Hilo Dive Club

[pslamont]

Holly Molly... what a day! We had four hard core divers that did two dives past the reefs. We had a few others checking out gear, lots of snorkeling and two or three kayaks that everyone shared. What a great time. Water sports club it is!!! Though we are striving to form a Hilo Dive Club, it is really neat that all the support people and family members can come and have water sports activities too... plus the food! Hotdogs appeared on the grill, soup in a pot, then fresh baked bread, brownies, chips and salsa, a fruit platter.... it was endless. The last of us packed up after 4 PM. Whoa.. what a day! This is the beginning of something special.

Thank you Chili for all your efforts both before and during the day's activities... hauling thr grill and shade/easy-up, etc.... Andrew, can't wait for you to get some of those photos posted.

I must say that Richardson's offered more interest than I expected. It was a longish swim out past the surfers and the reef, but once out there we found great nooks and crannies and rock formations. I think I may have found the beginning of my seafood store.. rock scallops, if I recognized them. Will take my pry bar and a mesh bag next dive. We just might be eating good!

I swam with turtles several times, saw eels, nudibranchs, lots of small reef fish. Nothing I would bother to speer but I have to wonder if there isn't a lobster and crab population out there at night....

Some brief conversations and here is the plan fo the club:

First Sunday of every month is the club dive.
Membership has not been established as yet; we will work on that later when there is a reason to "belong".
Andrew, web master extraordinaire (okay, I can't spell) will be establishing a web page for us once damain name availability is evaluated.
Chili is publishing a list of all the participants who showed up so we can share our names and phone numbers to locate dive buddies for other dive occasions.
Pam will pursue setting up a Yahoo Group once we have a name established so that communication will be easy.

So how is that for a start? Any comments? Did anyone have a good time?

We plan, before this next year is completed, to have our own scuba instruction/courses going, to have a dive compressor for air fills, regular activities and lots of fun. We will need to establish a work crew to build the dive shack for the compressor and any gear storage but we have a location (not at the beach, but lots of party space!!).

Aloha everyone. I have a wonderful time. Special kudos to my Hubby.. he manned the BBQ, hauled my gear, and when we got home I was so tired I could hardly walk, he rinsed it all down and put it out to dry. For a guy who doesn't even swim and snorkel, he sure is a good buddy to this diver!!! Aloha everyone. Look forward to seeing all your posts about the day.
Pam

Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!

[jm minica]

I know my family and I had a great day. I cant wait to get certified so I can explore the depths with you guys. But beyond that, it was just a bunch of great people enjoying a beutiful day at the beach. Isn't that what livin' in paradise is about? A big mahalo for everyone's efforts to make this happen.
Aloha,
Mark

[Hazen]

I don't know what Pam's talking about it's 7PM and i just got home. Maybe she was tired from running us all in laps all day, phew. Have air will travel. Look out seafood, Pam's back!

I had a great time meeting everyone, unfortunately most of the BBQ was gone by the time we got out of the water 2nd time. Some one ate a lot of hot dogs!

I can't thank Chili enough for hosting, Pam for coordinating, Julie for showing up (she'll be posting soon, she's just learned of PunaWeb), and Andrew for being such a great relaxed, nice guy. I look forward to more dives. Can't wait to see Andrew's photos, though I understand from expereience that maybe only one or two may come out well.
Thanks also to Connie and Michelle, Theo Karen and Keo, Carey and Jim, Jdirgo, JMinica, and a few others who i admit i got confused between their Punaweb names and their real names who all came out, everyone was so nice!

I saw lots of eels, saw a pair of huge 6 foot turtles feeding on seaweed in the surf(among many), painted flatworms, nudibranchs, all the usual fishes (some very colorful wrasses and hawkfish i hadn't seen before), a coral i hadn't seen elsewhere in Hawaii (yet) and a damselfish i've never seen described anywhere. Maybe a new species? This side is so unexplored and undescribed that new species are constantly being added.

