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Pawai Bay, Kona Hawaii....
2008-05-16 05:27:00 Pawai Bay from Steve on Vimeo.This video is actually a hair outdated as I took it a couple of months ago when the whales were still here... and the water's generally flatter now. Pawai Bay is one of our many great dive sites. There are 6 moorings in the area, with two more at a site just to the south. It was one of the first marine preserves over here, and being protected there are a lot of fish in the area. Features of the sites are nice rocky walls, some caves and archways, nice reef, and a great dropoff into deep water where seeing something big can happen on occasion.Currently the diving conditions are GREAT!!! I've had double charters the last several days so I stayed out of the water on my day off today... but it was hard to do as the water is sooooo nice right now. The water temperature is still sitting at 75-77, but it's flat as all get-out during the mornings with a bit of a chop in the evenings the last few nights but just fine underwater.We've had some really ni...
Crown of Thorns Starfish...
2008-05-11 05:42:00 This is a Crown of Thorns star. These guys are NOT a favorite critter of ours as they eat coral, and the spines are venemnous to boot. You can see this particular star has just finished off eating the cauliflower coral behind it and is moving on to it's next meal. Corals are a colonial critter, growing on top of the skeleton of previous polyps. The COT starfish will eat the live outer layer, and the coral may or may not ever recover.As far as the poison content of the spines of this star... it is not to be messed with. I've run into a lot of people who have tried touching it "just to see" if it's sharp or hurts.... It is sharp, will poke through gloves and skin easily, and will mess the contact site up for months, I know people who have visible damage years later - it's not a simple bee sting, it's nasty.We're in the midst of a busy spell (what a difference a year makes, last year we were taking the boat out of service for the rebuild and had 4 or 5 charters in May, this y...
Here's another short clip of the manta rays from yesterday in Kona Hawaii..
2008-05-08 09:42:00 Manta ray night dive, Kona Hawaii May 6th, '08 from Steve on Vimeo.This is a short clip from the manta dive last night. This particular night there were roughly 50 or so divers sharing 6-7 mantas. This clip is a short uncut version of what can go on for 45-60 minutes straight on a good night. It's kinda funny, we get people who say "we've already been to stingray city in the Carribean" or "we've seen mantas on dives in 'X location'" as though they've seen it all and the night dive is going to be nothing special, then they do this dive and get 5,10,30,50 minutes (depends on the night, some nights we get nothing, many are just plain amazing) of continuous headbumping manta ray bombardment and come up raving about it being the coolest dive they've ever done. I've been leading this dive since late '99 and it's still a thrill for me. Aloha, Steve
A bunch of mantas at the Kona manta ray night dive tonight...
2008-05-07 11:58:00 We did the manta dive tonight after doing the morning trip also. I'm making this post quick, gotta hit the hay for a few hours and get up for tomorrow's charter - we've been staying quite busy despite being the slow time of year.... How slow is it you may ask... this last Saturday the only other dive charters I saw on the water were the two companies that service primarily Japanese clientele and two companies that have been here for over 25 years. Saturdays seem to be generally a slower dive day because it's a travel day or "the last full day in Kona so I'll do something other than dive" day for a lot of people. We've been going out consistantly, be we are running a bit light (as far as number of divers on the boat) often, going out with a light load beats not going out at all though.Here's a scorpion fish I took a picture of on a night dive a couple weeks back. With the night time coloration it's tough for me to tell if it's a Decoy Scorpionfish or a Speckled Scorpionfis...
A Bee's-eye view of Kona coffee....
2008-05-01 05:01:00 It's spring time again, we've had a little rain and now the coffee is blooming all around our area. We'll probably see the coffee load up with flowers at least a couple times a year depending on what the weather's doing. A couple months after the flowers are gone, the green coffee bean will start to show and then later as the coffee bean turns red it will be ready for harvest. Kona coffee is prized by many as some of the best in the world as it is hand picked, as opposed to machine harvested. This leads to a finer grade of coffee, surpassed only by the coffee bean picked by Indonesian marsupials - Click here if you don't believe me - Civet cats pick only the ripest coffee beans, eat 'em, then the remaining specially pre-treated bean is harvested off the ground by locals and sold in the US for upwards of $300 a pound - and to think people cringe at the price of Kona coffee! I'm personally not a coffee fan, but if I was hosting some kind of a coffee drinking party, it'd be...
