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infinate posibilities

PacificRimDivers — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 07:54:00 GMT

Why do YOU love diving? One of the things that keeps diving so interesting for me is the excitement of thinking...OK, just what does this day have in store for us underwater? You never know when the person who jokingly says "i want to see a whale shark" just might get their way. There is little we can do to plan for that kind of rare event. But you never know when an ordinary day will become extraordinary. Every once in a while your moment in the water places you in the path of something special. That can happen anywhere at any time, the possibilities are truly infinite. Here are just some of the highlights of our dives in the past weeks and months. We have been blessed to have the scale tip to extraordinary several times. The hammerheads in this photo were with us for about 10 minutes. They were interested in chasing after each other and seemed unaware of the 6 awestruck divers gawking at them. It's a rare treat to see one even for a few seconds much less to have them swim about as if we didn't even exist. Memorable indeed. Another dive found us following a school of 600+ white lipped jacks. Watching a manta at a cleaning station, frolicking with dolphins and catching a quick glimpse of gray reef sharks as they skittered away from us. Amazing. All this while humpbacks were sing in the background and making it all feel otherworldly. (This blog was written in early February during the height of humpback season). We had several days of "off the hook" diving but even more special are the wonderful guests on our boat. You give me a reason to look forward to winter's chilly and sometimes rough waters. Sorry it has taken me so long to publish this blog. I wrote it in February but it took me until April to figure out how to add the photo. Miss you all but .....I'm glad the water is warming up.

Weightlesness

PacificRimDivers — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 07:50:00 GMT

My best advice to divers joining our groups are to LOVE diving for the things that you know will happen every dive. The feeling of floating weightlessly through the water NEVER stops being wonderful and amazing to me. You dont even have to be someplace "tropical" (read: expensive) to have that experience...yes, you can have that in a quarry in Ohio or a river in Spokane. If you are not amazed by what you see, be amazed by what you feel.

2011

PacificRimDivers — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 05:29:00 GMT

The holiday rush lasted well into January and 2010 just got away from me. Did all of you get my Christmas cards??? Thought so. Next year right?! It's certainly was a memorable end to 2010. We welcomed some of our favorite returning guests Richard, Kevin, Sarah, Paul and Pat, Rich, Gabor as well as many new friends through the holidays and into the first of the year. Gabor found diving to be "epic" and loved seeing the tinkers at shark fin. His energy and enthusiasm are such a gift. Sara counted every single fish she saw! We had many rare sightings. Tinkers, bandits and dragon eels were just a few of the highlights. Richards relaxed and steady pace is always a treat and like Pat and Paul he is just thrilled with every little critter. Kevin is like another set of eyes. He has been here so many times, he knows just what to look for. It is truly a joy to have such special people to share "under" Kona with. The beginning of 2011 has brought magnificent humpback whales, some of the most perfect sunny days (no vog!) and a bit of turbulent water. I'd say "typical" January, but I think this year everything seems to be a little amplified. We didn't have to look far for good water in December but January has had us hemmed into Kaiwi point for most of the month. Thankfully, Kaiwi always impresses with it's abundant life and near perfect conditions. Even on the roughest days, it has unusually calm and clear water. Cathy said "It's like diving in an aquarium full of fish" after our dives today. We are experiencing a little fire dartfish "drop" on the reef and have enjoyed looking for the tiny "needles in a haystack" for the past week or so. Lots of whale action and even a couple of close passes. No underwater sightings yet though. We have had some great sharks, turtles and rays though. I guess hoping for a humpback is being just a little greedy.
Happy Groundhogs Day all and Valentines Day too. I think the Flame Angels are the perfect little Valentines Day fish. Not sure about the Groundhogs Day mascot....Punxsutawney Dartfish? They do dart back into their little holes when they get scared. Happy bubbling and hope to see you all soon.

Bula!

PacificRimDivers — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:02:00 GMT

Our first trip to Fiji and what a trip it was! We joined friends and fellow divers Mike and Gina, Martin and Suzanne, Mike and Karen, Ralph and Jan, and Phil and Connie for 2 glorious weeks of great fun, great food, and great diving. There are so many highlights, nearly to many to list. The Fijiian people are wonderful and welcoming. Our time at Beqa Lagoon Resort was beyond our greatest hopes. The diving was great, the rooms (bures) were so very nice, the dive masters were wonderful and hapily shared their reefs and it's critters with us. The food and hospitality were top notch. We can't imagine having had a better time. Beqa island is very remote, no grocery stores, no cars, none of the things we completely take for granted here. Nothing was needed though, our every need was taken into account for the entire time we were at the resort. I'll share more about this amazing place and our diving experiences. I have video, and photos that we will be posting for all to see. Keep an eye on this space....

more deep thoughts

PacificRimDivers — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 05:28:00 GMT

