North Kona – Page 3 – A Darker View

Black Friday, a phrase that brings to mind stores jammed with shoppers seeking the first Christmas sales. Not my idea of fun and something to be completely avoided if at all possible. Better to spend the day where credit cards do not work… Possibly under water?

The plan was to return to O’oma and the dive sites near the popular Pine Trees surfing breaks. The area is very good diving, with many sites and entries to choose from along a half mile of coastline, From OTEC to Kaloko. The area is popular with the dive boats as well, we were dropping into the water mere yards from the moorings used by the Honokohau diving operations. As we prepared for the dive we watched as the boats did as well, we just did it without paying $150 per person. The only disadvantage? We had to walk across 50 yards of pahoehoe lava to get to the lava, not a problem with the very gentle swell of the day. Entry was quite easy with a sheltered shallows available just in from the popular Suck ’em Up cave and dive site.

Olivier and Camera — Olivier Martin with his camera rig on the reef at O’oma

We again had a large crew… Mark, Patti, Dennis, Sky, Olivier, Pete and his two off island friends.. Isaac and Jeff. Mark and Patti took advantage of the holiday camping at O’oma to camp out on the beach for a couple nights. While parts of the beach were crowded with campers, the popular spots were those adjacent to the surf breaks. Much of the remaining shoreline was quiet, where you could have a nice stretch of sand to yourself. Not that the peace was totally uninterrupted… The rest of our crew invaded their peaceful campsite, for a time turning it into a diving base camp, with vehicles, wetsuits and tanks everywhere. But then, they did invite us.

Continue reading “Diving Black Friday”

It really was one of those perfect days to live in Hawaii.

First stop on the way was to get some air. Our tanks were empty, something we needed to change. This was accomplished at The Scuba Shack, a great dive shop just below Costco on the Kaloko business park. It is a funky place, with anything and everything a diver needs. One of the best services offered is quick fills… In and out in about five minutes with two full tanks of air, $5 each.

Relaxing After the Dive — Relaxing after the dive at O’oma, Patti, Mark, Deb and Kirk (left to right)

We met up with the usual gang at O’oma. Mark had suggested we try a dive just north of what the surfers call Pine Trees. The area is classic Big Island beach… Drive along the shore over sand and lava, check out the surfers enjoying a small swell over the breaks, smell the barbeques from families set up for a weekend on the beach.

Continue reading “A Perfect Day for a Dive”