Tiki Central Scuba Divers

Aloha, Gang!

It was just brought up in the Hawaiian Vacation Tips thread that there are several scuba divers in our community. Let's use this thread to find out who dives, good dive locations, dive experiences, and even to get a Tiki Central dive trip organized(great idea, Laney). Tip #1: El Galleon restaurant and bar on Catalina Island is a popular post-dive dinner/booze/karaoke decompression stop and has a big menehune as stage decor. See you under the waves!

-Weird Uncle Tiki

[ Edited by: weirduncletiki on 2003-06-26 18:53 ]

On 2003-06-26 11:01, weirduncletiki wrote:
It was just brought up in the Hawaiian Vacation Tips thread that there are several scuba divers in our community.

I don't dive, but I'd like to get certified. How and where do I start?

--cindy

I would love to get in on a TC dive trip. My best memories of diving are in the Channel Islands. It's cold, but tropical compared to the Bay Area (tm). I actually prefer SoCal diving to the dives I've made in Hawaii - I really miss the kelp forests. I'd be interested in hearing if you put a trip together.

I'm certified, but not in a particularily handy location to join you on dives....
I earned my wings (or is it flippers?) in Lake Erie...

I have not become certified yet, but people come from all over the world to scuba dive in my back yard: beautiful Monterey Bay, CA..

Well, yes, I scuba, but have't been for 2 years. There's probably some happy spiders in their home-my regulator! It's hard to get a sitter for 6AM. I can't wait to go again! I, too, love the kelp forests of CA. My friend/scuba buddy and I used to travel more so we've dove 3 Hawaiian Islands, the keys, Virgin Islands, Bahamas, and Turks and Cacos islands. We have had many cool experiences like the Mantas off Hawaii, playing with an octopus off Oaho, finding a frog fish and octopus den with eggs off Maui, and watching 2 dolphins play a few feet away from us off Turks and Cacos. We've dove wrecks and walls (one with a 3300' drop off) that was really creepy.

A must try is diving with a scooter. If I had the money, I'd buy one but don't dive often enough to justify the expense. You just hang on it and gooooo! We even had a chain of us holding onto each others fins.

There's nothing like a cold beer in the afternoon sun while sitting on the front of a dive boat heading home from a long day of Catalina diving!
If you want to get certified, just find a local dive shop and sign up. It makes a great gift for good friends because you'll need someone to dive and travel with. For me a day of diving is like a mini-vacation, I feel refreshed after.

On 2003-06-26 12:43, laney wrote:
A must try is diving with a scooter.

My Vespa might stop running if I tried it!

Seriously, I snorkeled while visiting the Big Island and loved it. Once I did it the first time I wanted to do it every day! Reminds me of something else. :wink:

But I haven't tried Scuba diving yet. A friend of mine recently paid good money to learn to Scuba dive and as soon as they got out of the bay he got incredibly seasick. The poor guy spent the whole trip feeding the fish instead of diving!

While in Maui a couple years ago I went SNUBA diving, half snorkeling half scuba diving, I went 20 feet under the water and swam with a huge Manta Ray, saw an octopus and moray eel, it got me hooked, I am ready to get certified!

For us Bay Area folks, there's a place in San Bruno that has certification classes for $289:

http://www.mitchellscuba.com

It would be fun for a bunch or us to get certified together!

--cindy

I took scuba diving for my Phys Ed credits in college and was certified about 12 years ago but unfortunately I haven't done it since. I would like to get into it but it's too expensive to go to flooded freshwater quarries in Pennsylvania and look at cars underwater while freezing your ass off. If I ever go somewhere nice and tropical I'm gonna try it again!

JohnTiki

Aloha from the enchanted Pi Yi Grotto in exotic Bel Air MD!

[ Edited by: johntiki on 2003-06-26 17:37 ]

I used to Scuba dive till the dentist put fillings in my teeth. Be careful, if there's an air bubble underneath your filling it can be incredibly painful when you're ascending. My instructor actually had a tooth explode leaving fragments in his jaw. I miss it, but I can still snorkel.

Ahhh the briney deep...

I was 100 ft underwater off of Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras when 9/11 hit the fan. We had a hard time getting back into the States as all the airports in the world were jacked up. But we were trapped in paradise.Tough way to wait out world crisis. A week and a half dive trip in one of the most beautiful dive spots in the world. LittleSusan and I have been diving together for about 15 years now. Aussie Great Barrier Reef, La Paz,Cabo, Cancun, and Cozumel in Mexico. Bonaire, Curacao, and Aruba. St. Croix in the US Virgin islands. We are finalizing our next trip tonight for Beliez in September. Blue Hole here we come! Our son, PuPu Joe, who many of the So Cal folks met at the OC crawl this year, just received his deep sea diving certification and is putting together a job in Gulf of Mexico. We all have the need to get wet. Even my grandson, Gage has been scuba diving in the pool for the last two years and loves to snorkle in Catalina.

We all have the need to get wet on a regular basis.

But we do try to build some type of ruin trampping, pyramids, bird sanctuaries, animal retreats etc. Always try to have some educationsl/adventure types of things to go with the underwater parts of our trips. Any Beliez info out there? ... Anyone?

Maybe we'll see ya down under.....

Johntiki, you don't have to go somewhere tropical for good diving. The Great Lakes are full of cool wrecks and stuff to dive...
Arrrrr! Shiver me timbers!

I just stumbled on this thread. I know it's old, but I'd love to resurrect it, as TikiMaggie and I are avid divers.

