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Wanna Dive Kona's Scuba Diving News Archives |
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Aloha, I've got a new project on this website...as of January 2010, I'm trying to keep some up to date comments about current or recent dive conditions and such on our homepage. As I update them I'll put the older stuff on this page. |
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It's June 13th and we're busy diving!!! This last week we've been seeing 78/79 degree water temperatures and enjoying the dives. Highlight of the last week for us? Could it have been the dive where the divers saw a WHALE SHARK, a manta ray and a pod of dolphins underwater on the same dive? Probably so. Neat dive. Wish we could guarantee decent odds of the whale shark. |
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It's May 28th and summer's coming!!! This last week we've been seeing 78/79 degree water temperatures. Viz has been outstanding lately, several of the days this last week it's been in the 200' plus range. Wow! It's looking to be a busy summer, with lots of bookings already. For best selection, it might be best to give us a call early to reserve seats. Here's a young frogfish. The last 6 weeks or so we've been coming across the new juveniles. They start out tiny and yellow, looking like the small sponges we have here, and grow surprisingly quickly. Once they get up to about 6 inches long or so they tend to start taking on the colorations of their surroundings. It's always a pleasure to see these.
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Lots of great diving in Kona lately!
We've set up an office across the highway from Honokohau, it's open noon to 6 on weekends or by appointment other days. |
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HUGE NEWS FOR WANNA DIVE March 29th, 2010
We have a new office/shop we're putting together. After years of operating out of the pickup and boat only, we've set up a shop across the highway from Honokohau Harbor immediately above the Tesoro gas station. We're currently manning it noon to 6 on Saturday and Sunday days whether we're chartering or not. On weekdays I try to be there the same hours when I'm not chartering, but we're busy enough it usually turns out to be after charters around 4pm-6pm most weekdays except when we have night dives. Drop in (it's best to call ahead on weekdays though) and we can talk scuba, do paperwork, set up dives, size up gear for charters and such. We're not a finished product just yet, but come in for a visit and watch us grow! |
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Spring is in full swing in Kona. We've had great diving this last several weeks. Water temperatures are currently running right around 75/76 degrees. The visibility has been generally wonderful - 100' and up most of the time, sometimes pushing 200' on very nice days. We were out cruising around between dives and came across a small chunk of netting. Time to jump out of the boat and take a look.... Here's a Sargassum Frogfish we found in the netting. These frogfish live in seaweed, and will hitch a ride with floaty junk as well. We were thrilled to find it.
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A little news - February 19th, 2010: It's late February and the winter surf conditions seem to be improving over what they were earlier in the month... yahoo! Hopefully the majority of our big surf is behind us. Our water is still quite warm for this time of year, I'm calling it 76-77, and diving has been real good most of this winter.
Here's a photo of a Hawaiian Lionfish. We had about a five year span earlier this last decade where I can't recall seeing them on our more commonly dove sites. Starting in about '06 we started seeing them on occasion again. This is a young one that was tucked away in a little hole in the coral. We are always thrilled when we see these guys. click here for our news archives |
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A little news - February 5th, 2010: Once again, this is a warm winter for us... you can't beat the water. Current water temperature has been running in the 77-79 degree range... that's 5-6 degrees higher than usual at this time.
Whale sharks! Ok this is a pic I took a few years back, but we've been having a fair number of reports of whale shark sightings this winter. I've either not been on the water, or on the wrong end of town, when they've been spotted.. bummer. Hopefully we'll keep seeing them. Many times they seem curious about the boats and people and you can actually get in and swim with these magnificent creatures. click here for our news archives |
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A little news: Man, are we seeing a lot of whales or what?
Every winter, Kona sees humpback whales come in from up north to have their young and rest, and mate again, before their long trek back to Alaskan waters in the spring. Here it is February 1st and on our charters we're currently enjoying 77/79 degree water, warmest water I've seen this time of year in my 11 winters here. The whales seem to be enjoying it too! I can't recall this much whale action ever, and it's early yet, we usually see peak whale activity in March. Underwater, our divers are treated to the sounds of whales singing (sounds like strangely bad cello and bass fiddle playing) on many of their dives. On the surface, on the way to dive sites and on our surface intervals, we've been treated to whale spouts, breaches, pectoral slaps, tailfin slaps and such. It's a blast, sort of like getting a whale watch tour in for free. |
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A little news: CURRENT/RECENT KONA SCUBA DIVING CONDITIONS We started the new year off with a bang, surf-wise. Big surf hit us for a few days early in the month. It's been quite diveable the rest of the month. We've had a few days where some of our dive sites are riled up enough we'll select others more protected, days where all dive sites are pretty good, and days that have had "summer-like" diving conditions with 100-125 foot plus viz! Water temperature - wow, is it ever warm for a January! Back in the fall I read somewhere we were having a mild el-nino year... I didn't believe it as it wasn't particularly warm, and the temperature was dropping in November... well, it warmed up to 78 or so in December and has stayed there. It's now January 26th, and this is the warmest water winter I've seen since I moved here 11 years ago.
Here's a very nice photo of a frogfish that my wife, Pat, took on a dive charter last year. We had several years earlier in the decade we didn't see very many frogfish, but the last couple of years we've seen them much more frequently... wish we could guarantee them every charter, but they do move around. |