A small south swell forced Saltwater Taffy and crew to the deeper reefs off the Natural Energy Lab known as the Black Hole. Also sometimes referred to as "the swirling pit of death" thankfully that was not the case today. This reef offers a deep lava shelf peppered with beautiful antler coral heads, a small lava tube, and deep cliff faces. It is home to schools of pyramid and pennant butterfly fish. Very large coral heads host abundant damsels and a variety of reef life. We were fortunate to see a smallish (4.5 ft) white tip resting on the sand shelf inside the black hole, a small octopus and all the life that is part of a dive here. The big adventure really began at the end of the dive when Taffy spotted a small turtle heading to the surface for a breath of fresh air. Only two divers remained to watch the turtle from below. Shortly after, it headed back toward the bottom to continue doing whatever it is that turtles do....eating, resting and other general turtle stuff. As it approached, Taffy noticed this guy had something extra hanging around its little neck. As he came closer she realized our new friend was wearing what looked like a rubber gasket for a necklace. I'm pretty sure this little guy wasn't all that thrilled about the "bling". Unfortunately we were completely out of no deco time so decided to return to the surface and make a plan for "little turtle rubber gasket removal". Thank goodness we had Dr. D'Angelfish diving with us today! (Dr. D is simply the finest seahorse Dr. in all of the country) Now I'm not sure if seahorses and turtles really have any of the same stuff going on but the good Dr. was willing to help Taffy try to degasket the turtle. OK, so the plan is to have Taffy get close enough to hold the turtle while the good Dr. used his new fabulous snips to cut the gasket free. Ahaaa the best laid plans.... Taffy and Paniolo Pete had visited the turtle farm at Grand Cayman a few years ago and Taffy remembered that even the little tiny turtles were fast and strong. This one wasn't very big but he really was fast. Sneak as she might, little honu was definitely not interested in being held or degasketed by Taffy or Dr. D'Angelfish. We came close but in the end, we were unsuccessful. Little turtle swam away probably pretty convinced that humans are terrible creatures completely bent on bothering a poor defenseless turtle who was just minding his own business and trying to make it through a day. Defeated, Taffy and Dr. D.and all our divers today are hoping that the other dive boats will keep their eyes open for this little honu. We will also give a detailed report to George Balazes. Hopefully someone will be successful and the turtle will be rid of the horrible gasket soon. More adventures await.

Deep Thoughts

PacificRimDivers — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:16:00 GMT

The Amazing Adventures of Saltwater Taffy and Paniolo Pete continue. From the depths of Kailua-Kona and the hills of Hualalai, Saltwater Taffy and Paniolo Pete explore Hawaii above and below!

Today Taffy ventured into the deep waters off of Kaiwi Point and then explored the underwater lava tubes in a place called Suck-em-up. Aptly named, Suck-em-up has a way of depositing a diver right onto the surface if she is not paying close enough attention. One minute she can be looking at the big sharks in the mouth of the lava tube and the next caught in a up draft of water headed straight up and out one of the skylights to the surface. I hate it when that happens. Luckily today, we managed to keep it on the bottom and enjoyed our sharks from the bottom where we belonged. Along with 2 sharks, we saw a leaf scorpion fish, a huge zebra eel, a beautiful and shy dragon eel and one of the cutest little frog fish ever! Back on the boat, Paniolo Pete had had a close encounter with a Monk seal! I can't believe Taffy and her divers missed it! But, Frank (I mean Paniolo Pete) has pictures to prove it! See attached! A quick e-mail to the folks at NOAA tells us that this seal is a 3 year old male born on the Big Island. What a great week it has been.

Sunday's Mantas

PacificRimDivers — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:48:00 GMT

Another great manta dive with 14 rays and a beautifully calm night. The moon is nearly full so the water is lighted from above and below. The mantas were at the cove ready for their dinner early! We had at least one fly by during the afternoon dive. On the night dive, we arrived at the campfire of lights with several mantas already waiting for us. The dive was spectacular. 14 individual mantas danced above our heads for the entire dive. With that many rays, it's difficult to count them all!. No one was disappointed not divers, and certainly not the rays. The plankton was a little weak but the mantas were still very eager to feed above us.

baby dolphins

PacificRimDivers — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:18:00 GMT

I ask you....Is there nothing cuter than a baby dolphin? Each morning this week a large pod of spinner dolphins has welcomed us to the harbor, given us a great show and then sent us on our way to the days dives. This group seems different tho, avoiding the boats rather than rushing to them, they seem to prefer a more distant vantage point. A closer look revealed many very young dolphins clinging to the sides of their mothers. Often two adults would rise for a breath (perhaps a mom and an auntie) with a tiny football sized baby sheltered between them. This has to be a nursery pod. Since dolphins appear to be reproductive about 4 times a year, it stands to reason that many would give birth around the same time. In this group many of the babies are so tiny they must be brand new. Some are just beginning to learn to jump out of the water. They barely clear the surface with their tiny tails pumping madly up and down. Every time they break the surface everyone gives a collective "awe". We just can't help ourselves. They are still a long way from the characteristic "spinning" of the agile adults but it sure is fun to watch them try. There was one baby today that looked a little bigger, when he jumped he nearly made a full revolution before landing on his side in the water. He was about 24 inches long. They are about the cutest things EVER!

