A Kona Hawaii scuba diver blabbers on

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So I was kidding about that Kramer vs. the Cable Guy comment in the last po
2009-09-19 08:58:00
It was an interesting/frustrating day.So I'm down at the office at 8am and left for only a few minutes to put the boat in for the charter. I'd made arrangements with the phone company to have the technician call a few minutes prior to arrival. I received no call so I'm thinking things are OK. By 4pm and no technician and I'm thinking maybe they didn't call and I missed them, so I call the phone company and the gal on the end says they have no record of an order for my phone number. She apologizes and sets it up for next week with a new case number... I'm a bit aggravated because I had to pay an extra employee for the day so I could hang out all day rather than work the charter....15 minutes later I decide it might be smart to double check on the status of the new case, just to make sure they got it right and I didn't recall her repeating my address. I get a hold of a nice gentleman and he looks up the filing for my phone number and says, we have you down for Tuesday morni...
More About: Kidding , Comment , Cable

Lots of fun scuba diving in Kona Hawaii.....
2009-09-18 07:51:00
Here's a goby I've been wanting to get a good picture of for a long time, this one's about as close as I've managed to get, I may have another more head-on pic I've got to photoshop that may come out OK. I'm thinking this is a Twospot Sandgoby (Coryphopterus duospilus). The picture really doesn't do them justice, in real life they're.... invisible.... well, almost. They've got see through bodies. You can see all their internal structure and their body meat is literally clear.We've been diving pretty much every day since my little 4 day break early in the month. Tomorrow I'm not on the boat though, Bob and Cathy will lead the charter... gotta sit in my office and wait for the phone guy to come and get me service.... I ordered phone service a while back and the office is loaded with phone jacks as it used to have a multi-desk travel agency in it, but none of them work. I'm to expect the technician some time between 8 am and 5 pm... I can't help but think of the Seinf...
More About: Hawaii , Kona , Scuba Diving , Diving

Dwarf Moray Eel....
2009-09-15 09:19:00
Here's a little Dwarf Moray Eel (Gymnothorax melatremus) I spotted today peering out of a crack at Turtle Pinnacle on our second dive of the day. Turtle Pinnacle has become a bit less reliable as a turtle cleaning station as of late, but it's still a very good dive. We had a pretty big swell today and the viz was down for the second dive, but we were still able to find several eels, a divided flatworm, a rather uncooperative octopus that took off right after being spotted, a Flame angel, Great Barracuda and a school of Opelu, several pipefish and other critters. We had dolphins swim past us underwater briefly as we were going to our safety stop. Bob was Captain during that dive and said they'd been around our bubbles a few times during the dive.... ... and that wasn't the good dive... the first dive was at a different spot where they (Bob and the gang) came up talking about seeing Tinker's butterflys, Flame angels, a Reticulated butterfly, a male Psychedilic wrasse with his...

4 days off... longest stretch since spring... got busy working on the offic
2009-09-10 08:44:00
Empty shop in early September from Steve on Vimeo.Here's a quick video of where it's standing now. I've got to put the "back room" together and clean up the closets and get them shelved, and it'll be set to go. Diving's been real good the last little while, at least up through Sunday. I've got at least a 10 day stretch of charters coming up again starting Friday.
More About: Spring , Days , Working , Longest

Another day... another frogfish....
2009-09-03 09:56:00
Here's a shot of the same frogfish from the other day that I took this morning. Today it was gorgeous in Kona... bright and sunny, no clouds over the ocean and few on the mountains. We had some customers on board today that were great on air... 84 minutes the first dive and 72 on the second. They'll be on the next several days, it'll be curious to see if their bottom time improves even more. We had a ripping current on our first dive, so we turned it into a one way dive and I followed their bubbles to pick them up down the coastline so they didn't have to battle the current the whole dive... those dives are always fun as you can cover quite a bit of ground and see some spots we generally don't see when we're moored the whole dive.Current water temperatures are still a quite comfortable 80-ish. This is a great time to be diving in Kona.I'm making slow but steady progress on the office between charters. Been busy varnishing bamboo sheeting the last couple days among other t...