Island Fever??? Living in Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii....
2008-04-28 07:04:00 I'm soliciting questions, and blog reader Mel asked this question... "Do you ever get "island fever" living on the Big Island?"For me it really didn't hit for several years, but I'm starting to notice it more now, my wife said it really didn't hit her for 4-5 years.If you live here, you're fairly busy with everyday life... working, cleaning, cutting down the fast growing green stuff if you have property - all the usual things you deal with everywhere else.... you can go quite a while without noticing any feeling of being cooped up. The one thing where it's completely different from life back on the mainland is that if you really want or need a break from the routine, getting in your car and driving to a location that is totally different is more or less impossible. The circle island tour is fun, to a point, then it gets the same. You can't get in a car and in a day or two or five be a world away. I think it took Pat and I three days to drive to Texarkana, Texas from Corvallis...
Manta Ray Diving in Kona with Wayne Levin
2008-04-28 02:23:00 View This Video on You TubeGet up close and personal with Hawaii’s manta rays as you go on a night dive with underwater photographer Wayne Levin. Explore the western waters off of Hawaii’s Big Island and swim with Kona’s otherworldly manta rays. Learn more at http://www.gohawaii.com/play.
Took some underwater video with my Canon G9 on the manta ray night dive ton
2008-04-23 12:14:00 Kona manta ray night dive April 08 from Steve on Vimeo.Tonight we had two mantas show up for the night dive. I took my camera down to see how it does with video in low light - I'm quite pleased, it seems to do better than the other point and shoots I've had.Water conditions were pretty good today, it's still cool though... 75 degrees. I was hoping the big south swell we had the last week would bump it up a bit higher. later, Steve
Current Kona water and air quality conditions.....April 18th, '08
2008-04-19 02:18:00 We've got a huge south swell right now. I should've taken my camera with me downtown today to take a picture in Kailua Bay... lots of water pounding against the sea wall. The winds have been coming up the last two days also so it's been pretty sloppy on the water.The volcano is still actively putting out lots of gasses. They've been off and on issuing voluntary evacuations in communities near the park the last couple of weeks. Wednesday morning they even had a sulfur dioxide alert in HOVE, which is on the west side of the island, and were calling for a voluntary evactuation of the whole area... luckily that was shortlived and called off in about 2 and a half hours. Here in Kona we haven't had the sulfur dioxide issues, but the vog has been very thick for the better part of two weeks now - yuck, we haven't had a good horizon in most of that time and sunsets have turned into a big orange ball with orange sky.Here's a pair of Banded Coral Shrimp I found the other day. They...
Kona Kampachi two ways
2008-04-08 15:59:00 One good thing about blogging, besides the endless supply of like-minded friends on line, is the occasional contact from some company interested in talking to you about blogging, interviewing you for a magazine, or getting their product into your hands. In the past six months I have been featured in two local magazines that did ...
Ford Road to Kona Sweepstakes
2008-04-07 21:58:00 You could win a Ford Edge SEL and a trip for 2 to Hawaii to attend the Ford Ironman World Championship.
By: Sweepstakes Mag
Ella Moss: Kona Strapless Dress in Paradise
2008-04-07 07:00:00 Kona Strapless Dress in Paradise Ella Moss gives comfortable a new name and sexy and new feel. The Kona Strapless Dress in Paradise is a garment that can be worn dressed up or down. Features include a form fitting top that ties in front with an empire waist flow. It is full length for most body ...
Scuba diving at the Place of Refuge in Kona Hawaii
2008-04-02 09:49:00 Scuba diving off Kona Hawaii from Steve on Vimeo.Here's a quickie underwater video of part of the drop off at the Place of Refuge taken with my Canon G9.
Adios Aloha. Aloha Airlines just announced tomorrow (March 31st) will be t
2008-03-31 05:04:00 It's the end of an era of over 60 years. It'll be curious as to how this all shakes out. The State will ask the bankruptcy court to not allow the closure but that may not have any effect. Expect another airline to come in and purchase what remains of the company in a short time... hopefully.Aloha and Hawaiian had attempted to merger a few years back to attempt to create a larger, healthy company. The state wouldn't allow it despite pricing lock guarantees. When that fell through prices went up and the two companies have been struggling to do well since. Go Airlines came in a couple years ago and has offered artificially low prices which has weakened both companies. While benefitting passengers for the short term, it's made it tough for everyone to operate. Both companies have sued Mesa, the parent company of Go. Hawaiian won thier suit and was awarded 80 million, Aloha's suit is ongoing.Hopefully someone steps in soon to service the interisland traffic or things could ...