Catchup

PacificRimDivers — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:19:00 GMT

Seems it's been abundant big animal week for us here at PRD. We have enjoyed ray and small shark sightings nearly every day.   The water temperature is still hovering around 77. I'm hoping 79 shows up soon. It's a bit unusual for us to be still holding on to the cooler water temps. It's August after all. Our fishing friends are all frustrated with the slow change in H2O temps too. Best fishing will start when the currents bring in the warmer water from the southern Pacific and with it nutrients and larger schools of bait fish. Following closely behind will be the summer run of ahi and marlin.

We have had several students and brand new divers these past few weeks, a sure sign that summer is finally here.   It's always nice to have the energy and enthusiasm of a diver just discovering how great this sport is.....remember your first times underwater? I do. Somehow I managed to find band-aids and various other swimming pool debris utterly fascinating. I was completely in love with this sport from the very start.   It wasn't hard but it was wonderfully challenging and VERY exciting for a small town country girl from wheat field Washington. We nearly froze trudging our gear thru the snow to the Gonzaga pool for our 4 weeks of training. OK, here's a story for you. Our open water dives were scheduled for Shelton Washington in February. That meant a 5 hour drive across the frozen state and a 5200 ft. mountain pass in the dead of winter. We had 3 divers in our car which was loaded with scuba gear and tanks.   We all worked on Friday so got a bit of a late start. Had things gone well, we were looking at a 10 or 11pm arrival at the hotel...had things gone well.... There were about 12 divers in our class and several had gone earlier in the day. This proved to be a good decision on their part.   No such luck for us. Unfortunately at the top of the pass, an avalanche had closed the road ahead of us. Opting to go around and take a more southern route didn't help either. That pass was closed as well and at one point we were trapped between two avalanches. We watched as a car in front of us was cleared out of a HUGE wave of snow that had buried it earlier in the afternoon. Finally, passes opened back up and we were on our way. We had spent the entire night waiting for snow removal and had to go directly to the 8:00am dive that had already started without us.    Water temp was somewhere around 42. Air temp must have been around 32 because rain turned to snow before we were finished with our two dives that day. I actually don't remember much about those dives. We spent the next two days in a sudafed induced caffeinated haze. Just remember that it was incredibly COLD and somewhere in the sequence of 4 dives over the next two days we did see a wolf eel. Gary our instructor had taken hot water and filled a large soda dispenser so that we could fill our wet suits with warm water after each dive. That saved us. After the dives on Sunday, we had to travel back over those passes to return to Eastern Washington. We stopped for the usual pizza party and then began the long drive home. Of course, fingers and toes began to thaw and tingle about at the top of the pass. We were all certain that we had "the bends". What we really had was the result of near frost bite to the extremities. I can look back at it now and laugh. That story is why I tease my California friends when they complain about cold water diving in California! We considered Cali to be warm water!

There you have it! See...I have not always been a cold water wimp. I used to be tough! Not so much anymore huh??? As I don my 7mm semi dry suit, hood and gloves (and consider 77 to be chilly).   I'd love to hear your certification stories! Don't tell me any nonsense about riding whale sharks on your first dive. I wanna hear the good stuff!

Mantas, tigers and bears...well no bears

PacificRimDivers — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 08:34:00 GMT

I have to say our first manta dive in maybe 100 years was a doozie! We had beautiful weather and a calm trip to garden eel cove. We managed to get there early enough to get a mooring of our very own (but we were more than willing to share - and did). Really folks, it's CRAZY up there! There were 9 boats, and what seemed like 200 divers and snorkelers (that is considered a light night). OK, I'm doing this night dive thing again, but only until the water gets crummy this winter. Then, all bets are off. Needless to say, we had a fabulous afternoon dive with long fin anthias, a reef shark, garden eels, etc. Kayla was joking about how she really, REALLY wanted to go home and tell her buddies that she had seen a shark. Sure enough, the ocean gods must have been listening because one swam right in front of us. She was pretty stoked about that - having missed a tiger the Wednesday before. Add about a dozen mantas on the night dive and you have a really good night to remember - and maybe brag about to your friends.
After a wild night on the reef, I'm pretty darn tuckered. Nothing like a little nap and a trip down south to Red Hill to wake me right up tho. A perfect day south. No swell and plenty to see with my spelunking friends. Love those overheads. Again, a nice little shark swimming in one of the lava tubes. We made a wide birth and left him alone. Long lava tube was a crowd favorite. About 50 ft in you start to wish for light again...5 ft and a little bend in the tube and there it is, the exit just ahead and you find yourself wanting to do it all over again! Lobsters and cowries everywhere. Giant puffers with big cow eyes peering out from a dark crevasse. Eagle rays getting cleaned. Tigers are very cool but my favorite critter of the week was a dragon eel found by diver June. Thanks June, extra brownies for you! Another shark on Friday and then today another tiger sighting. Hummmmm this is getting to be pretty regular. What a treat it is to have great water, fun divers and amazing critters. I have THE BEST job.