Here's a cell phone panorama photo I took from Splasher's Grill this mornin
2009-08-29 08:47:00
You'll need to click on the picture to see the panoramic version....Splasher's is quickly becoming Pat and my favorite eating spot. We'd heard they have a good breakfast and tried it. Kona doesn't have a lot of good breakfast spots and this one's right up there. Today I had the carne asada and eggs special, Pat had the eggs benedict on crabcakes that's a regular menu item (she considers that particular item to be one of the best breakfasts she's ever had, I may try it next time).It was a gorgeous day today, as you may be able to tell by the photo from my cell phone. We had no charter today so Pat and I headed down to the office/shop to continue attempting to get it together... we're getting real close. Soon I should be able to meet customers the morning before their first charters, or in the afternoon a day or more before their first charters, to size up gear and get paperwork done. I'm getting tired of working out of my pickup truck. It'll be a clean and comfortable...
More About: Photo , Phone , Cell Phone , Cell , Panorama

Today was a great dolphin day underwater....
2009-08-26 09:48:00
We went to Garden Eel Cove for the morning dive today and there were dolphins in the bay. During the dive the dolphins were all over the place and visited our divers numerous times. Cathy had her camera in hand, I had to snap a shot of the back of her camera with my cell phone... tons of dolphins in this shot. They were all around our divers... I'm counting 22 in just the photo. By the sounds of it, it was one of our better dolphin shows on any charter I've worked in the 10 years I've been doing this. I'll try to get the actual image from Cathy at some point and post it...it's a VERY clear image.On the way to our second dive site we were treated to an extra special happening - pilot whales around the boat. They were only about a half mile offshore, usually they're much further out. Sorry no pics. Great mammal day all around. Aloha, Steve
More About: Dolphin , Today , Underwater

Frogfish, Kona Hawaii
2009-08-25 09:43:00
Pat joined us on the boat yesterday and had a blast diving.... frogfish, dolphins underwater, eagle rays and turtles, a huge snowflake eel hunting with a grouper - all kinds of neat stuff. I've been recovering from the darned cold, staying out of the water and Captaining the boat 'til I stop draining, but Pat had her camera along and got this shot of the frogfish.Water conditions have been exceptional the last couple of days. We had 150'+ viz today on the dives.
More About: Hawaii , Kona

Random blabber time: Underwater cameras, vacations and other stuff...
2009-08-20 22:15:00
Canon has announced the release of the new Canon G11. I've been using a G9 for a couple of years now and love it, but the housing's getting a bit beat up and occasionally the buttons stick and lock up the camera at depth... so the obvious cheap solution is to shop for a new/used housing... but man, I'm really wanting to get into an Olympus or Panasonic micro four thirds camera and housing some time in the next year as the line develops and the new models come out (but we're talking some $$ though, and I've got more than enough other things I need to spend it on for a while already). Now Canon announces the new G11... a few less megapixels than the G9, but an improved sensor and processor for less noise and improved low light performance... hmmm, might be more affordable sooner in my case... hmmm....Summer vacations seem to be ending, we're still going out nearly every day but the numbers on the boat are down. We're actually in the prime season for diving Kona for the next ...
More About: Time , Random , Stuff , Vacations , Cameras

Hurricane Felicia was ho hum for Kona, Hurricane Guillermo even moreso...
2009-08-20 08:31:00
We rarely have hurricane weather in Kona when hurricanes pass the Big Island. We managed to get some weird winds and one evening with 3 inches of rain when it passed to the north, but looking at the weather radar it didn't seem to be directly from the storm. Anyways, other than having to tuck around corners to stay out of the wind it didn't affect the diving as far as viz and such.We've still been quite busy. On the 13th I was looking at the calendar and thinking the next day would be one of the last charters for the month, then the phone started to ring and I'm looking at maybe 2-3 days off the rest of the month if I get no more phone calls... I'm hoping for calls to fill in empty spots, got an office to fill up.I haven't been working in the "office" much lately, I had two days off a week ago that I thought I'd be able to get in, but spent it sleeping off a heavy cold. I'm cutting up palmwood trim to cover that white stripe in the middle of the walls from a picture a fe...
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Hurricane Felicia's coming... sort of...
2009-08-08 00:02:00
We've got our first hurricane "threat" of the season going on right now. Hurricane Felicia made it to a category 4 hurricane a day or two back, was down to a category 2 by last night or this morning and will likely be a good sized rain cloud by the time it reaches Hawaii. I think they're predicting it to be a tropical depression. Sounds like larger surf on the east side of the island is likely on Sunday. We'll see if anything comes of it on our side of the island when it passes. In years past that I've lived here, "hurricane days" have been gorgeous and good days for diving.I've got a couple days off after tonight's dive, and I don't expect a whole lot of phone calls 'til this thing passes. I may go shorediving Monday morning to take some pictures if the water's flat. I'm running low on unposted photos, haven't carried the camera on dives in some time, so a day on my own might be fun.Here's something you don't see a whole lot of in Hawaii... the photo above is of ...
More About: Sort