Kona Coffee: When You Care Enough To Drink The Very Best
2008-03-26 00:00:00 There are many good coffees that are produced and developed world wide to give coffee connoisseurs a delightful variety of flavors and aromas to try. One of the best coffees by far that is on the market today is Kona coffee, which is grown and roasted with utmost care to provide the very best coffee ...
3 tank boat dives in Kona Hawaii
2008-03-20 21:46:00 The standard morning dive outing in Kona tends to be a two tank outing, diving one tank at each of two locations. Some operators do offer a three tank day on occasion. I'm not aware of any at this point that offer a regularly scheduled 3 tank trip, but several will do it when there are enough customers to make a go of it.We did a three tanker yesterday. Our first dive was up north above the airport at a spot a handful of us go to on occasional basis. It's a great live boat dive with both deep and shallow reefs so we can do a deeper multilevel dive and still do a long dive. Highlights of that dive were a manta ray right off the bat, and the reef structure of the dive... lots of grand topography.Our second dive was at Pipe Dream, which is right off the westernmost point of the island on a large dropoff. There are a number of large pipes in the water. The one pictured above is basically a 6-8 foot diameter culvert that begins at about 60' of depth and goes down to about 120'...
Places to stay, finding a vacation rental in Kona, Hawaii and elsewhere....
2008-03-13 23:03:00 I get inquiries through my business about places to stay when coming over here fairly frequently. Kona has lots of hotel options, what many people do not realize is how many condo, home and apartment options are available. Many people put up their unoccupied residences (there are a ton of part timers here) for rent through vacation rental services. There are many companies that do this, as well as many websites where the owners themselves list rentals. We are big fans of www.VRBO.com. We list our rental on it and have used it several times to book rentals for our own vacations. In many cases, if you are going to a resort/tourist area you can often find apartments or homes for comparable or lower pricing than many hotels. We just used it again to reserve a spot in Vegas for the dive show this fall... to my surprise, there are actually a few strip properties avaialable on VRBO.com. We were able to book a unit at the MGM Signature (their luxury condos behind the hotel) for about...
Kona and Content
2008-03-13 00:00:00 I asked my local roastmaster AJ what he was drinking behind the counter, and he told me it was Kona coffee from the Greenwell coop in Hawaii. He's not offering this coffee on the menu currently, because it's so expensive....
adidas Running - Climacool Kona (Running White/Collegiate Royal/Maco) - Men
2008-03-12 00:00:00 Price:104.00the adidas Running - Climacool Kona (Running White/Collegiate Royal/Maco) - Mens: Running shoe built for the neutral to under-pronator who requires lightweight cushioning; A streamlined performance racer for serious triathletes. ClimaCool upper provides 360-degree cooling for the entire foot. GeoFit construction for anatomical fit and comfort. Laceless HUG SYSTEM for quick closure and with adjustable fit and support. adiPRENE + in the forefoot maintains propulsion and efficiency. adiPRENE under the heel for superior cushioning at impact. adiWEAR outsole offers the ultimate in high-wear durability. Flex grooves for optimum forefoot flexibility.[BUY THIS]
The Kona Classic 7 - an underwater photo and video festival, competition a
2008-03-10 07:07:00 There's an annual underwater photography event that's been held here in Kona for several years now that's supposed to be fun... so I thought I'd plug it.This year it'll be held from May 24th through the 31st. Official sponsors for the event are Jack's Diving Locker, Kona Honu Divers, and Bottom Time. The event includes a week of diving along with seminars, photo critiques, social events and a competition with great prizes. It's a great opportunity to learn and develop some underwater photography skills. There will be several well known photo pros involved, who will be rotating on the boats of the official sponsors during the diving portion of the event as well as being present at the evening and social activities.I'll be joining in on the fun myself as I've always wanted to do it but usually I've taken part of that week off to go elsewhere (slow season). It'll be a fun event and if anyone wants to join me on my boat I will be honoring the diving prices they've set u...
Manta ray night snorkel in Kona Hawaii - swim with manta rays...
