Capturing the Moment

8 foot Hammerhead Shark encounter   Any time I get to swim and photograph sharks I get pretty excited. I have traveled around the world just to have shark encounters, like shark cage diving with great whites in Africa, to shark feeding frenzies in Fiji , thresher sharks in the Philippines , and even a wild shark dive off the east coast of Florida . You can follow the links to see photos from all of those dives. But I get really excited when I just happen upon a shark which is exactly what occurred yesterday off the lava rock coastline of south Kona.    We had just wrapped up a wonderful snorkel in Kealakekua Bay, near Captain Cook on the Big Island. As we motored our zodiac around the corner we were about to pick up speed when we spotted a large pale grey shadow just under the surface. It was big so I immediately knew it was something special...maybe a manta ray or even a small whale shark. I quickly grabbed my fins and mask, slid off the boat into the water, and ...

  Best of Maui: Scuba Dives While trying to put together a review of my time here in Maui it quickly became clear that it could not be contained in one post. All the great memories, hikes, dives, animal encounters, and other adventures all deserved their own post so what I am going to do instead is a series of "best of" posts.  I will start off with the best of Maui scuba diving. In my opinion these are the can't miss dive sites for the advanced scuba divers when you come to Maui. Some made the list for big wildlife encounters, others for tiny nudibranch encounters, and others still for incredible underwater topography. Read on to find 'the Big Three' scuba sites as well as a couple of my other favorites. First and Second Cathedrals, Lanai First Cathedrals Second Cathedrals  These two sites both boast enormous underwater caverns. Most dive companies depart from Lahaina harbor but Maui Dive Shop does leave from Ma'alaea harbor on select days. T...

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...