I'm in Hawaii right now, waiting to deploy to Korea. I was supposed to be here for three days. I've been here for a week and a half now. This doesn't suck.
I have some SCUBA gear. It is all virgin. I did not bring it because I was not going to have time to dive. I should know better by now.
This last weekend I got my PADI Advanced cert. I dove twice on Saturday and three times on Sunday. When I am out here I dive with Island Divers. They own their own boat (there are only two or three companies on the island that do, everyone else rents space on one of those.)
On Saturday our dives were in a relatively uninteresting spot, which I dived in last year. They were both shallow and were all about skills. First dive was navigation, which is not very different from land nav and is not all that interesting, but does take the whole dive to do.
The second dive was Peak Performance Buoyancy. This is interesting stuff, very useful and was a lot of fun. Again, this was a skills dive so mostly just working on that instead of enjoying the dive.
The seas and winds were also pretty nasty on Saturday. I was feeling a little sea sick, which made things less fun. All in all I was glad when the day was done.
Sunday was a whole different kettle of frog fish. This was a three tank dive. We started at 0830 and went until about 1500. We had a fun, forty minute boat ride from Hawaii Kai to Waikiki.
Our first dive was off the beach at Waikiki on a wreck, the YO-257. This was a Navy yard oiler, sunk by the local submarine tour company to give them something to look at. The bottom there is at 100 feet, making it my deepest dive to that point. We dropped down the line and the wreck loomed out of the dark. Visibility was about forty feet, even at that depth. You have to love Hawaii for the great vis.
We saw some rays, green sea turtles and a couple of frog fish. These things look like a chunk of reef. Even if you know exactly what you are looking at they are very hard to spot. One of them swam off and it just looked like a floating turd. We live in an amazing world.
While we were down there one of the subs pulled up. It was very cool to be diving five feet away from a submarine. SCUBA is a much better way to visit than a sub. No regrets about getting my cert at all.
After this dive we headed in to the fuel dock to top up and get some chow. It also gave us a nice long surface interval. The fuel dock food was iffy. The dude had three crock pots going with food in them. He made sandwiches bare handed, wiping his nose in between ingredients. I went for a hot dog.
The second dive was on another wreck, the Sea Tiger. This was a Korean ship, rumored to be a smuggler. I can't back that up with facts or anything. The deck of this one was 100 feet, the bottom at 130. I stayed at deck level.
My rented depth gauge was not working. I discovered this at depth on the first dive. We got down there, I looked at it, and it said 200 feet. I thought "Either we are all screwed or this thing is broken." I went with broken and stayed just above my buddy the whole day.
There was not much wild life around the Sea Tiger but it was a very cool wreck. Parts of the ship were falling off and there was debris all around it. We went into the bridge and my buddy, who was also the instructor, showed me the Korean instruments with Hangul symbols on them.
Our third dive was a drift dive on Fantasy Reef. We had another nice long surface interval driving from Waikiki back around Diamond Head and to the new site. Conditions were fairly rough, with a nice swell and a brisk wind. We did a negative buoyancy entry, since the boat was drifting pretty quickly.
We were split into two groups to make things easy. We dropped down to the bottom, fifty three feet at the deepest, and just let the current carry us along the reef. There were fish everywhere, six foot eels, a green sea turtle that was bigger than I am. I saw a porcupine fish about a foot long. The best thing was a lion fish. The dive master said that in over 2000 dives in Hawaii he has only seen them eight times before.
When the first diver signaled low on air we grouped up and headed to the surface. This was my first safety stop in open water with no line to hang onto. Since my depth gauge was not working I just tried to stay at the same depth as my buddy. It was a good chance to practice my peak performance buoyancy. It still needs some work.
When we were done with the safety stop we surfaced and got aboard the boat. Then we drove for fifteen minutes to pick up the second group. It was a good object lesson in how the wind can push a high profile boat a LOT faster than low profile divers.
Everyone got aboard fine and we headed back in to the pier. I got everything signed off for my advanced cert and the card should arrive at home while I am in Korea.
Last year I got to dive with my friend, but he is no longer in this unit, so is not out here with me. He would have loved it, especially all the different fish I saw, as he is really into that stuff.