2008-03-08 09:18:00 Wierd little video of people snorkeling with manta rays from Steve on Vimeo. We've been pretty busy lately, I've got a lull coming for several days before the spring break rush kicks in for about a month. Last night we did a manta dive. About half of our group was divers and the other half snorkelers. I posted plenty on this before, but this is a video of what it looks like to the boat Captains during the dives. The divers are down below in about 32-34 feet of water and the mantas spend their time between the divers on the bottom and the snorkelers on the surface. If you look real hard, you'll see brief instances where there's a real bright spot directly under a group or two of the snorkelers on the left side of the video about half way in... that's actually a manta ray doing belly rolls a foot or two below the snorkelers. It was kind of a bumpy night, so you'll notice the water isn't glass smooth, but it wasn't big surf by any means either. The video doesn't do th...
adidas Running - Climacool Kona W (Shadow/Cyber Metallic/Light Purple) - Wo
2008-03-08 00:00:00 Price:103.95the adidas Running - Climacool Kona W (Shadow/Cyber Metallic/Light Purple) - Womens: Running shoe built for the neutral to under-pronator who requires lightweight cushioning. A streamlined performance racer for serious triathletes. ClimaCool upper provides 360-degree cooling for the entire foot. GeoFit construction for anatomical fit and comfort. Laceless HUG SYSTEM for quick closure and with adjustable fit and support. adiPRENE + in the forefoot maintains propulsion and efficiency. adiPRENE under the heel for superior cushioning at impact. adiWEAR outsole offers the ultimate in high-wear durability. Flex grooves for optimum forefoot flexibility.[BUY THIS]
Surf, Sand and Stars Buffet at the Four Seasons in Kona Hawaii
2008-03-04 10:30:00 Surf, Sand and Stars Buffet at Four Seasons Kona Hawaii from Steve on Vimeo.We went out for our big meal of the year this weekend. We went to the Four Seasons for their Saturday night beach buffet. It's a spendy (75/78 bucks or so a head) and very delicious meal. I'm getting old, so I restrained myself and only had 10 lobster tail halves, a couple pieces of steak, a bunch of lillikoi pork ribs, a pile of steamer clams, a few salads (I didn't know fried chicken could be a salad, but they had fried chicken salad... and here I'd been overlooking salads all this time) and a few deserts (the chocolate souffle was delicious)... I skipped the sushi table altogether. It's a delicious dinner, and even the kids at the place had fun... they break out a fairly sizeable telescope after dark.Sometimes the video on the Canon G9 surprises me. I decided to see if it could handle the relatively low light at the buffet and it did just fine.
Scuba diving and protogynous hermaphrodites in Kona Hawaii...
2008-03-04 00:29:00 Now there's a phrase that's probably not gonna be googled a lot. Something few people know is that several species of fish are actually hermaphroditic. In the case of these fish, Psychedelic Wrasses (Anampses chrysocephalus), they all start as females that form a harem under a dominant male. If the male ever disappears, then the dominant female will change sex and become a male. Protogynous hermaphrodites go from female to male. The reverse is true in protandrous hermaphrodites. I suspect there are some Hawaiian fish that might do that, but you'd have to ask a marine biologist... but there are some recognizeable fish elsewhere that do just that. The most common ones I can think of are several of the clownfish (everyone seems to know them as "Nemo" these days) species. They start as male, and then the most dominant member becomes female as needed - this insures that if two young clownfish find each other they can successfully pair up and mate. Back in my aquarium shop day...
Spinner dolphins in Kona Hawaii...
2008-02-27 07:50:00 Here's a shot of some spinner dolphins right outside of Honokohau Harbor. Several days a week we might see a resident pod that hangs out in front of the harbor and a few other spots. When they are in, you have a fair chance of seeing them on nearby divesites... way cool!!!
Pure Kona Coffee
2008-02-16 10:26:00 By Gary Gresham Pure Kona Coffee is gourmet coffee grown only on the Island of Hawaii. It is grown on the dark volcanic lava rock slopes of Kona which is located on the west side of the Big Island. This area is approximately one mile wide by thirty miles long. It is situated between two volcanoes, Hualalai and Manua Loa. The elevation ranges from 500 to 3000 feet. The unique island
By: Coffee
It's whale season in Hawaii...