Still busy.... Congratulations newlyweds!!!!
2009-08-05 09:55:00
Odd title, but we've had newlywed couples on the last couple of days... must be a lot of late summer weddings.We've had a pretty good south swell for it seems like forever, but we've been able to tuck in around corners and the viz where the swells aren't pounding has been fantastic. About a week and a half ago it was real heavy and we spent several days that we didn't have repeat customers up at Garden Eel Cove off the aiport... had viz in the 200' range - wow!It's been pretty muggy the last two weeks, we've broke down and turned on the AC in our bedroom at night, we rarely do that for that long as the electrical rate here is outlandish.Here's a shot of a Tiger Moray (Scuticaria tigrina). We don't see these fish's heads all that often, see their body through the coral heads from time to time.Heading to bed... got morning and afternoon/evening charters tomorrow, so I'll be working from 8am to about 11pm or so. Later, Steve
More About: Congratulations

Don't tease the animals!!!
2009-08-03 06:21:00
Fun with lazers. from Steve on Vimeo.OK, I shouldn't have done this, but my wife has a lazer pointer and I couldn't help myself.
More About: Animals

More garish colors....
2009-07-29 08:53:00
Howdy,If you haven't noticed, I've decided to see how my placement in google for the phrase "garish colors" stands in a few days.... just kidding, but it wouldn't surprise me if the blog places well in a search for that phrase soon.So here's a quick shot of how it looks after today's painting fun. One more coat of red, and a bit of touch up in the teal and the current slatwall will be finished for now. By the time I'm finished, it'll look like someone's trying to put a small dive shop in. I've got a few T-shirts coming in, but that's about all it's gonna be for a while. It'll be nice to have a home of operations outside of my garage and pickup truck though.Fast update... I just for the heck of it googled "garish colors" and the blog shows up near the top of the page.... this post could put it over the top.... If only I could place so well for "scuba". Later, Steve
More About: Colors

5 manta dives in 8 days, plus a few day charters and puttin' together the s
2009-07-28 21:18:00
.... I slept in 'til 7 today. I decided to start trying to offer the manta dive on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to keep up with the schedule, but I'm sort of getting used to it. After the charters and the cleanup I usually get home from the manta dive about 11:30 to 11:45, which is waaay past my bedtime, and I can't sleep right away. At first getting up at 6 am to do it all over again was really causing me grief - very tired - but I'm starting to get a bit more used to it. We ended up doing an extra night charter to accommodate a group of existing customers and it worked out fine, but I don't know if I'll keep the MWF thing indefinitely or not... sort of depends on what happens this fall when I'm running the office somewhat regularly. For now, as long as I stay away from caffeine in the evening I seem to be able to crash early enough to get enough sleep for now after the night charters.If the phone doesn't ring, I've got a couple day...
More About: Manta , Days

Time for more garish colors....
2009-07-23 08:05:00
Remember I mentioned a couple posts back that we'd had a huge south swell that caused some damage to the reef in at least one spot. Here's a shot of a rather sizable lobe coral that was outright lifted up and turned over. So far I've only noticed damage in one spot, everything else I've dove recently was spared.Been busy. Last night we had a manta dive. It was a bit slow to develop, seemed like we got one additional manta every 10 minutes... ended up with 4 mantas and a pretty good show by the end of the dive. The divers were stoked... heard the usual "best dive ever" comments. This dive is an incredible show and if you are in Kona and like snorkeling or diving it's just about a "must do".Today a long time customer that has become a friend and I hung slatwall in the "office". My mexican food inspired colors are now offset by cardboard colored particle board. After tomorrow's charter I'll run out and buy some primer and more tropical/Caribbean brightly colored paint. Af...
More About: Time , Colors

