Settled in Hawaii
So, the family is pretty well settled here in Hawaii. Finally time to get some dives in. I took off to the North Shore yesterday with a buddy. I knew that I wanted to hit either Three Tables, Firehouse or Sharks Cove, I just wasn't sure I knew where they were at. After missing our exit and getting turned around, we finally got there at about 9 a.m. and actually found a parking space. I believe if we'd been another minute later, we would not have found one, we'll be earlier next time.
Once we got parked, we decided to do a "site survey". We figured out which was which and decided to do Firehouse first. All three were within walking distance of the car. Parked next to us was an OW instructor with 4 students. I noticed that his gear configuration looked like mine so I asked him what kind of diving he did. His response was that he was working on RB. I figured he misunderstood me or I had asked the wrong question so I asked him if he was a cave or tech diver. He told me that he was not a certified cave diver but had done it enough that he was comfortable with it. Keep in mind this was in front of his students. I told him that he shouldn't be doing that without the proper training to which I got a very weird "what's the big deal" look. So after this, we began gearing up to go down to Firehouse, aptly named since it is directly behind the fire station.
We followed the well beaten trail down to a pool of water in the middle of a bunch of rather large rocks. Once here, we doned our mask and fins and eased on into the water. I was immediatly greeted my all sorts of different tropical fish. We rounded the rocks and swam out more toward open water. It was like swimming in an aquarium. I haven't logged the dive yet but I don't think we ever got any deeper than about 30fsw. There was all kind of coral to see and too many fish to name, not that I would know what most of them were called anyway. We spent about an hour just moving around and checking out the beautiful scenery.
After we finished the dive, we decided to lock all the gear in the car and find some lunch and then decide on the next dive. We decided to eat at an old gut truck that has been immobile for a decade or more called the "Sharks Cove Grill" It smelled good and the food I saw everyone else eating looked good, so why not. Well after spending $14 for a burger, fries and a drink, I waited about 30 min for my food. It wasn't very good to say the least.
We walked around and looked and decided on Sharks Cove for the next dive. It was teaming with snorklers and swimmers and we had heard really good things about it. Not to mention this is supposed to be the one with the caverns and caves. So we gear up again and walk down another path that goes right down the side of the main drag to a dirt trail that led down to the water. After weaving my way through the people and the rocks, I finally got my boots in the water. We got situated and eased into the water again. Once more, I was greeted my tons of fish. Beautiful! We snorkle out a ways before deciding to decend. Once we did I started seeing all sorts of swim throughs in the Lava rock and started noticing lots of dark crevis'. My buddy is not Cavern or Cave so I'm only trying to get peeks into the stuff. I'm getting very excited now, this is the best of both worlds, pretty wet rocks and pretty fishies! There are all of these, for lack of knowledge I'll call them trenches. They snake around and go up and then go back down, no over head but just like a cave. Sometimes it wasn't more than 3 or 4 feet between the walls and other times it would be up to 10 or 15 feet. All I could think is that this would be a great place to practice running my reels. After this we came upon a small cavern that was maybe about 40 or 50 long but you could see the exit on the other side. It was full of all sorts of fish trying to hide out. I was hoping to see one of the white tip reef sharks that like to nap here but didn't. Once again, I don't think we got much over 30fsw and spent about an hour in the water, yeah I know, I'm an airhog, I just need gills. Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed both dives but have to say that I enjoyed Shark's Cove the best. I can't wait to go back. I want to work on my reels but I'm concerned with other divers getting tangled in it or not knowing what it is and cutting it.
So today, I'm talking to a guy that dives here and he says that there are sink holes by Shark's Cove and that one of them drops straight down and opens up into a 'ballroom' then splits off into several lava tube caves, I've gotta find somebody that can tell me more about that. Once I find out about it, I'll let you all know.
I'm still looking for a cavern buddy so if anyone knows someone here, let me know. It's odd but it's actually hard to find Scuba divers here, much less anyone that is cavern or cave certified.
And oh yeah, that about the OW instructor, I wonder if the stuff in Shark's Cove is what he is calling caves. Maybe. If so, I see why he thought "what's the big deal". I have a feeling that most people here consider anything with over head a cave. For them, something like the Ginnie Ballroom would be cavediving. Thats ok I guess except I worry that it would make them way too comfortable with "caves" and one day they might happen onto a "real cave"This is a picute of where we were diving, this is actually Firehouse and Shark's Cove is just on the other side of the rocks you see out in the distance.
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Originally Posted by murfef
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