I can't wait to dive again.
I have some SCUBA gear. It is all virgin. I did not bring it because I was not going to have time to dive. I should know better by now.
This last weekend I got my PADI Advanced cert. I dove twice on Saturday and three times on Sunday. When I am out here I dive with Island Divers. They own their own boat (there are only two or three companies on the island that do, everyone else rents space on one of those.)
On Saturday our dives were in a relatively uninteresting spot, which I dived in last year. They were both shallow and were all about skills. First dive was navigation, which is not very different from land nav and is not all that interesting, but does take the whole dive to do.
The second dive was Peak Performance Buoyancy. This is interesting stuff, very useful and was a lot of fun. Again, this was a skills dive so mostly just working on that instead of enjoying the dive.
The seas and winds were also pretty nasty on Saturday. I was feeling a little sea sick, which made things less fun. All in all I was glad when the day was done.
Sunday was a whole different kettle of frog fish. This was a three tank dive. We started at 0830 and went until about 1500. We had a fun, forty minute boat ride from Hawaii Kai to Waikiki.
Our first dive was off the beach at Waikiki on a wreck, the YO-257. This was a Navy yard oiler, sunk by the local submarine tour company to give them something to look at. The bottom there is at 100 feet, making it my deepest dive to that point. We dropped down the line and the wreck loomed out of the dark. Visibility was about forty feet, even at that depth. You have to love Hawaii for the great vis.
We saw some rays, green sea turtles and a couple of frog fish. These things look like a chunk of reef. Even if you know exactly what you are looking at they are very hard to spot. One of them swam off and it just looked like a floating turd. We live in an amazing world.
While we were down there one of the subs pulled up. It was very cool to be diving five feet away from a submarine. SCUBA is a much better way to visit than a sub. No regrets about getting my cert at all.
After this dive we headed in to the fuel dock to top up and get some chow. It also gave us a nice long surface interval. The fuel dock food was iffy. The dude had three crock pots going with food in them. He made sandwiches bare handed, wiping his nose in between ingredients. I went for a hot dog.
The second dive was on another wreck, the Sea Tiger. This was a Korean ship, rumored to be a smuggler. I can't back that up with facts or anything. The deck of this one was 100 feet, the bottom at 130. I stayed at deck level.
My rented depth gauge was not working. I discovered this at depth on the first dive. We got down there, I looked at it, and it said 200 feet. I thought "Either we are all screwed or this thing is broken." I went with broken and stayed just above my buddy the whole day.
There was not much wild life around the Sea Tiger but it was a very cool wreck. Parts of the ship were falling off and there was debris all around it. We went into the bridge and my buddy, who was also the instructor, showed me the Korean instruments with Hangul symbols on them.
Our third dive was a drift dive on Fantasy Reef. We had another nice long surface interval driving from Waikiki back around Diamond Head and to the new site. Conditions were fairly rough, with a nice swell and a brisk wind. We did a negative buoyancy entry, since the boat was drifting pretty quickly.
We were split into two groups to make things easy. We dropped down to the bottom, fifty three feet at the deepest, and just let the current carry us along the reef. There were fish everywhere, six foot eels, a green sea turtle that was bigger than I am. I saw a porcupine fish about a foot long. The best thing was a lion fish. The dive master said that in over 2000 dives in Hawaii he has only seen them eight times before.
When the first diver signaled low on air we grouped up and headed to the surface. This was my first safety stop in open water with no line to hang onto. Since my depth gauge was not working I just tried to stay at the same depth as my buddy. It was a good chance to practice my peak performance buoyancy. It still needs some work.
When we were done with the safety stop we surfaced and got aboard the boat. Then we drove for fifteen minutes to pick up the second group. It was a good object lesson in how the wind can push a high profile boat a LOT faster than low profile divers.
Everyone got aboard fine and we headed back in to the pier. I got everything signed off for my advanced cert and the card should arrive at home while I am in Korea.
Last year I got to dive with my friend, but he is no longer in this unit, so is not out here with me. He would have loved it, especially all the different fish I saw, as he is really into that stuff.
I can't wait to dive again.
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