So I'm eating a tostada... and then it comes to me...
2009-07-14 08:30:00
I haven't been blogging much the last month and a half as I've been real busy with Wanna Dive. I mentioned earlier that I've rented out a spot across from the harbor for an office/storage/classroom/meeting spot/place to hang my T-shirts.Here's a refresher look at the space.I wanted to set up the spot in a way that I could display my shirts and whatever else I may have at some point. Originally I wasn't really thinking of painting it, just washing the wall and hanging some slatwall or gridwall. I was looking at one of the fishing charter stores in the area and saw bright red slatwall, found it curious and asked Pat of her opinion, and what would she think if I put in a sheet of slatwall and painted it red with a diagonal white stripe to do the dive flag thing... she said go for it. That's about all I planned at the time - white walls, a sheet of slatwall looking like a dive flag.... then I got to thinking, I'm gonna have this gosh-awful red thing on one wall of a not fresh...
More About: Eating

Orange Cup Coral from Kona Hawaii....
2009-07-14 08:13:00
I did a dive last week at Pawai Bay out on the Kaiwi Point end. There's a bunch of cup coral on a large formation near the point and the current was screaming when we were down so the polyps were out bigtime.We had a huge southwest swell during the last half of June. I'd heard people mention it was one of the largest in decades but I hadn't thought much of it 'til this dive. Everything on the west end of the dive was as normal, but in one area of the site there was noticeable damage.... large lobe coral formations were sheared off and tossed out of place, often upside down. Wow. The area between Carousel and the Body Glove mooring had quite a bit of breakage. I'm wanting to check out the reef more inshore and to the south to see if it was damaged also. All of our sites that weren't directly in the path of the swell are fine. Quite interesting, it's amazing how much power a little surf has. later, Steve
More About: Hawaii , Coral , Orange , Kona

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!!!!
2009-07-04 19:51:00
Here's a Leaf Scorpionfish (Taenianotus triacanthus) I found under a coral head at Turtle Pinnacle a couple months back. Pat's family flew in last night so we've got a full house for a few days. I've got today off, with charters the next few days. I've got a big project ahead of me... the "office". I've rented a spot out near the harbor where I'll be able to keep my gear (the business has pretty much been living out of the truck and garage for several years), hang my T shirts, and meet customers that want to meet or try gear on ahead of time. I've got no immediate plans for retail, no immediate money anyways, so it'll be "Open by Accident", I mean "Open by Appointment", only. I'm heading off shortly to start filling holes, sanding and washing the walls in preparation for a more funky paint job... gloss white's kinda boring... there used to be a travel company office in this spot, I'm shooting for a different look. I'll post a walk through tour once I'm done - So...
More About: Happy , July

Whale shark today!!!!!
2009-06-30 09:26:00
We had a light load on board today, did dives at Black Hole and Sand Chute. "Black Hole" sounds more exciting than it actually is, but it's an all right dive. Sand Chute can be pretty good, especially when big things are swimming by. Today the bay off the Kona airport, where Sand Chute happens to be, was loaded with dolphins. Our divers did manage to get a brief glimpse of them underwater in the distance, but it was very brief.On the way back we were rounding Keahole point and I noticed something on the surface. I thought it was a manta ray for a moment... then saw the spots....WHALESHARK!!! I hit the brakes and we ended up right next to it. It swam about 18 inches off our port side. Little guy, maybe about 12 feet long or so. Smallest one I've seen here. We're scrambling to get snorkels on masks and such and it made one more pass right next to the boat and was gone. We spent 20 minutes or so looking for it... bummer, it didn't stick around. This was still the highligh...
More About: Shark , Whale

