The coolest thing you ever saw on a dive?

[hecker-the-wrecker]

Just got back from Maui. We were diving with Ed Robinsons at the Pinnacle by red hill. Kim, our guide told us there might be a shark in the cave underneath it. The guy in front of me shoved his face in the hole to "take a peek" There was shark waiting for a big hook to rot off and fall away. He came out of the hole very fast as did the diver in front of me. (he had large eyes in his mask) The shark circled a few times and went back in the cave. On my trip I saw so much stuff. Eels, turtles, sharks, and more. Maui is awsome.

 

[Thalassamania]

Yesterday (Sunday, 24 January) I had another of those peak moments. My son and I were snorkeling about 1/2 mile off Ho'okena Beach Park on the Big Island. We'd spent most of the the morning snorkeling around on the deep sand flats. About a dozen or so Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins were swimming with us, they're there rather often and are quite friendly. If you don't try to chase them they will come right up to you and go nose to nose at a range of about a foot and will zip past you and tightly circle you when you are submerged, they seem to have as much fun as you do. People who try to approach them, or who try to chase them are quickly left behind and the dolphins rarely come back to them. I guess they know the rules too.

Anyway, we were enjoying their antics when suddenly there was a very loud, sharp noise, like a small explosion, off to our right and slightly behind us. I picked my head up just in time to see the arched back of an adult Humpback Whale, not ten feet from me. I put my head back in the water in time to see the last half of the whale glide by me. The whale stopped, chin about ten feet from the bottom and flukes just below the surface, nose to nose with four Spinners. They remained nose to nose, separated by perhaps two feet, for a minute or so, when I heard the same sound again, this time even closer. It was a second Humpback Whale. It glided between me and the first, close enough to touch it's head. It paused for a moment to stare at me with it's huge eye as my son tried to hide behind me as well as see everything that was going on, both at the same time. The second whale joined the first, nose to nose with the dolphins and then they broke off. The first whale circled right and the second left and they came to rest on the sandy bottom, their chins perhaps two feet apart and their tails pointed in opposite directions. The second whale blew a huge air ring and then they both remained motionless at the bottom. The whales were on the bottom in about sixty to seventy feet of water, water that was so clear that from the surface we could see from our vantage point above their heads, all the way to each whale's flukes. It was really tempting, but we did not dive down to them, rather we just sat at the surface and watched. The dolphins had move on and after about ten minutes, so did the whales.

 

[Mopar]

Two years ago in Panama City FL. I was diving on the Strength. Off to the side of the wreck is part of the wreck. Thier was a net over it and a turtle was in it eating a fish the turtle was huge. Me and a dive buddy I met on that trip cut the net just in case it was trapped. The turtle swam up to us as if to thank us and swam away.

 

[idocsteve]

Last weekend my girlfriend got her checkout dives finished in Florida..it was close to freezing. She and the instructor got back on the boat before me, and as I surfaced I saw her sitting on the boat, wrapped in a towel, and she looked like she was going to get frostbite.

Definitely the coolest thing I've ever seen.

I told her if she wanted to warm up she had to get out of that wetsuit, even though she was on a surface interval. The first day she didn't listen, but by the second, she was all over that.

 

[ChimChim75]

Spinner dolphins... or monk seals. Only was fast enough to film monk seals. Still trying to find those whales. I can hear them, but never see them!

YouTube - Monk Seal off Lanai Lookout 1/23/10
YouTube - Monk Seals at Halona Blowhole

 

[DiveWestOahu]

a calf, cow and 2 escorts today right over the bow of the mahi with well over 100 ft vis

 

[Thalassamania]

So TS&M and Peter came over Saturday and we had a great visit, they're even more fun in person than they are on line and on Sunday my son and I went back to the beach. On the way up he keeps pestering me, "will the whales be there?"

I told him that what had happened last week was a once in a lifetime experience and that he should never expect to repeat it. We got to the beach, put our gear on and swam out to near where the spinners were. The dolphins came to us, like the usually do, but it was a much larger group this time, perhaps fifty of them with a half dozen babies. They put on quite a show for us, then ... out of the blue distance, came two humpbacks. So now we're two for two. Two trips to Ho'okena Beach Park, Two humpback encounters. I think we're getting spoiled. We're going back next weekend ... we'll see if it's, "ho, hum, another whale."

 

[scottitheduck]

Ho'okena rocks....

Michelle and I spent an entire day snorkeling and free diving with dolphins over there. Great story bout the whales too! CHEE HOO, gotta love living in Hawaii!

As a side note, is there much reef there? I saw someone doing intro dives there but all I saw was sand and small patches of coral.

G

 

[Thalassamania]

There's some reef in the shallows off to each side, but straight out is just small patch reef, large sand flats and (yawn) dolphins and whales.

 

[smellzlikefish]

Had a new experience yesterday. I was en route on a long range charter to South Kona on Bottom Time Hawaii when we almost ran over a whale shark! We all grabbed our snorkel gear and got in the water with it for about an hour. We were almost diving...