Weekender

PacificRimDivers — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 04:51:00 GMT

Well maybe those motors aren't quite purring like kittens yet. But, with a bit more energy (aka $$$) they will be soon! Frank is convinced I'm crazy but I keep telling him they just don't quite sound right....dog ears you know. So just a little more tinkering and I'm sure they will be puurrrfect. Nobody notices but me. And, a boat full of happy divers is really all that matters.

Luckily, we don't need perfect motors to enjoy a great dive on the reef. Just a pair of fins and a mask....maybe a little air. My divers used exactly that today. Only a TINY bit of air. You guys are amazing! Two dives of 80+ minutes. With all that time underwater it's inevitable that we will see tons of critters. Long fin anthias, 3 octopus (one about the size of a pea), a hawksbill turtle, white tip reef shark, lobsters crabs and tons of fish life. A rare sighting of all 3 - oval, reticulated and saddleback butterflies. Fun day and a great way to end the week. Thanks all!

back in action

PacificRimDivers — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:58:00 GMT

Great news - 2 motors purring like kittens! It's a welcome sight and sound after being plagued by 2 nearly identical and hugely frustrating (translate "expensive")break downs. My blogs have been sparse a.k.a. non existent, mostly because I was having a hard time finding my "happy" place. With both motors now fixed and summer divers beginning to book charters I'm a happy camper again. Added bonus, for the moment...Frank is back on the boat!

    Today's divers had a great treat before even leaving the harbor mouth. Looking into the water from the helm, capt. Frank spotted what he was sure was a tiger shark swimming below us. We managed to catch up to him as he cruised the shallow ledge in the harbor mouth. Sure enough...a 10 - 12 ft tiger swam directly under us. A quick look revealed he was a shark with a mission. Just ahead lay the carcass of a nice sized ono. Probably about a 4 ft fish laying in about 10 ft of water. Shark passed once and gave a sniff. Second pass and he picked the whole thing up in his mouth and swam toward the mouth of the harbor. We followed right on his tail keeping him next to the boat for about 5 minutes. Our divers with cameras tried to get a photo as we motored along above but that's a daunting task. Moving boat, moving shark.... This was a big big animal. So much girth! It is easy to see that this animal is an apex predator that needs to be respected and protected. Absolutely everyone agreed that we would dive nearby to see if we could catch a glimpse of her again underwater.
     Our first dive at Suck-em up was amazingly calm. The lava tubes were full of life and the lack of surge meant that I could stick my head up into cracks and crevasses that usually go unvisited (my very favorite thing to do). The pay off was nudibranchs, cowries, lobsters eels and a great little frog fish hiding in a puka out of the surge.    After a surface interval, we headed back to the site we hoped would still give us a glimpse of Mr. Tiger Shark. As we approached the site, Mike and Nikki from Torpedo, said they had seen the tiger 2 times on their dive. We hoped we would be so lucky. Starting with eels and sleepy goat fish we headed into the boat channel. It's always nice to be disturbed while taking a photo of a friendly eel so that you can look up at the squadron 4 beautiful spotted eagle rays. Next, a lion fish danced across the bottom and a small pod of dolphins swam above our heads. No shark but no one was disappointed by the two awesome dives.

Welcome to Pacific Rim Divers!

PacificRimDivers — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:12:00 GMT

My first blog...
It's been quite a week, maybe a year here at PRD. For the first time in about 6 years, Frank and Patrice are back together on the boat. Some would consider that a real treat... we are glad to be back together on the boat again. Today especially because the thingy went "sproing" and Frank was actually there to hear and experience it. Usually I just come home and tell him I broke the thingy. Much better this way. So, we will be fixin the thingy for a couple of days. After that we will be back in the H2O, just happily swimming with the fishes.

Today's dives were really wonderful. We had two amazing dives with Ted, Pete, Pedro and Andrew . We enjoyed eagle rays, turkey fish, eels,dolphins, flame angels, horned helmets freckled snake eels and reallygreat vis. Current was pumpin, but we managed to hide and still see tons of really great fish and invert life.