Ed's First Scuba Dive: Shark's Cove, Oahu

Shark's Cove, North Shore, Oahu

Ed and Heidi descending

   My friend Ed had just become a certified scuba diver before coming to Oahu and Heidi had recently procured an underwater camera so we were all anxious to check what was below the waves of Oahu's North Shore. We picked up tanks from one of our favorite dive shops located in Haleiwa, called Hawaii Eco Divers. The three of us packed in our dive gear and Jamie came along to do a little solo snorkeling. We headed to our favorite North Shore spot called Shark's Cove. There is a pretty easy shallow entry near the entrance to the huge tide pool. Lots of huge boulders give fish plenty of places to hide near shore and excited snorkelers who don't want to stray to far. Ed, Heidi and I headed away from the protected area out to the point where we were going to drop down and start our dive. Just before we arrived I heard Heidi's tank banger and whipped around to see a pair of spotted eagle rays gliding under us. Guess our safety briefing would just have to wait until after the dive. Down I go...

Ed's First Dive in Hawaii!

Buzzed by a spotted eagle ray

  I couldn't believe our luck. After the first initial pass from the two eagle rays we were visited by them again numerous times during the dive. We saw a turtle and a few moray eels but every time I turned around one of the rays was back again. Ed was looking like a fish underwater so I was able to concentrate more on snapping some photos of the charismatic megafauna around us. I did lead Ed through a couple of tight swim thru's and caverns. Heidi was busy finding and photographing different nudibranchs with her new underwater Canon S110 camera. She even found a nudibranch which had laid eggs on the eggs of a much larger nudibranch.

Heidi putting her new camera to use with a spotted eagle ray

Ed getting extreme underwater

 I figured at this point that Ed was going to be pretty spoiled as this was his first dive after completing his open water certification course back in Georgia. What I didn't expect was the dive to get even more memorable. But that it did!
  As we were kicking back towards our exit point I turned my head to check on Ed and low and behold there was a rare Hawaiian monk seal swimming about forty feet behind him! I snapped my tank banger several times while pointing at the seal. Heidi came fast and Ed got a good look as well. But this wasn't going to be a fleeting sighting. The monk seal stayed nearby, although far enough away for me to only capture mediocre pictures. We watched as it rustled around in the sand on the hunt for some benthic dwelling creatures.
  At one point a spotted eagle ray came within a few feet of the monk seal and seemed very startled as the monk seal turned and snapped at it. I have seen monk seals that are very curious on Maui but this one was quite timid. It kept looking over its shoulder to check up on us. We stayed with the seal for awhile on our way back but finally had to surface swim back after getting low on air. It was an incredible first Hawaii dive for Ed and my personal best dive on Oahu. I do miss the big waves on the North Shore during the summer but this is a pretty amazing alternative.

A rare Hawaiian Monk Seal feeding

Hawaiian Monk Seal looking back

Success...until he fell a second later. Should of had video...