Time for a Hawaii underwater nudie photo...
2009-06-28 10:28:00
Here's a shot of a Gold Lace Nudibranch (Halgerda terramtuentis). Looking up the scientific name, I just learned something new... this nudibranch is apparently only known from the Hawaii an Islands... cool, another piece of trivia. I was down doing a "Captain's dive" a week or two ago and saw this one under an arch.The surf is really up right now. We've had a big south swell for several days now, and it seems to have peaked (hopefully) the last 2 days. We've got turquoise looking water all along the coast right now... people think it's pretty, but for divers it kind of sucks... it basically is light reflecting off all of the sand in the water, not clear water showing off it's beauty. I didn't go out today, but I had a buddy today that went out and said he had to do both dives at Kealakekua Bay and the viz was horrible - considering the sand is nearly 90 feet down at that spot, for it to be kicked up enough to make for horrible viz says something. Tomorrow's a big marath...
More About: Photo , Time , Underwater

Good fun scuba diving today.....
2009-06-23 07:51:00
We had fun today. Went up to "Hoover's" for the first dive, ended up at Kaloko for the second dive. At about 60-65 minutes into the second dive, customer Mel found this fish... nice find. It's a Devil Scorpion (Scorpaenopsis diabolus). This one wasn't all that large, maybe 7 inches or so. They are essentially one of the stone fish, and have a knack for blending in to their surroundings. Mel said she saw it move as she went by... what is noticeable about them when they move is the back side of their pectoral fins, they're extremely bright, looking like a brightly colored butterfly when they skip along the bottom.Here's a quick shot of the back view. You can only see the color open up right when they move, and I just barely caught part of it, but you get the idea.Later, Steve
More About: Today , Scuba Diving , Diving , Good

Great scuba diving in Kona Hawaii today....
2009-06-21 08:49:00
Here's a Harlequin Shrimp (Hymenocera picta) feeding on a Blood Star. These little shrimp feed on the tube feet and legs of starfish. They are occasionally found deep in antler corals. When we find them we consider ourselves lucky, they often stay in the same coral head for long periods of time so we've got a shot at finding them repeatedly.We're at the start of a long stretch of days of diver charters. Today we were at High Rock for the first dive. I captained and the divers came up quite happy... great viz - 150' plus, along with lots of critters. Cathy said if the pinnacle wasn't in the way they could've probably seen the boat from the north arch (we're probably talking 200-250 feet or so)... man, that's clear. Between dives we moved down to Golden Arches and I hopped in for a Captain's dive, the surge had come up by then and the water was a bit milky, but probably still in the 125' plus visibility range. I didn't bother putting on my wetsuit... it's running 80...
More About: Hawaii , Great , Kona , Scuba Diving

Here's Lookin' at ya....
2009-06-19 11:07:00
I don't think I've posted this squid shot from last year before.We were seeing squid again on the manta dive a couple of times the last few months... they're always fun. We did the manta night last night, no squid but it was a great time for all. The manta dive has been hopping still, maybe a bit more up and down the last few weeks, I'm only aware of one or two no-show nights since late February.I've got tomorrow off, then comes another two week minimum stretch without days off. I'm trying to set my manta outings to strictly Monday or Wednesday or Friday from here on out, and then likely go out on whichever two of those days gets booked first. I get people asking why I don't run it every night... well, I work 7 day charters a week when it's busy, and with two night dives thrown in on top of it that means for an awful lot of shifts for the three of us to cover. Most of the dive operators doing it more than 2-3 times a week are the bigger companies with multiple boats and...

A few days off...
2009-06-15 01:01:00
We've been quite busy for a while and I've got a few days off right now, with the schedule getting hectic again in a couple of days. We've had back to back south swells the last couple of weeks, so the dive charters have been spending lots of time at spots outside the harbor and up near the airport, with a few dives in the north pine trees area, but the southwest facing sites have been pretty much off limits for a while. We've been able to find flat water by avoiding the sites facing southwest. Yesterday I was kind of glad to have the day off as the surf was probably as big as it's been.On Monday evening I ordered an enlargement just to see how it'd turn out... it had arrived by Friday afternoon. It's BIG. I'm not sure if I want a BIG picture of an eel hanging prominently around the house... likely to be office material. It turned out great though, I wasn't sure if the detail would show up in the white, but it's fine. Here's a shot of the pic with me next to it just...
More About: Days