2008-02-08 20:41:00 Between dives on yesterday's charter we were treated to a momma whale and her calf on the surface. The youngster was breaching, quite cool as it was probably in the 10-13 feet in length range by my wild guess. Anyway, that got me to thinking I ought to repost a link I posted last year - here it is... Live audio feed from a sonobuoy system up in Puako - click on the link and you can hear the whales off Puako, which is up north of Kona in South Kohala.The pic above is of a Crown of Thorns Starfish. You don't want to touch the spines on these guys as they're sharp enough to go through gloves and pack a nasty toxin that can be very painfull and will leave you a reminder in scar tissue for a few years. Crown of thorns stars are coral feeders so you'll occasionally see white patches on the coral that lead a trail to them. They're generally considered to be a pest, and in some parts of the world have caused severe damage to reefs when there's a bloom of them. In Hawaii, their o...
The Ford Road to Kona Sweepstakes
2008-02-08 16:04:00 FORD ROAD TO KONA SWEEPSTAKES OFFICIAL RULES NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. PURCHASE DOES NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING. SWEEPSTAKES DESCRIPTION: The Ford Road to Kona Sweepstakes ("Sweepstakes") is offered only in the 50 United States and District of Columbia ("U.S.") and begins at 12:00 AM Eastern Time ("ET") on 9/24/07 and ends at 11:59 PM ET on 8/31/08 ("Sweepstakes Period"). SPONSOR: Ford Motor Company, 16800 Executive Drive, Dearborn, MI 48126. ADMINISTRATOR: Exposure Marketing, Inc., 1000 N. Opdyke Rd., Auburn Hills, MI 48326. ELIGIBILITY: The Sweepstakes is open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and District of Columbia ("U.S.") who are 18 years of age or older as of date of entry ("Entrant"). Employees, directors and officers and their immediate families (spouses and siblings, parents and children and their spouses) and household members of Ford Motor Company ("Sponsor"), Team Detroit Inc., Exposure Marketing, Inc., World Triathlon Corporati...
Save O?oma (Pine Trees) in Kona!
2008-02-07 16:26:00 I thought the fight was already lost, but it seems it is still up for debate whether or not the county/state should acquire O’oma II to protect it as public, open space. Considering how important Pine Trees is -how precious the waters and how vital this surf / recreational / camping area is for families ...
Tiburon Kona Platform Storage Bed
2008-01-28 17:42:00 The Tiburon Kona Platform Storage Bed from Hillsdale Furniture is one of those beds that comes conjunction with beauty look and sturdy construction. This stylish bed is available in Queen and King Sizes that accommodate your bedroom space perfectly. The bed is constructed of Asian hardwoods and maple veneers with a sturdy structured body ...
Discount bedding:Roxy Kona Duvet and Sham Set
2008-01-28 13:59:00 Discount bedding Product Features Size: Twin - Color: Navy Roxy Kona Duvet and Sham Set brings the tropic right to your bedroom. The large flowers in white and navy make up this beautiful duvet set. The add a orange stitched Roxy logo gives this duvet a great accenting color. The floral design has a beach like quality on a soft cotton canvas fabric. Twin Set includes one twin duvet (66″ x 86″) and one standard sham (20″ x 26″). Material Content: 100% Cotton Machine Washable Product DescriptionRoxy Kona Duvet and Sham Set brings the tropic right to your bedroom. The large flowers in white and navy make up this beautiful duvet set. The add a orange stitched Roxy logo gives this duvet a great accenting color. The floral design has a beach like quality on a soft cotton canvas fabric. Twin Set includes one twin duvet (66″ x 86″) and one standard sham (20″ x 26″). Discount bedding or bedding accessory.
Real Estate Rejuvination in Kauila-Kona Hawaii
2008-01-28 06:10:00 Real Estate Rejuvenation in Hawaii doesn't seem to be so hard. It must have something to do with the beautiful weather, the sweet smell of plumeria and the trade winds singing their tunes as if to say, "come closer, come closer, listen and learn what is in your soul". It is easier to hear my heart as I look out over the glassy ocean and watch the trees sway on the horizon.Tomorrow it is off to the magical island of Kauai where I will meet some new friends, see some old ones, giggle with my husband, and sit while my lovely daughter, who is now a resident of Kauila-Kona, eat from my plate as she has done since she was little as if to say, I am still connected to you by a silver cord, Mom.
