Capturing the Moment

Moku Ho'oniki Rock (Elephant Rock) "Fish Rain", an aptly named dive site  When adventurous scuba divers ask me where to go while they are here on Maui I tell them about the big three dives. Molokini backwall, Cathedrals on Lanai, and the Hammerhead shark dive at Moku ho'oniki rock on Molokai. Yet I had never done the hammerhead dive until today! And what a dive it was. The conditions were rough. 6ft seas with 15-20knot winds all the way across the Pailolo channel which separates the islands of Maui and Molokai. It is a live boat drift dive so the captain and crew have to safely get everyone off the boat while bucking from side to side in the heavy seas. Getting back on the boat was a whole different story. Only one dive company does this trip, Lahaina Divers . Heidi and I went with this outfit a month ago over to the island of Lanai to do some cavern diving at Second Cathedrals . And with my buddy Sean at the helm I knew we were in good hands. What I didn...

Looking down on a cloud    Driving to the mysterious Polipoli hiking trails 6,000+ft high on the southern slope of Haleakala volcano is an adventure in itself. The 4X4 dirt road to get to the campgrounds at Polipoli state park is sometimes accessible by smaller cars but not today. It wasn't too wet to drive, in fact it was so dry with each footstep little clouds of dust stirred up. But the road had degraded during wet periods forming some pretty deep holes. Driving our little sedan we decided to stop and walk the last few miles instead of risking getting stuck in some hole. I think we could have made it but it worked out in the end. Coastal Redwoods on Maui The trail map at the campground is a little confusing showing different trails in different colors that are all a little to similar. The wooden sign has faded a bit making the colors and trails blend even more together. We decided to try and hike down and out to a trail marker we saw way back by our car. But witho...

  A day off usually means adventuring here on Maui but since Heidi has a flight scheduled in a few hours we could not go scuba diving. So we thought about possible snorkel locations to go and shoot at. There are spots where you can definitely see turtles, others where dolphins sometimes frequent. I could point you towards black tip reef sharks and white tip reef shark spots. But today we decided to make the long haul to beautiful Honolua Bay up on the Northwest corner of the island to look for the huge school of big-eye scad living in the shallows. We found them...and much more.    The walk down to Honolua Bay is through a towering rainforest. It is an easy, level path bordered by huge trees covered in thick vines. The beach itself is all rocks. While not the most comfortable laying down surface the rocks do soak up the heat from the sun which provides an easy way to warm up after your snorkel. As we headed out the water cleared up after a few yards and we kicked ou...

Underwater Panoramic off Remote West Side of Lanai Shipwreck off shipwreck beach North Lanai snorkel gem   This summer I have been captaining a new adventurous trip that circumnavigates the nearby island of Lanai. Getting to see the 52 miles of coastline, most of which is hardly ever visited, is quite a treat. I am driving a 38' rigid inflatable boat. It is the same style that the coast guard and the navy seals often use. With a smaller boat and a small crowd I can get right up next to shipwrecks, blowholes, 1000' sea cliffs and more. We look for tropic birds nesting in the remote cliff sides, dolphins cruising the nearshore water, and new snorkel spots to explore. Everything is an option. Based on the weather I can put people in the water on the south, east, north, or west coast of the island. Not to mention a few offshore pinnacles that make for some good drift snorkels as well. Crocodile Needle Fish You never know what's lurking beneath Swim-th...

  Woah! The nocturnal delights keep on coming. So excited after our last night muck dive Heidi and I decided to try it again. We saw octopus out on the hunt, its cute cousin, the bobtail squid trying to eat a shrimp almost as big as it was. Then it was a nudibranch bonanza after that with sightings of imperial nudibranch, trembling, white bump, white margin, kangaroo, gloomy, black dendrodoris, snow goddess, lilac spotted, orange gumdrop, tiled pleurobranch, and a couple of rare nudibranch spottings like the Carminodoris bifurcata, Aldisa pikokai, and the Tambja amakusana . These last three don't have common names since they are seen so rarely. This bobtail squid was about the same size as my thumb. The shrimp he is trying to chomp down was slightly smaller than my pinky. They both held this pose for awhile until the squid finally spit out the empty shell of the shrimp. Shortly after the squid buried itself into the sand, leaving only its eyes above to relax and digest its ha...