We took a much needed reprieve from work and headed to the Big Island of Hawaii for some relaxation and fun diving. We love the fact that we can take very short flights and explore the other islands. This trip was a little longer that the one to neighbouring Oahu but sill about 1 hour of total flight time with a short stop in Honolulu airport.
We scheduled two dive trips with Jack's Diving Locker on the Kona Coast. They came highly recommended and lived up to every expectation. Highly professional crew, comfortable and clean boats, and vast collective experience of the Kona coast and it's resident creatures.
Our first trip was the much talked about night manta dive. We arrived to the dive site late in the afternoon and immediately spotted mantas and dolphins in the area. Everyone diver on board was very excited. And we were not going to be disappointed. For the first dive in the late afternoon we followed our guide, Bruce, around for the first half of the dive. We instantly dropped down to around 30 feet to see the garden eel area. Apparently this is an unusual depth for the garden eel. They usually occur and deeper depths but apparently the current and amount of plankton in the area have drawn then to shallower depths. They are such a neat site. You just see garden eels sticking out of their holes for as far as they eye can see. They are very whimsical. From there we strolled along searching among the coral growth for various eels, angels, etc. After a bit Brownie and I decided to head north towards the deep part of the reef as the captain had suggested. We let our guide know we were heading off on our own, a perk of being a dive professional. The average depth dropped quickly. We could have easily found ourselves in water 100 + feet but we stayed around the 60 foot range and soon enough up ahead we started spotting mantas. They were so majestic to watch as they glide past. After hanging for a bit we giddily headed back to the boat. We were totally amazed with the visibility, the healthy coral growth, and the abundant and varied amount of sea creatures.
We hung around for a nice long surface interval as we tried to watch the sunset. Due to vog, caused by the erupting volcano, there was not much chance of seeing the sun set. You could almost say the visibility was better under water. Jack's staff provided a nice sandwich during the interval along with several other munchies. After everyone's appetite was satiated they proceeded with a very thorough dive briefing on the procedures and expectations for the much anticipated night manta dive. They staff was very thorough and covered everything dealing with the dive and mantas and manta behaviors. You could sense the divers' excitement. I personally could not wait to get in the water.
And in went all the divers. It was not long before the giant gentle behemoths arrived. And what a site it was. They kept swimming in to the light column to feed on the plankton attracted by the lights. They would turn around and come right at you with their mouths wide open. They seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as the divers were enjoying their show. We had about 20 mantas just circling, feeding and playing. One big one even followed us right back to the boat. For Brownie and myself it was as close to a religious experience as we can get. Nature's designs and wonders leave me in awe each and every time.
This was a totally amazing experience. I highly encourage divers visiting the Big Island of Hawai'i to go and experience the night manta dive.
Go to http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=adriana+antelo&emb=0&aq=f# to see a longer video of our dives. Otherwise the video here contains the same, just shorter, and it contains common and scientific names for most of the species filmed.
We scheduled two dive trips with Jack's Diving Locker on the Kona Coast. They came highly recommended and lived up to every expectation. Highly professional crew, comfortable and clean boats, and vast collective experience of the Kona coast and it's resident creatures.
Our first trip was the much talked about night manta dive. We arrived to the dive site late in the afternoon and immediately spotted mantas and dolphins in the area. Everyone diver on board was very excited. And we were not going to be disappointed. For the first dive in the late afternoon we followed our guide, Bruce, around for the first half of the dive. We instantly dropped down to around 30 feet to see the garden eel area. Apparently this is an unusual depth for the garden eel. They usually occur and deeper depths but apparently the current and amount of plankton in the area have drawn then to shallower depths. They are such a neat site. You just see garden eels sticking out of their holes for as far as they eye can see. They are very whimsical. From there we strolled along searching among the coral growth for various eels, angels, etc. After a bit Brownie and I decided to head north towards the deep part of the reef as the captain had suggested. We let our guide know we were heading off on our own, a perk of being a dive professional. The average depth dropped quickly. We could have easily found ourselves in water 100 + feet but we stayed around the 60 foot range and soon enough up ahead we started spotting mantas. They were so majestic to watch as they glide past. After hanging for a bit we giddily headed back to the boat. We were totally amazed with the visibility, the healthy coral growth, and the abundant and varied amount of sea creatures.
We hung around for a nice long surface interval as we tried to watch the sunset. Due to vog, caused by the erupting volcano, there was not much chance of seeing the sun set. You could almost say the visibility was better under water. Jack's staff provided a nice sandwich during the interval along with several other munchies. After everyone's appetite was satiated they proceeded with a very thorough dive briefing on the procedures and expectations for the much anticipated night manta dive. They staff was very thorough and covered everything dealing with the dive and mantas and manta behaviors. You could sense the divers' excitement. I personally could not wait to get in the water.
And in went all the divers. It was not long before the giant gentle behemoths arrived. And what a site it was. They kept swimming in to the light column to feed on the plankton attracted by the lights. They would turn around and come right at you with their mouths wide open. They seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as the divers were enjoying their show. We had about 20 mantas just circling, feeding and playing. One big one even followed us right back to the boat. For Brownie and myself it was as close to a religious experience as we can get. Nature's designs and wonders leave me in awe each and every time.
This was a totally amazing experience. I highly encourage divers visiting the Big Island of Hawai'i to go and experience the night manta dive.
Go to http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=adriana+antelo&emb=0&aq=f# to see a longer video of our dives. Otherwise the video here contains the same, just shorter, and it contains common and scientific names for most of the species filmed.
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