Scuba Diving in Kona Hawaii.....
2008-01-28 05:22:00 Hi again, The last post was sorta commercial, but hopefully informative for some, so I thought I'd bump it down a post. I really don't post many pics of divers doing their thing. Part of it is I don't want to infringe on anyone's privacy and lots of times I take pictures with divers in them I'm close enough to really tell who they are, and more often than not, when I take a shot from a distance it comes out crummy to where I can't photoshop it well. Typically they get tons of red in them after the fixes, these I took out as much red as I could. I'm hoping with the RAW function on the Canon G9 (which I really didn't use on my Olympus sp-350) I'll be able to get a relatively accurate color of the deeper scenes. Diving in Kona is different from many places in that nearly all of our dive sites have both deep and shallow water. We can take the group down the dropoffs (which usually start at about 35-40 feet and drop to beyond recreational diving depths) for a while to exp...
OK, so I saw a cool underwater video today,,,
2008-01-25 11:10:00 It was linked on a message board I check. Click here to go to the video page. It's basically about invertebrates, some spectacular deep sea stuff and shallow water cephalopods (squid, cuttlefish and octopus). It's very interesting, and if you watch all 5 minutes of it you'll see why we don't see octopus on every dive even though they're probably out in the open.This is a nice nudibranch I think I posted another picture of way back in '06. We see them on occasion here and typically call them Strawberry Nudibranchs, but I do think there are a couple closely related species that get called that. This one in particular confuses me because it has characterics of both a Pustulose Phyllidia and a Rosy Phyllidia. Aloha, Steve
NOAA survey says Big Island has most live coral...
2008-01-23 22:46:00 Here's a link to an online version of a news article I saw last week.... on their recent coral survey of the Hawaiian Islands. It basically says the Big Island has live coral covering 57% of it's shallow coastline. The print article I saw also mentioned the bulk of that was on the west side (Kona,Kohala) and the other islands average somewhere in the mid 20s percentage-wise in coverage.If any of you are interested in some of the specifics of the survey, you can click on this link to get to an interactive map of the islands and check out maps of coral structure around the islands.The picture above is of a day octopus I took at Pawai Bay the other week. I couldn't quite get the focus on him I wanted, he wasn't interested in sticking around and posing. A little personal health update- Saw the doctor yesterday and he's thinking tears at the top of the hamstring and down behind the knee, but nothing that won't heal over the next little while - that's good news as surgery is re...
Kona Platform Bed
2008-01-16 13:16:00 Relieve into the rich and smooth style that this Kona Platform Bed adds to your bedroom. The low profile Kona Bed features a firm wood and metal construction that has a rich cherry finish to delivers a classic and stylish look. This attractive set comes with a headboard, footboard and side rails. With an outstanding attention ...
Hawaiian Angelfish....
2008-01-15 22:34:00 The last post was sort of a lead in to this one. I went for a short Captain's dive on the charter during the surface interval yesterday (since Cathy's also a licensed Captain, it's legal, as a licensed Captain must remain on board at all times on charters) and managed to get my first decent shot of a Fisher's Angelfish (Centropyge fisheri). Hawaii has basically four angelfish that you might find while diving - Flame, Bandit, Potter's and Fisher's - and a couple of other species that can be seen by researchers in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. Our angelfish species are basically dwarf/pygmy species, although the Bandit (pictured a couple posts below) is a "large" angel species, and are typically shy and dart into the coral when you try to photograph them.The Fisher's angel only grows to about two inches in length, typically lives in rubble below 60' or so and darts into the rubble on approach. It's probably something most divers won't see unless they're specifically l...
Taking photos underwater can be a bit of a challenge...
