BENEATH KAUAIText and Photography by Matthew GrahamUnderwater Photography courtesy of Dive Kauai Scuba Center 
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We heard it over and over again from all of our friends who had visited Hawaii… the SCUBA diving stinks. They told us that the visibility was bad; the water cold, the seas choppy and the underwater landscape barren. We decided to see for ourselves and set out aboard Hawaiian Airlines for the island beauty.
Wow! Were they ever wrong! Diving in Kauai rules. On our first day, my wife, Karen, and I dove a site known as Turtle Bluffs. As per the name, it’s home |
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to a population of sea turtles. In Hawaii, it’s against the law to “harass’ the turtles—no swimming after them or trying to pet them. But these turtles were more interested in “harassing’ us. They’d swim right up to your face and check you out. I lost count of how many turtles we saw during the 45- minute dive. And though the landscape was devoid of the soft corals prevalent throughout the Caribbean, the underwater terrain, created from volcanic rock, included numerous formations like a tunnel and arch. We also swam through schools of yellow tangs and saw numerous parrotfish, butterfly fish and an octopus.
After a 45-minute surface interval, the Dive Kauai dive boat motored over to a site they called Camp 1. Again, we saw turtles, as well as a spotted eel, a sea cucumber, the rare lion fish, another octopus and a type of starfish called the “crown of thorns.” On both dives the water temperature was nearly 78 degrees. And for the first time ever, we use dive computers provided free of charge from Dive Kauai. Karen and I have always used dive tables that limit the amount of time underwater based on the deepest depth. Hence, a dive to 70 feet is limited to 40 minutes even if the majority of the dive is well above 70 feet. With a computer, similar to a large wrist watch, the time and depth is continuously monitored allowing for far longer periods underwater. We spent more time underwater than ever before.
As the dive master began calling out the names on the roster of divers, the name Grytch stood out in my mind. Karen and I knew a Grytch… an ex-boyfriend of a friend in Texas. We had only met him once. I looked at him and asked, “Are you Dorinda’s Grytch???” He looked at me and asked “Matt?” Yep, it was he. Small world.
At one point, we swam through a small tunnel and I worried that two of the very large women would become trapped in the passageway. Fortunately, they made it through the squeeze. But they and the other big breathers drained their air tanks after only twenty minutes, leaving just Karen, Grytch, the dive master and me. We all stayed down for another 15 minutes and hung out with the largest turtle we’d ever seen. He (she??) had no trouble staying underwater despite its large size. Next stop: Hanalei, the dive site, not the town. Here, the highlights included a school of barracudas and a white tipped reef shark and, of course, more turtles. The dive master leading our group, however, was more interested in pointing out the smaller fish, such as leaf fish and shrimp. We reached a maximum depth of 63 feet and stayed underwater for nearly an hour. Karen and I were the last ones up. Gotta buy a dive computer! We arrived back at the harbor at about 1 p.m. and said our farewells to Grytch. But our diving adventure for the day had only begun. That evening we planned to make a night dive. At 6 p.m., half an hour before sunset, we met up at Koloa Landing with the two big ladies and the dive leader, Mike... a really skinny guy. The big ladies were taking their Advanced Certification course, the night dive being one of the requirements. We donned our wetsuits, hooked up our tanks in the back of a truck and then waddled out to the rocky shoreline. As the sun sank below the watery horizon, we switched on our lights and slipped into a dark, wet world. Even though we have done many night dives, they never cease to feel eerie. Everything is dark except for the narrow beams of light. Other divers disappear - only the glowing blobs from the dive lights can be seen. The bright moving spots remind me of descriptions of UFOs in the night sky.
Another great thing about night dives is seeing nocturnal creatures that don’t venture out during the day, mostly octopi and squid. We saw several octopi, a viper eel that glowed in our lights with iridescent purple spots and a hermit crab. We also encountered a scorpion fish, a puffer fish that let me hold him as we moved along, a sea cucumber and the amazing “Spanish Dancer.” This bright red jellyfish undulates through the water like the skirt of a Spanish Flamenco dancer. We all trained our lights on the creature giving it the spotlight it deserved as it put on a fantastic show while swimming towards the surface. And after 45 minutes at a depth of 40 feet, we too headed for the surface and re-emerged in the rocky cove for several days of above the water fun.
Kauai is the most picturesque place either of us had ever visited. But despite the amazing scenery, seeing Kauai from terra firma, or even the sky, leaves out the best part. To fully appreciate this island, you must delve below the surface layer. And if any of your friends tell you that there’s not much to see down there, well, tell them to stop being so shallow.
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On our second day, we again met up with the crew from Dive Kauai at Port Allen Harbor in Poipu on the southern coast. Unlike any other dive charter we’ve used, Dive Kauai didn’t keep their boat in the harbor. The towed it in each morning on a trailer behind a large van. While the boat rested on this trailer, we’d all climb aboard and assemble our gear. Once divers and crew finished preparations, the 30-foot craft would be driven down the boat ramp and released into the water. It was pretty darn strange being on a fully laden dive boat elevated in a parking lot.
We talked as the boat got underway. He had just come over from the big island and would only be diving in Kauai this one day. He chose a good one. The first dive site, General Store, teamed with so many fish and so many varieties of fish that I couldn’t remember them all if I tried. Again, several turtles paddled along beside us 80 below the ocean surface, as did a few rather chubby divers.
The first creature we encountered was anything but a UFO. It was another white-tipped reef shark, about four feet long. He swam beside us and between us the entire time. I shook my light at him to signal, “Go away, bad shark.” But strangely he didn’t understand. Several times I watched as he swam off and thought we were rid of his presence only to turn a corner and find him less than a foot away from my face. “Bad shark!!!” He was harmless, however. He had become used to spear fishermen who hunted the site at night - he scavenged whatever these underwater fishers left behind.
We hiked in Wamei Canyon (the Grand Canyon of Hawaii) and along the Na Pali coast. We kayaked up Wailua River and swam beneath Secret Falls. We snorkeled in caves and sailed at sunset from the town of Hanalei. We drove to and viewed about a dozen waterfalls and beat the heck out of our rental car exploring remote beaches. And we took a scenic helicopter ride around the island that was so much fun we both wanted to run right out and sign up for helicopter flying lessons. Every time we thought we found the most beautiful spot on the island, we’d fine somewhere even more delightful.