees at depth
Time 68' for 103"

Initially we were to dive 'Suck 'em up Cavern' however the surf was beginning to come in too close to shore where the dive site was located so we moved to an area called Wash Rock. In this area we saw more coral and tons more tropical fish. Also spotted a tropical nudibranch, a tropical flatworm, and a Titan Scorpionfish. Too cool!

Dive #2 Golden Arches 74' for 104"

Next to the Manta dive I did the other night, this is my favorite spot so far. Upon descending, I came upon a nice wall where immediately I spotted a Zebra Moray eel out of his hole. I had great fun taking alot of pics. This wall was immense. I could have stayed my whole dive here poking in and out of the crevices and coral. However, we moved on to explore the 'Arches.' We swam through three arches in addition to a cool lava chamber. Again, lots and lots of tropical fish. Spotted more eels, one HUGE guy right out of his enormous hole. Again, I was able to get some pretty good pics.

If any of you have Franko's map of Hawaii and how he lists all of the tropical fish on the map, that is actually pretty much what you see. I think I counted about 78 varieties of fish on the map. It's like diving in an aquarium.

Tomorrow will be Dive Day #3 with two dives in the am (boat) and two dives at night (Manta). I can hardly wait to dive with the Manta's again!!! It is so totally cool!!!

Time for me to get some much needed rest.

Mahalo