Westside Diving

Oh my gosh! It's been so long since I went diving! Dan and I finally got to use our Aaron's Dive Shop groupon for 2-tank boat dive in December. It was so great to dive with Dan again...our last dive together was in July!

Aaron's Dive Shop dive boat at Waianae Harbor

It was not ideal conditions the day we went, super windy and a little choppy. So we didn't go very far away from the Waianae Boat Harbor. But we had so much fun! I think it could have been the worst day ever and I still would have been stoked! The first site we dove was called Landing Craft Deep. We were fairly conservative and didn't go the max depth (90-100ft), we stayed above the ship at about 83ft.

Landing craft bow

My camera was still out for repairs at this point so all our pictures are blue :)

Me diving around the bow of the landing craft

I am a little sensitive to nitrogen narcosis and so I don't usually like to go deeper than 80-90 feet, unless there is something really cool deeper.

Looking up at the surface

Kissing fish! Haha. Not really. But the foreground/backgound trick definitlely makes it look real

We were down on the wreck for about 25 minutes and saw a lot of really interesting animals! Inside a exhaust or smoke pipe I saw two golden gobies! I tried to show them to my husband but underwater communication is not always effective...and sometimes it's just downright hilarious! We also saw a stingray, a blue dragon nudibranch, and a single pyramid butterflyfish. Obviously we saw much more but those were the "stars" of the dive.

The second dive was shallower and the site was called Two Tanks. I like shallow dives because you get to stay down longer and are able to take your time.

Marlin spike auger

Whitley's boxfish

Do you see the octopus? It's got its eye on you!

Imperial nudibranch train

My husband and I love nudibranchs...A LOT. We love them so much that we went as nudibranchs for Halloween a few years ago. No one knew what we were. We got several really weird guesses. My favorite was "WHOA! Are you like, psychedelic ninja turtles?!"

 Jolly green giant nudibranch and Imperial nudibranch. This is how marine biologists dress up for Halloween :)

Kangaroo nudibranch

Scrambled egg nudibranch

Goldring tang with chromis school

Snake eel

Hanauma Bay--Witches Brew

Hanauma Bay is a very popular tourist destination for both snorkeling and SCUBA diving. I have only been diving there a handful of times because the logistics are more complicated than other shore dives. Things to consider before planning a dive here:

• PARKING--there is limited parking in the lot, plan on getting there before 9:30am
• THE MOVIE--Unless you have visited Hanauma Bay within the last year you are required to watch an informational video about the bay. If you must watch it don't forget to sign the sheet at the front of the room before leaving the theatre! Then you are in their system for 1 year. 
• THE HILL--there is a fairly large/steep hill that you must go down and up. You can either be a total bad-ass and trek it with all your gear OR you can pay $3 and get a ride both ways for you and your gear! Work smarter, not harder :)
• TIDE/WAVES/WIND--the conditions are important. There are only two channels between the calm inner reef and the outer reef. If the waves are breaking over the barrier reef it creates "suction" in these channels. This will make it relatively easy to get out but will be very difficult to swim back in. 

Map of my Hanauma Bay dive (approximately).

My dive partners and I were very fortunate and had great weather for our dive. The sun was out, the waves were almost non-existent and the visibility was fairly good.

"Do you see the octopus...he'e?"--Hanauma Bay video

I was really happy with all the organisms we saw during our dive! Above is a Day octopus about to go into a hole in the rocks. My strobe has been mis-behaving recently so this picture isn't as clear as I would like it to be.

Blue Dragon Nudibranch

This was the only species of nudibranch we found during the dive. Between the five of us we probably saw ten individuals. I like this picture because my dive buddy's thumb and index finger make you realize just how small they are!

Triton's Trumpet

My dive buddy, Kevin, with the Triton's Trumpet

Kevin was very excited when we found this Triton's Trumpet. Can you see how big his eyes are?

School of fish

The picture above has one of my favorite Hawaiian fish species, humuhumu 'ele'ele. They have the most amazing pattern and coloration on their faces.

Reef ridge

Just around the peninsula where we had our dive flag there were several of these ridges or fingers. They were very picturesque and it was really fun to swim in the "valleys" between ridges.

If you clicked on the species names I provided you noticed that I kept linking to the same website: Keoki Stender's Flora & Fauna ID Site. Keoki and his wife Yuko are amazing underwater photographers and their website is incredibly useful. I use their website to ID any organism I don't recognize.