2008-01-08 22:35:00 I've been wanting to get a "good" shot of one of these guys for a long time. This isn't it quite yet. So many of the fish dart about so much that it's tough to get them focused. The closer you are the tougher it is, too far out then the flash doesn't get enough light to the subject.... this photo has just a bit too much movement for my tastes. One of these days!!!This is a juvenile Yellowtail Coris Wrasse (Coris Gaimard). On occasion, people not familiar with the Hawaiin fish will mistake it for a clown fish (Hawaii doesn't have clown fish, I believe we've just a tad to cool of a water temperature for them to reproduce successfully). Typically we'll see the Yellowtail Coris in this coloration up to about 3 inches or so. As they grow, they will lose the white stripes, start adding blue and develop a yellow tail. If you take a look through all the archives, or click on the "wrasse" label below, you should find a shot or two of larger specimens. Aloha, Steve
Camera RAW and underwater photography with my Canon G9
2008-01-06 22:52:00 So I'm sitting at my computer and wanted to look at a document and see that I had a couple of RAW pictures in the file that I hadn't looked at. I thought I'd updated Photoshop lately and maybe they now support the RAW format my camera uses, I opened Photoshop and the pictures do now show.For those of you who don't know what RAW is, basically consider it as a "digital negative" which holds all the information the camera sees at the time, no JPEG compression and such. Not all cameras offer RAW, but it's becoming more common in the higher end point and shoot cameras these days. It takes up a lot of memory compared to JPEG, but if you have an editor to open it (without the editor, you will see nothing as computers don't automatically recognize RAW) with, it'll do a lot of things easily that are tough to do in JPEG (at least tough if you are like me and not a Photoshop whiz). The picture above is this picture after a quick trip through the RAW editor in Photoshop. With the RA...
Aloha Theater and Aloha Angel Cafe in Kainaliu, Kona, Hawaii
2008-01-05 22:37:00 I thought I'd talk a bit about a local South Kona Landmark. The Aloha Theater's been around for ages. They hold plays, host musicians, and screen the occasional movie (usually independant films, we saw "My Big fat Greek wedding" there when it was too small to hit the big theaters). There's been a restaurant there since we've moved here, it was originally a breakfast and lunch spot and added dinner after an ownership change and slight name change to it's current Aloha Angel Cafe. Anyway, it's long been known for good food and Hawaiian time service (slow service is very common here). We decided to give it a try the other week and had a great breakfast and prompt service. They put out a nice breakfast, Pat and I both had one of the day's specials... this day it was Prime rib, eggs and potatoes... yummy... it ran in the 13 buck range if I recall correctly. I wouldn't hesitate to return, especially if the service continues to be that prompt.
Kona Platform Bed
2008-01-01 16:17:00 Available in either queen or king size, the Kona Platform Bed saves a lot of space for your bedroom, measuring at 48H x 76W x 95D inches. Constructed with solid woods and metal, this bed offers a cherry finish which signify both classical and elegance. In addition, a headboard, foot board and side rails were ...
IR Training in Kona 12/26-27
2007-12-23 01:35:00 For more check Liberty Ohana Wednesday 12/26 10:30AM to 12:30PM Keaau. IR/Presenter Training at the LOC in Keaau with TANYA ANNE. Today’s topic is “How to Create an Effective and Dynamic Presentation.” Tanya Anne will show you the fundamentals you need to create your own presentation to give to friends and family! This training is a repeat of the ...
Cruise: Kona
2007-12-20 07:22:00 Kona is a tender port, which means there is no dock,and you have to go ashore aboard the cruise ship's tenders ?actually three of the powered lifeboats, each of which holds 60 people or so. Once again, our elevated status as residents of a suite meant that we got to skip the line-ups and board the tenders whenever, rather than wait for an assigned section. Ah the joys of being rich -- or at any rate, living like we were rich.rear view of a tender mounted on the cruise ship as a lifeboatWe spent the morning shopping in the local artisan market, buying various knick knacks, etc., and wandering around the town. The highlight was eating snow cones (I use the Canadian expression somewhat loosely, since they are in no way equivalent) at Scandicanian Shaved Ice. The 'small' size was the size of Kasia's head; the medium that Mary and I shared was roughly the size of a basketball. Each ball of shaved ice comes with three flavourings (from a choice of about 30 exotic flavours) and Kasia a...
The humpback whales have returned to Kona Hawaii...
2007-12-18 09:08:00 Wish I had some pictures of Humpbacks, Banded Coral Shrimp will have to do. Pat took a shot of these a couple weeks back. I really liked this picture because of the second shrimp being in the background.We've been hearing reports of whale sightings lately. We joined in on a garage sale on the weekend to get some old junk out of our garage and could see them off in the ocean off Kailua town in the afternoon.Maybe this will be the year I get to see the whales underwater? Bob has, Cathy has, even some of my customers have on dives I've captained... I'm about due I hope. Aloha, Steve
2 mantas at the Kona manta ray night dive this Saturday...
