Fish hate me

[Sockmonkey]

Yesterday marked my very first crappy day on the job since moving here. Nothing was going right and everyone got to see full-on low blood sugar cranky Eric. My poor co-workers. So to escape reality and practice my fishie photo taking I grabbed the work camera and headed to the spot where I had my micro solo dive. I also wanted to see how much weight it would take to make me neutral in my silly freediving getup.

If you think that fish are afraid of you when you're scuba diving, they like freedivers even less. In the spirit of full disclosure I was less freediving and more just snorkeling... ex smokers snorkel... in shape people freedive. It's a fine line. The point being I couldn't get a shot to save my life. My main goal was to ha-wrasse a few fish to get a photo or two for Herr Doktor. I joked to myself this was my penance for buying a salvo, but mostly I just enjoy being on a mission. I learned last night as I was downloading the photos that the little parrot fish I mostly ignored were in fact saddle wrasse and I coulda probably taken better photos of them. I mostly blew off the puffers because they're dumb enough to pose.

So here's the two that came out...





Another for my mom:



Beercanicus litterium are slow moving and easy to photograph:



Truck and stairs:



It can't be any easier to get in the water here:



Sunsets before I got booted out of the park:





You can't really tell from my photos but it was super windy yesterday. As I was heading out of the park past the other side of the breakwall three dudes ran their outrigger canoe ashore and started waving their arms. I guess it was getting late and they couldn't paddle back to the boat launch area. So I gave one a ride back to pick up his truck and trailer. It took a little wrangling to get the security guards (who know me) of the shipyard and park to let him back in. "This one kine emergency?" the guard asked in pigin "Garuntee brah. One kine emergency. Small kine garuntee" my new friend responded. I've already started speaking in pigin and I hope I don't get my ass kicked for it.

Here's a photo of the inner harbor where you can sorta tell that it's blowing steady state 25 and gusting. Just to the right is where they beached their canoe:



Thanks for reading.

-Eric

[Jenbowes]

:smt038

You one kine funny writer! Thanks for the post!

[Tom Nic]

Nice...

[spatman]

i have a ton of pics like that from snorkeling too. fish butts.

that pic of you would make a good avatar.

[H20doctor]

Heir Doktor is pleased with your attempt to get Fishy Pics.. My son has Type 1 diabetes so I know all about the cranky pants of sugar ups and downs.. Keep up the good work.. The Blue water looks really cool

[LCF]

Keep posting your stories -- they're so much fun to read.

[vlad]

Very nice report! Your post made me look though my set of similar pictures from last trip. I've been on Big Island once and liked it a lot.

[Sockmonkey]

I'm here to report that I'm still not well loved by fish. Maybe it was the company I keep. My wing man was a dude with a big assed spear gun. I may need to keep better company when trying to make friends with the fishies.



So... My crazy free diving coworker wanted to get the in the water again this morning before work. Annoyingly this is only type of diving I've done since my last dive report. I mostly agree to go for the practice and the exercise. I need to get more proficient at freediving for work. I use being an ex-smoker as an excuse but really I'm just out of shape.

We met at the Lava Dome where I had previously dove with a tank on. The structure there is interesting and I remembered it being quite fishy there. I swam around with the camera while he shot at fishies in deeper water. I'm always so torn in this circumstances when my friends are hunting under water. My heart goes out to the poor animal being skewered, yet I love to eat seafood.

The circle of life is a real bitch when you're hungry. Especially since this coming weekend a guy we know is building an imu, which is a big pit in the ground where you cook all manner of seafood, pork, turkey, and veggies for about four hours underground. Similar to a New England Clambake where you dig a pit in the sand to cook your shellfish and lobster. Everything you want to cook is salted and wrapped in a ti leaf and placed in the imu. If people are interested I'll post photos from the all day imu adventure. I'm hungry already thinking about it...

Anyways... here are the few photos I took this morning... including a crappy snapshot of a Saddle Wrasse for H2ODoc:









Big kahala (otherwise known as an amberjack)


Don't swim away... I'm a nice guy... really!


As we took the long walk back to our cars a guy I went diving with previously was coming down the path all geared up to scuba dive. He had two young blond girls in their 20's trailing behind him and said "Hey Eric I found two Canadians that want to go diving!" I gave him some guilt for not calling me to go diving but I must remember I'm not on the east coast and sarcasm isn't universal. Later today I've got call him and apologize for being a dick. Of course I would choose two cute girls over me any day.

Thanks for reading this far down.

-Eric

[sheahanmcculla]

Looks good to me! You need to use some chum…then they’ll come in like cattle.
Can’t wait, only 22 more days!

So what’s the key to free diving? Is there a secret or just lots and lots of practice?

[Sockmonkey]

Looks good to me! You need to use some chum…then they’ll come in like cattle.
Can’t wait, only 22 more days!

So what’s the key to free diving? Is there a secret or just lots and lots of practice?

The key? Crap if I know!

Mostly being comfortable with not having air to breath seems to be the key thing I lack. Most of that has quite a bit to do with learning that I can probably go longer without taking a breath. Totally mental. Obviously the more relaxed I am the easier time I have staying down.

Some of it is being properly weighted. I'm still a little negative at 15 feet where I need to be neutral. It also helps in that you don't have to swim down and kick with your fins to use up that O2.

I guess I have bad form too where being more streamlined seems to ease the descent.

Mostly... I just need to do more cardio in my life. The guys I go freediving (read: deep snorkeling) with can stay down for a few mins at a time. I myself can stay down for about 45 seconds at 15 feet. Long enough to take two photos... my goal it to take as many as I can while chilling out down there.

You can borrow a set of freediving fins when you're here if you want to try it out.

-Eric

[Jenbowes]

Mostly being comfortable with not having air to breath seems to be the key thing I lack.

Just the thought of freediving down to 15 feet makes me crave oxygen.

[Sockmonkey]

Mostly being comfortable with not having air to breath seems to be the key thing I lack.

Just the thought of freediving down to 15 feet makes me crave oxygen.

It's easier when you can see 75 feet in any direction

-Eric

[LCF]

"The circle of life is a bitch when you're hungry." That's priceless! If I weren't so enamored of my quotation from airsix, it'd be a new sig line.

[Nwbrewer]

If I weren't so enamored of my quotation from airsix, it'd be a new sig line.

And so much more ironic since he'll be doing Rec3 in a few week!

[ldevore]

So I don't think it's being in shape. I run, swim a mile a few mornings a week, etc... and I still can't hold my breath for crap. I was at Muklateo this evening and I ran into a woman who used to free dive in FL. She was pegging me about what it was like to cold water dive and I was pegging her with free diving questions. She said that the key was relaxation. So remember, when you're air starved... just chill man....

[Aquadoc]

eh dat da kine kahala. I am jealous I left Oahu 2 mos ago an I miss it.

[Aquadoc]

ja I know thats not Oahu