We both learned to dive off the central California coast, her in Monterey, me at Salt Point in Sonoma County. Learning to dive in those rough waters makes you pretty proficient pretty quickly. We had a few students in my class who were learning to dive for purposes of a tropical dive vacation, and they just couldn't cut it.

Anyway, Maggie and I are hoping to hit La Jolla for a quick dive during our SoCal visit next week. Any suggestions, or divers who would like to join us? If so, please contact me offlist asap as we'll be leaving Monday, and diving probably Wednesday...

TikiMaxton, my brother and I did some snorkeling in La Jolla, beware of the seals. A seal darted right up to his mask from out of nowhere....looked him in the eye, then took off.......it scared the *^$@ out of him......he came up out of the water so fast......well you could say he was walking on water....or running on water. Soon after he figured it was just a seal, not a shark.
Check out Black's Beach (nude beach) when you're down there. Lotta eye candy. Bodysurfing nekked is fast and fun, no friction from your swimsuit.

Now back to mai tai wishes and calamari dreams.

[ Edited by: jungletrader on 2004-01-30 18:15 ]

On 2004-01-30 17:57, TikiMaxton wrote:
Maggie and I are hoping to hit La Jolla for a quick dive during our SoCal visit next week. Any suggestions, or divers who would like to join us?

My favorite dives down there have been boat
dives. One in the kelp forest off Point Loma and the other off Los Coronados, a couple of big rocks just over the Mexican border. Point Loma offers
spectacular variety of sea life and Los Coronados is a sea lion gathering spot where you'll have some fun close encounters. Watch out for nekked body surfers!

My favorite is Tortola and surrounding islands.

I didn't really give Hawaii a fair shake - it was rough those days. I did get a chance to see some turtles as big as me and hear some whale "song" underwater.

I have to wear 30 plus pounds to get neutral in the water. That's a lot but it's worth it. My nickname is "The Great White." Brendal - in the Bahamas - named me that when I got certified 5 years ago.

I love it down there. Zero Gravity is a boon to a big slab like me.

Hey - what the heck was that sound that came out of Mr. Limpett's mouth?

Why couldn't he do that as a man?
Freak.

I don't think you have time to book a boat dive. I don't like beach dives-too much work-I guess I'm spoiled. There is a great boat out of Long Beach with an amazing cook (I'm talking chili & corn bread from scratch for a snack between dives) but like I said this needs to be booked in advanced.
I haven't been diving that far south but have been to Black's. It's too much of a hike for me (again, spoiled) I prefer San Onofrey (sp?) if you're looking for an all over tan.
Have a fun, safe dive. You're brave-Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

A scuba trip is something we have considered for Hukilau. Kern, the Mai Kai manager, is I think a scuba trainer. If there is good scuba in the area, he would know. We just were not sure there would be much interest.

You can't eat duck and drink rum underwater, Swanky.

I mean... what are you thinking?

edit it: wink icon.

[ Edited by: pablus on 2004-01-31 12:55 ]

Tiki Bird wants to get certified before our trip to Hawaii in Sept. Do any of you have a shop/instructor you can refer us to in the Long Beach/Huntington Beach area for classes? Prefer PADI since I'm already certified, but am ready for a refresher course.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

It was just brought up in the Hawaiian Vacation Tips thread that there are several scuba divers in our community. Let's use this thread to find out who dives, good dive locations, dive experiences, and even to get a Tiki Central dive trip organized

hate to sound elitist but:

ah OWNLAY dive in da tropics, dahling!

Elitist? Nah. You're only in the elite if you learned to dive off the California coast. Toughest mofos in the water, lemmetellya! We don't carry those knives for decoration! I dive in Hawaii when I need a nap. If there ain't harbor seals nippin' at my fins, kelp wound around my ankles and a good, deep surge, I feel like I got gyped! Maybe it's just me, but I always thought having feeling in your lips and face while diving was overrated.

The wife & I are off to Australia in about a week to see the big fishies. If I don't get eaten by anything I'd dig a T.C. dive trip. How 'bout Catalina or off the beach somewhere? Who's in?

Well, I'd love to dive in Catalina but unfortunately I'm up in No. Cal - wouldn't mind doing a roadtrip to do some diving down south though.

As for anyone in the Monterey/San Francisco area, I'm always in the water and would be kind of cool to get a beach party going for a little diving, bbq and rum. Seems all the cool things are happening down south, time to change that?

This might be worth bumping to the main discussion forum and then to the events forum once there's a plan. We have to pick a spot near tiki locales or with some tiki relevance or with a bar serving fruity umbrella drinks near by.

Down San Diego way might be nice with all the tiki hotels and the Bali Hi, but I don't know many of the dive spots. Maybe Catalina because it's an Island. They have some nasty camping and biking fees though 'cause they have you trapped.

I agree with the beauty of California Diving. I really love the kelp, even the murky cold water adds a bit of a scary thrill. I've had some scary dives off Catalina.

I too want to get a TC boat trip together. If I know how many, I have no problem looking into prices and charters. I haven't been diving in 3 years, now's the time! I'm thinking mid August. To give the water a bit of a warm-up and before my yearly MV trip.

Maybe we could plan something around International Tiki Day so those road tripping could kill two birds with one stone.

I'll start
Laney 3-4 people

Who else???
As soon as I have a rough count ( about a week from now) I'll start making calls and post options. Less talk more action!

OK, I'm startin a thread in events!