Product review: Canon G9 with Canon WP-DC21 housing and Inon UCL-165 closeu
2008-06-05 02:52:00
Phew, long post title.... Here's the Canon housing for the G9, and the same housing with a Duron M67 adapter and two Inon UCL-165 closeup lenses added on to the housing. Pat and I recently picked up Canon G9 cameras and their associated Canon housings. We really love macro shots and saw some amazing stuff on one of the scuba message boards several months ago and were lusting for whatever allowed those pictures to be taken. After some sleuthing, not all posters want to share for some reason, we found the trick was by adding Inon UCL-165 closeup lenses. This is a common practice by some people who have housings with threaded ports, you can add "wet" lenses to in effect get either closer or a more wide angle look. The Canon G9 and other simialar series Canons however have an oval port, which requires a 67 millimeter threaded adaptor. The one we found is manufactured in France and is readily available through one or two Japanese mailorder houses (google Yuzo Kanda to find the one...
More About: Product Review , Hawaii , Review , Product

Busy month ahead....
2008-06-03 03:44:00
I've been suprisingly busy lately. Last week was the Kona Classic Photo Shoot and competion. I ran some charters, attended the seminars and events, and intended to dive every day and shoot photos and compete... but my ears were feeling a bit odd coming in and I had a full blown infection by the first evening of the event. I'm out of the water for a few more days yet, so Bob and Cathy will be doing the diving 'til the end of the week while I play Captain. It's looking as though I have 2 days off the rest this month at this point, with several of the work days being double charters... lots of room left on most days, so give me a call if you are looking for a dive.A few words on the Kona Classic. It was an interesting event. There were, just guessing here, 30-40 competitors taking photos every day and some more who just came in for seminars and events. I'm thinking the seminars and events (there was an opening reception, a Body Glove sunset buffet cruise with open bar that w...
More About: Hawaii , Busy , Ahead , Month

More on gettin' older...
2008-05-31 03:47:00
The other day I go to pick up something from my wife at her work and she mentions one of her 20 something-ish co-workers said to her "I hope this doesn't offend you, but your husband's cute, sure he's older, but he's cute"... Now I'm feeling pretty good about myself for the rest of the day... hey 20 something-ish women think I'm cute, they didn't ever say that back in the day, but they do now... I'm feelin' kind of manly... then my wife comes home and the first thing out of her mouth is... "Yeah, so and so (name edited) says you remind her of a younger Santa Claus".A younger Santa Claus!?!?!?! I'm not sure that's what I was privately hoping for... I don't think I look like anyone famous... but Santa Claus??? Oh well, guess I gotta take a "compliment" for what it's worth, and I guess I can think of worse people to remind people of than Santa.Well, it's time for new glasses and part of my last grasp at youth is getting back into contact lenses part time. I went to the op...
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Welcome to post number 399....
2008-05-25 03:47:00
I didn't think I'd ever be posting this much, not to mention having enough photos to post to keep it half way interesting....Anyway, here's a shot of a frogfish that Pat took a couple of weeks back that I think is great. I really like how it's basically perched by it's back "feet" and how you can see it's "teeth" in it's mouth. Cool pic.
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Two thumbs up for Keei Cafe in Kealakekua
2008-05-25 03:14:00
Pat and I went to Keei Cafe on the spur of the moment last night. We hadn't been there in a couple of years, but it's the same place it's always been in our opinion. I've heard reports of sporadic service issues, but we've never experienced them in the least here, unlike many of the places we've eaten in Kona.We loaded up on pan seared ribeye steaks, which come with julienned veggies and your choice of mashed potatoes or rice. They have a limited menu, generally steaks, a few fish items, a half chicken, pork chops, fajitas and some salads and soups as well as deserts, but all are very good and have a good presentation. Prices and portions are quite reasonable, especially in comparison to resort restaurants we've eaten at. I think the highest priced item on the menu was about 23 bucks, and would go for much more up north at the resorts. They have a full bar and we tried their mai-tais... interesting and delicious.The interior of the restaurant is quite nice, although the view ...
More About: Hawaii , Thumbs Up