I vote for Poihiki next, though with the caveat that it be during a weekday, Sat-Sun you can't see the road or water for all the locals down there. No big surf though! Nothing over head high.

I also have yet to do the manta dive in Kona, anyone know if you can access the new spot from shore?

Aloha, and Thanks!

Hazen

BTW pictures are posted here, only crappy phone pics, but they still let you get a good gander at Chili half naked!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=2fjd1m9r.2qn4lgcj&Uy=-96joup&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

Check out any other galleries you may want. I'm the guy in the hat, with the brittlestar on his face, and swimming naked with the whale shark.

[Hazen]

P.S. just click on the pics to browse, ignore the whole email address thing.

P.P.S. I tried to get a pic of Pam Lamont, but she had already slipped into the depths!

[malolo]

Hey there, good people! Thought you might find this ShoreDiving site to be of some use down the line one day.

If you scroll half-way down, you'll run into links for gazillions of Hawai'i shore-diving spots.

And way way down at the bottom of the page there are links to articles on safety and such.

http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/index.htm#top40

Be safe out there!
Take it easy on the critters.
And have heaps and heaps of fun!

[Andrew]

Well we finally made it into the water and had a very tasty BBQ and met some cool people!!!

Check out some photos of the event by clicking on the linked URL below (There are quite a few fairly large res photos so the page may take a little while to load):

http://www.divehilo.com/09-03-06/index.html

Edited by - Andrew on 09/20/2006 12:13:24

[Scott_S]

Man, looks like you guys had a great time, I am sure jealous. Just another week, I can make it.

Scott

[Chili]

What a Day. This is what living in paradise is all about. Great weather. great beaches. great diving. And to top it off, some of the greatest people in the world to share it with. For all who showed up for the "Hilo Divers" dive clubs first meeting/get together, a BIG "MAHALO".

You made it happen. This is going to get better each time we get together to do our thing in the water.

I've seen the pictures posted by Andrew and Hazen and think they did a super job of showing the smiles and fun for all who were lucky enough to attend. It looks like the "Club" is on it's way. What a great start. We all got a chance to finally meet in person the people we have been talking with via this web site. I have a feeling this is the beginning of something we will all cherish being part of.

We had people who dove, people who snorkeled, people who kyacked, people who supplied ground support, people who BBQ'd, people who bogey boarded, people who now want to get certified, and finally, people who talked story about this wonderful place we are blessed to be living in. My family and I had one of our best beach days in a long time.

I want to thank all of you for being part of it and making it happen.

Just one thought though. Someone is going to have to tie an anchor around Pam to slow her down enough for me to keep up. And talking about some quaility photos, Andrew could probably start a side business with his photography skills. And Hazen's pictures were equally impressive as they came from a picture phone.

All in all, I'd say it couldn't have been a better day, except maybe unless "MORE PEOPLE SHOWED UP".

So it's the first Sunday of each month that this is happening. We are going to do the next dive at Richardson's one more time. It has all the amenities. Drinking water, bathrooms, showers, gear rinse station, and easy entry into the water. Don't worry, we will go to other dive locations around the island. But for now, Richardson's is our first two dive meetings location.

P.S. .....I'm working on the sign in sheet as I type. Everyone should be getting an email with all the names and phone numbers by Monday.

Will be in touch with all of you soon.

Aloha, and Mahalo to all.........Chili

[Chili]

Oh oh........Got an email notification back saying JM-MINICA was not deliverable.

Mark, I need you to email me your email address so I can send you the list of folks who showed up for our first outing. Also need to send to all of them the correction.

My Email is......HiloDivers@msn.com....get in touch,,,,,,,Chili

[David D]

WOW! Andrew & Hazen thanks for the great pictures!!! Looks like everyone had a lot of FUN!!!

We will definitely have to have our next trip to the Big Island to include a "First Sunday of the Momth"!