2007-12-17 08:33:00 Actually one extra showed up at the very end of the dive. Bob and I were out with some customers from Oahu for the dive. They really enjoyed it and asked me to give them a heads up the next time we start seeing big numbers for a stretch so they could give that a try.Bob said the water temp had dropped on his computer by 2 degrees from the day before. That tends to happen in December when the temperature starts dropping, each new northwest swell can potentially drop it a degree or two. He saw 77 on his computer yesterday afternoon... still fairly warm but this year never really topped out too warm so it could be cool by next month.Above is a Wire Coral Goby (Bryaninops yongei?) that Pat took a picture of a few weeks back. These guys spend pretty much their entire lives living on a wire coral, adult lives anyway as I'm not sure what the larvae and juveniles do.I stayed up top for both dives so I didn't get to have any of the fun. My big excitment for the night was just hearing a...
It's a beautiful day in Kona Hawaii
2007-12-13 22:15:00 Aloha,This is a Scrambled Egg Nudibranch I took a picture of the other day. They're about our most commonly seen nudibranchs off Kona. I forgot to mention the water temp on the last dive... surprisingly enough the big swell we had didn't seem to drop the temp any. Bob and I were both still seeing 79 degrees on our computers.Today I'm finishing up cleaning up our vacation rental as we have renters coming in tonight. The rental and the immediate yard in front of it were spared any of the flood damage. We've finsihed cleaning the mud out of the garage and have sandbagged around the back end of the house to hopefully keep it getting wet again if we have another huge rain. We talked with someone from the county and they told us to hang tight before re-doing the yard as a coffee farm above us is where the waterflow problem is and they'll havve to fix their property to keep ours from getting nailed on huge rains. Hopefully "huge" means huge, we've seen 3 rains in the last two ...
Whoohoo!! The power's on this evening.... also.... Time lapse photography w
2007-12-07 06:11:00 Aloha, We've had a heck of a week here. Following the floods of last week, we had a single decent diving day and then things started to go downhill. By earlier this week, pertty much every boat in Kona was off the water due to a cold front that brought in strong southwest winds to do battle with the northwest surf. The winds started getting fairly strong over land a couple of days ago and we've had a bunch of power outages. We've spent most of the last 2 days without power at home. Yesterday brought in another freak rain. I'd heard last week we had something in the neighborhood of 7.5 inches of rain in a few hours. Last night it was close. It didn't seem like it rained that hard for that long, but our neighbor's 4 inch rain gauge was overflowing after he emptied it yesterday morning. Pat talked to someone locally at her work that had a 6 inch gauge overflow yesterday. At any rate we had rivers in the yard again just 20 minutes into the rain, at least they didn't take...
Sloppy water in Kona the last few days...
2007-12-04 05:03:00 Aloha,We've hit a rare little stretch where the water is quite rough. Surfers are probably loving it, but it's not great for diving in. On the manta dive the other night it was pretty nice, but the surge was coming up. On the way home the winds were sort of battling the swell and it was a rough ride, and it seems to have more or less stayed that way for a couple of days. This afternoon I could hear the surf from my home, which is about 2.5 miles by road and over a mile as the crow flies from the ocean. I'm hoping it settles down, the news said to expect big swells on Oahu - sometimes they hit us, sometimes they are blocked by Oahu and Maui.The picture above was taken by Pat on a dive a couple of weeks back, it's a semi-closeup shot of a cushion star. The neat thing about this photo is the critter that was on it - here's a closeup.... This is some type of Imperial Shrimp which hangs out on the cushion stars. Different colored stars will have shrimp that more or less match t...
Sunset from the manta dive.
2007-12-01 10:22:00 Here's a sunset from the manta dive last week. Today I had charters in the morning and evening. When I packed up my camera today, I forgot to pull out the memory card from the computer... which seems to practically guarantee we'll see something interesting I can't take a picture of... as it so happened, I noticed a fin sticking up on the way to our first dive site and slowed down to find a good sized pelagic manta ray. These guys are different than the manta rays we typically see on the night dive, they're solid black and typically larger than the ones we see regularly. We were able to put our divers in with it for a few minutes.Tonight's manta dive was very good. Bob said there was probably at least a dozen. We had a pretty sloppy ride home (northwest swell and southwest winds sort of stacks things up) and pretty good surge on the dive, but the divers had a great time. Later, Steve |
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