Black water dive with Kaimana divers

---

Oahu Dive 12. Black water dive.

I did my first black water dive. A black water dive is a night dive where you drift with the boat at real extreme depths. In Hawaii the depths drop to over 1000 ft pretty close to shore. Kaimana divers is the only one operation that does this kind of dive in Oahu and they brought the operation from their predescesors in Kona. Check them out here: waikikiscuba.com. They have a super safe system that hooks up all the divers to the boat so everyone can drift together in a spider web where each one can move up and down the line or along the side lines. We were only 3 miles off shore and drifted for a mile during the dive. As a photographer I have to note that in reality there is no issue about getting other divers or lines in your photos. Each one had our own little slice of water column with plenty of critters to photograph. The only two notes that I would add to the pre-dive briefing are that it is best to swim up the current so you have a couple of long seconds to drift back to the length of your line before it pulls you away from your subject and when you come up it is best to collect your line as you ascend so you don’t get tangled in it. It is only one tank dive and you are allowed to come up at 500 psi so make sure you conserve your air as much as you can to make it worth your while. Max depth was 45ft.

I had trouble with my camera and the bracketing button froze one more time and it would unfreeze at the surface and I haven’t worked out the issue yet so I couldn’t take any shots but I am planning to repeat the dive. I saw lots of alien critters jelly like with different changing a blinking color lights. It is really hard to describe and honestly you have to do this kind of dive to really reproduce the experience. In the mean time please check out the website of J Lambus who is a photographer that has build his portfolio diving on the regular basis with the Black Water operation in Kona. Please check out his work here: jlambus.com

There is another local photographer Chuck Babbit that has done local black water photography but his work is not online yet.

Log: 518 45ft 75 min

---

Comments

[auspicious]

Checked out the blackwater J Lambus photos - I can't believe the amount of color and detail he manages to get from creatures. I hope you get photos on your repeat dive! Best~~

[Xeaman]

Hey girl. I am leaving on monday and I couldn't do that "Dark water" dive again. The weather is been bad. I am so bummed :( Now I have to come back and do it! Where are you these days?

[auspicious]

Awe, that's a shame. I'm sure that you'll be back and I do hope to see your photos at that point. Currently, I'm in San Jose, California and will be staying here for the next 6 months of the foreseeable future. I'm lagging on my blogs, but will hopefully post something soon. Until then, I'm just enjoying other people's blogs. ;] Yours makes me miss diving the most, but even better, makes me look forward to seeing many of the things I have yet to see down there.

[Xeaman]

Awesome Michelle. I'm glad to hear that. Diving in south California is amazing I been told. And there are lots of big nudis in seattle. but is is cold diving Brrrr

[Xeaman]

Awesome Michelle. I'm glad to hear that. Diving in south California is amazing I been told. And there are lots of big nudis in seattle. but is is cold diving Brrrr