Dive with Gary N Kekai

After a long work week I was itching to get back into the water. One of my friends Gary who recently moved to Oahu was back on the Big Island for a few weeks. Upon seeing the conditions the day before we talked and planned a dive for the weekend.

I later found out that he was staying in Pauuilo which was perfect to get an early start. We met 7am at Earls to buy some bentos, ice and drinks for lunch. Driving down to the spot we were relieved that no one else was there.

After suiting up and hiking down I jumped in. The water visibility must have been the best I've seen it for a while with the weather perfect and no clouds around. There was a little breeze in the air but the water was on the nice side, although you could tell the north swell was due to arrive the next day. I jump in and take a couple of warm up dives. Even though the water was on the nice side, the current was ripping due to the full moon.

I was excited with these conditions and hoping that we would see some pelagics. While waiting for Gary I see tons of nehu (baitfish) in the water all around me. About 10 seconds later I see this fast torpedo object start coming up and eating the bait fish. It turns out its a nice kawakawa (wavy black tuna). I take a drop but due to the sheer speed of the fish its gone within a blink of an eye.

I look up and hear Gary shouting to me. Hes yelling at me that he lost one of his fins. I quickly swim back to him and take a drop to look on the bottom. Around this same time I look to my right and see a big kali and a huge omilu along with two smaller ones.

Trying to focus on the task at hand, I take another drop and see Gary's fin and retrieve it. He jumps in and we start to palu the area. After nothing comes in we decide to swim out to the left in hope for some onos. After reaching the end of the ledge we start paluing and I let down my flashers. After a good half hour of drifting we see nothing but opelu and bait fish.

We start to head in and decide to work the reef. After shooting an uhu I spot a nice kumu come out of the hole due to the commotion. Gary drops and gets a nice shot on it! We swim further down and reach the infamous toau hole. The current at this point is ripping and it was hard for us to take drops and reach the bottom of the hole. I peek inside and see a couple of big toaus but none present me with a shot. I give Gary the signal to start heading back and we start the long swim back.

We end up swimming about 1.5 hours back against the unfriendly current and finally get outta the water. With some nice fish in the cooler, 2 powerades, and bentos it definitely ended up to be a good dive!