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Caving diving in
Hawaii drift scuba diving in Oahu Honolulu.
Spitting Caves
Scuba Diving Drift Dive Location Oahu
         
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So you wanna cave
dive in Hawaii or how about drift diving in Hawaii? Wait what about cave diving
in Hawai ? Diving Oahu is a must. The Spitting Caves is
your answer. Spitting caves has around 5 different sized caves
naturally carved out from thousands of years of constant ocean
pounding and strong currents. Although not a deep scuba dive like the
Yo-257
shipwreck diving or
Corsair planewreck location , Spitting Caves is a Oahu
dive that bottoms out around 50 feet. After that it slowly gets
deeper towards the blue Hawaiian Pacific water. This is
where the Oahu shipwrecks are located. But this is a drift dive
so hang in there.
Getting there is
easy. We do Spitting Caves weekly along with
Hawaii shipwreck dives like the
yo-257
shipwreck or others when requested. This is my favorite scuba dive in
Oahu location due to the cuts, grooves,layout and lava rock formations. Boat
ride takes around 8 minutes from the Hawaii-Kai boat marina. Not
long, but it is a great idea to have all of your gear ready to
go. This particular dive sometimes gets a little rough on the
surface so take plenty of ginger before going out.
(Ginger works great for motion sickness, a
great natural alternative to drugs) Check with us
on the condition for the particular day you might want to go
out. We can always check the weather buoys here in Hawaii.
Once
we head out it is over to the lava-rock cliffs that make Hawaii
so beautiful. These cliffs do have million dollar houses perched
above so don't look at them! That'll for sure make you seasick !
Ok
, captain pulls fairly close to the huge rock wall, with
the ocean pounding on the face it is time to go. We grab
a dive float for this one due to the fact that this is a drift
dive. The captain can follow our flag for easy pick-up. Great
idea and very safe.
Once down, the first
thing you will notice is the enormous sized lava boulders with
strange canal-like carvings snaking all over. I am guessing this
is a small scale lava tubes where molten lava from say nearby
Mt. Koko ran down into the sea. Pretty sea urchins, stars and
other small crabs make their home here. But enough with the
small stuff. Lets focus on why we are here. Well, there are a
few residents of this location you should be aware of. Monk
seals hang out all the time. The chances of seeing theses huge
mammals are very good. They snooze in the caves, come up to the
surface for air then do most of their hunting in this area
eating small crabs, fish and certain urchins. Monk seals are
big, to say the least they are a little intimidating. I have
dove with big sharks such as the tiger sharks and Galapagos
sharks but these monk seals kind of freak me out. Maybe it is
the resemblance to dogs that does it. They are very curious too.
Often checking you out and just hanging about 20 feet away from
you.
     
     
 Boat Dive/Drift
Dive Vis 70-100 feet Temp 75-81 F
Max depth 50 Average depth
30
Upon further
inspections of the caves we can also find resting white tip reef
sharks. These sharks are mostly the smaller type of reef sharks
that inhabit the reefs of Hawaii while scuba diving in Oahu.
Very common. Although I seen pretty big white tip reef sharks so
don't let your guard down, in other words don't poke at them or
try to grab them in any way. Scuba diving in Hawaii does have
some dangers that you should be ready for.
Going into the caves
are simple. We don't need special lights, lines or extra air
tanks for cave diving in Oahu. These caves are big in terms of
open space but do not go that far back into the cliffs. So it is
great for all dives, even fairly new scuba divers. The caves are
fun to go all the way back and snap a bunch of pictures of
people coming in, makes for a great picture. Ok, time to check
air, You should be ok. This dive isn't terribly deep so air goes
a long way. However a good manager of air underwater makes the
difference between a prudent diver and an imprudent diver. (my
old scuba dive instructor said this, I like it !)
There are around 5
caves to explore of different shapes and sizes. We'll actually
try to enter most of them. Most have different kinds of marine
life.
Sometimes you get the sharks, other caves a monk seal chilling
out or turtles snoozing away in others. Plenty of turtles do make their home
here so if you like turtles this would be a scuba dive in Oahu
for you. Other interesting fish are manta rays, eagle rays and
the dreaded tiger shark all have been seen here regularly. No
fences underwater! Anything goes, game on !
Ok, once we start
getting low on air- about 700-1000 PSI should be the magic
number, it is time to head back up. No need to do a safety stop,
remember 50 foot was our max in that and 35 feet was the average
depth. The boat will be waiting, just
head over on the surface a bit, grab the ladder then take your
fins off and climb on board.
Hawaii scuba diving
is fun, very different than Caribbean diving or say Indonesia.
You will definitely enjoy this Oahu drift dive or Oahu cave dive
-pretty much any diver can do this particular
scuba dive location on any day. Rough days could be a little
tougher obviously.
Oahu
scuba diving in Hawaii with drift dives, cave diving and
shipwreck dives OAHU
DIVING .COM 808-721-4210 or request information
SCUBA REQUEST
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