COOL! A HAWAII FORUM. I guess Ill do the honors of making the first post. Here is an experience from the other day.
Well... as the title says, to day was a very strange day and to be honest I really dont know where to start but since its a spearfishing forum ill start with the dive... well a little before the dive.
So I was sitting at home checking my work schedule online to see what time I had to go into work tonight and I noticed, to my astonishment, that someone had picked up my shift. I had released it in the beginning of the week but didnt really think anyone would pick it up seeing as its not the best section in the restaurant but anyway some one did pick it up. Manager approved and all. SWEET! Im gonna go for an evening dive.
My roommate and I loaded up the gear and headed for the water. When we got to the bottom of the hill we noticed the horrible traffic which was not moving at all. Im not too sure how many here are familiar with how west maui traffic gets when there is a fatality. We have no coroner so they have to close the road until one flies over from oahu to pronounce any victims dead. This was kind of a bummer because we were planning on heading in the direction of the traffic to make our dive but someone was and is having a way worse day than I was so cant really complain about that. The other way was blowing gale force trades so what ever, we decided to try right out in front of our road. Never been too successful there but felt like getting in the water anyway.
We parked the car at a friend's house, who is visiting from Texas, but that comes later. Walked a couple hundred yards up current and hopped in the water. The water on the inside was pretty dirty but got progressively cleaner the deeper we went. On my first drop in about 30' of water I had a pile of about 6 nice sized moilua swim up to me and somehow I missed the point blank shot. Frustrated I made another dive but they had moved on as they usually do.
I headed out into some deeper water where the reef ended and the scattered rubble and "uku grass" begin in about 55-60ft of water. Made a few drops but didnt see anything. Just as I was about to move on I thought I had seen what looked like an uku but it was far away and the light was fading so I couldnt really tell. I told my buddy and he took a few drops but didnt see anything. I decided to take one more drop. As I lay on the bottom scratching, grunting, throwing sand, rubbing bands, and so on I began to get a little disheartened as nothing was coming in and just as I was about to give up I saw two unmistakeable shapes materialize. UKU and good size ones too. I relaxed again and put my head down. After a little more time I looked up to see them both just out of range. Now the urge for air was getting a little stronger and I tried to relax again to see if I could get them closer. They turned towards me and swam just to within range but stopped and turned off again. This is when I decided to head for the surface. Ill try again on the next drop. But as I pushed up off the bottom one of them turned around and swam in again. I stopped... and it just kept coming. I let him get well within range when he turned broadside and gave me a nice shot. I wasnt really aware of how big it was until I started putting the breaks on the line he was peeling off my reel. Ended up weighing in at around 17lbs.
After we got to the beach I ended up having to take a kayak back out to rescue the friend from texas I had mentioned earlier. Apparently Johnny Dep is staying on this HUGE yacht anchored about a quarter mile off lahaina. Little "southern bell texas girl" thought she would get a glimpse of mister Jack Sparrow by paddling a soft top out to the boat. Well long story short, she got stuck in the current and wind and swept halfway to Lanai... and guess who had to go get her?
Well after that whole fiasco I checked my messages on my phone to find that the shift I thought I had gotten out of was actually a mistake. The restaurant was freaking out because they didint have enough servers so I had to rush into work to help run food. On the way I had chosen a back rout through lahaina due to the bad traffic when a off-duty police officer tackles some dude on the hood of my truck. I sat there for 10 minutes watching this brawl go down. I would have helped the officer out but it didnt look like he needed it much.
Well... as the title says, to day was a very strange day and to be honest I really dont know where to start but since its a spearfishing forum ill start with the dive... well a little before the dive.
So I was sitting at home checking my work schedule online to see what time I had to go into work tonight and I noticed, to my astonishment, that someone had picked up my shift. I had released it in the beginning of the week but didnt really think anyone would pick it up seeing as its not the best section in the restaurant but anyway some one did pick it up. Manager approved and all. SWEET! Im gonna go for an evening dive.
My roommate and I loaded up the gear and headed for the water. When we got to the bottom of the hill we noticed the horrible traffic which was not moving at all. Im not too sure how many here are familiar with how west maui traffic gets when there is a fatality. We have no coroner so they have to close the road until one flies over from oahu to pronounce any victims dead. This was kind of a bummer because we were planning on heading in the direction of the traffic to make our dive but someone was and is having a way worse day than I was so cant really complain about that. The other way was blowing gale force trades so what ever, we decided to try right out in front of our road. Never been too successful there but felt like getting in the water anyway.
We parked the car at a friend's house, who is visiting from Texas, but that comes later. Walked a couple hundred yards up current and hopped in the water. The water on the inside was pretty dirty but got progressively cleaner the deeper we went. On my first drop in about 30' of water I had a pile of about 6 nice sized moilua swim up to me and somehow I missed the point blank shot. Frustrated I made another dive but they had moved on as they usually do.
I headed out into some deeper water where the reef ended and the scattered rubble and "uku grass" begin in about 55-60ft of water. Made a few drops but didnt see anything. Just as I was about to move on I thought I had seen what looked like an uku but it was far away and the light was fading so I couldnt really tell. I told my buddy and he took a few drops but didnt see anything. I decided to take one more drop. As I lay on the bottom scratching, grunting, throwing sand, rubbing bands, and so on I began to get a little disheartened as nothing was coming in and just as I was about to give up I saw two unmistakeable shapes materialize. UKU and good size ones too. I relaxed again and put my head down. After a little more time I looked up to see them both just out of range. Now the urge for air was getting a little stronger and I tried to relax again to see if I could get them closer. They turned towards me and swam just to within range but stopped and turned off again. This is when I decided to head for the surface. Ill try again on the next drop. But as I pushed up off the bottom one of them turned around and swam in again. I stopped... and it just kept coming. I let him get well within range when he turned broadside and gave me a nice shot. I wasnt really aware of how big it was until I started putting the breaks on the line he was peeling off my reel. Ended up weighing in at around 17lbs.
After we got to the beach I ended up having to take a kayak back out to rescue the friend from texas I had mentioned earlier. Apparently Johnny Dep is staying on this HUGE yacht anchored about a quarter mile off lahaina. Little "southern bell texas girl" thought she would get a glimpse of mister Jack Sparrow by paddling a soft top out to the boat. Well long story short, she got stuck in the current and wind and swept halfway to Lanai... and guess who had to go get her?
Well after that whole fiasco I checked my messages on my phone to find that the shift I thought I had gotten out of was actually a mistake. The restaurant was freaking out because they didint have enough servers so I had to rush into work to help run food. On the way I had chosen a back rout through lahaina due to the bad traffic when a off-duty police officer tackles some dude on the hood of my truck. I sat there for 10 minutes watching this brawl go down. I would have helped the officer out but it didnt look like he needed it much.