Leaf Scorpion fish in Kona Hawaii...

I just found this picture on a laptop I'm about ready to "retire" and thought I'd post it while it's on my mind. It's a nice "white" leaf scorpion. Leaf scorpions come in all variety of colors. I probably never posted this one because it's not exactly facing the direction I want.

Today's diving was good. The water's starting to get a slight chill on it... still around 78, but it's a cool 78 I guess. I managed to come home from vacation feeling fine, but 2 days later I had something attack my chest... lots of caughing for a couple of weeks, but I'm back to where I can lead dives again so I'll be trading off with the crew. I did the second dive today, there was a bit of a swell coming up so it was a bit murky, viz down to 70-80 feet or so. Nothing out of the ordinary today, we did see a few flame angelfish among other things, good dive.

Later,

Steve

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a Leaf Scorpionfish (Taenianotus triacanthus) I found under a coral head at Turtle Pinnacle a couple months back.

Pat's family flew in last night so we've got a full house for a few days. I've got today off, with charters the next few days. I've got a big project ahead of me... the "office". I've rented a spot out near the harbor where I'll be able to keep my gear (the business has pretty much been living out of the truck and garage for several years), hang my T shirts, and meet customers that want to meet or try gear on ahead of time. I've got no immediate plans for retail, no immediate money anyways, so it'll be "Open by Accident", I mean "Open by Appointment", only. I'm heading off shortly to start filling holes, sanding and washing the walls in preparation for a more funky paint job... gloss white's kinda boring... there used to be a travel company office in this spot, I'm shooting for a different look. I'll post a walk through tour once I'm done - Someone asked the other day when I'm moving in... my answer was "over the course of the next 8-10 months". I'm hoping to have it looking like an official spot in the next 2-3 weeks of working between charters though.

Good fun scuba diving today.....

We had fun today. Went up to "Hoover's" for the first dive, ended up at Kaloko for the second dive. At about 60-65 minutes into the second dive, customer Mel found this fish... nice find. It's a Devil Scorpion (Scorpaenopsis diabolus). This one wasn't all that large, maybe 7 inches or so. They are essentially one of the stone fish, and have a knack for blending in to their surroundings. Mel said she saw it move as she went by... what is noticeable about them when they move is the back side of their pectoral fins, they're extremely bright, looking like a brightly colored butterfly when they skip along the bottom.Here's a quick shot of the back view. You can only see the color open up right when they move, and I just barely caught part of it, but you get the idea.

Later,

Steve

South Kona Hawaii vacation rental near Kealakekua Bay...

As you probably notice, I'm pimping our vacation rental a bit this post. It's been running full and I just looked at the availability calendar and noticed we've got lots of availability yet for this summer. We're located down in Captain Cook between the upper highway and the water, on the road that goes down to the old wharf that people use to launch their kayaks to paddle over to the Captain Cook Monument. We like to think it's a nice spot. It's roughly a 25-45 (traffic can be slow on school days in the morning) minute drive into Kailua, so it's away from the touristy crowds. If you are curious, you can check it out here.

I've got two days off in a row, the only time this month. We've been pretty busy, that's a good thing. Yesterday I put together a quick e-mail newsletter to send out to the mailing list. I've ignored putting out a newsletter for about a year... I can't bring myself to take the time to write one up send one out when there's not a whole lot new going on - I can do that here. Today I've got another project in mind that will keep me busy for the day.

The fish above is a Titan Scorpion (Scorpaenopsis cacopsis). This one's probably about 15-18 inches in length. They can sit right out in the open and blend in with the surrounding rock and coral.... they're tough to spot, and just as tough to photograph to where they show up in the photo. They're one of the "stonefish" you hear about, with venomous spines. This particular one seems to like a specific rock outcropping at one of the sites we dive, but it's so difficult to spot we only find it every now and then, usually in the same general area.

Later,

Steve

How to fit a mask for scuba diving or snorkeling....

Howdy,

I thought I'd post something that's almost informative for once. One of the complaints you hear about lots in this business is of ill fitting masks. It's a pretty common thing.

When I first started diving, I was taught that a mask fit if you could put in on your face, inhale through your nose, and if it stuck, it fit. Well you know what, that works - sometimes. As often as not, you could make a non-fitting mask, that'll leak badly when you are in the water, stick to your face just by inhaling hard. I dove with a badly fitting mask for years, I'm pretty much used to having an inch or so of water in my mask.

When I got to Kona, I was hired on at a now defunct (it wasn't me, really, I think it was an ownership squabble) dive and snorkel gear shop downtown. They sold probably 3-8 masks a day, and had people try on umpty-ump more during the course of a day. Every shop I'd ever been to did the old snort and stick method, so that's how I sold masks. Over the course of two weeks or so it was apparent that any returns were masks I sold, the manager/owner of the shop clued me into something I'd never heard, and I cant remember any returns after that. When I left for a full service dive center, they had a lot of return issues with masks so I passed along the info to them and things improved dramatically during the time I was there, I think they still sell it the the way I was showed today.

So here it is....

Most dive shops will have numerous styles of masks. They may have several colors of each style, but the important thing for the mask buyer is to find the style that fits and then pick a color. If you go to a shop that has 20-30 masks on the wall, there's a good shot that there may be 10-12 or more styles represented, and odds are that one or two of them will fit you far better than the rest. ... EDIT: As one of the commenters mentions below, you may have to try numerous masks, even go to more than one store, to find the one that is right for you... it all depends on what's in stock and the build of your face.

As many mask frames as there are, there are probably more skirts. There are only a handful of companies that actually manufacture masks, and then numerous companies that contract with them to manufacture masks for them. Two different brands may be exactly the same, or have the same frame but a slightly different skirt. To get a proper fit, you'll be checking to see how the skirt matches up with your face.

Rather than pressing a mask against your face and inhaling, you are better off to gently touch a mask to your face and stop when it first touches your face. You can eliminate a lot of masks right then. A mask that is too wide will touch your forehead and below the nose, but not be touching your temples at the same time. A mask that is too narrow will touch your temples or cheeks before it touches your forehead and below the nose. Big gaps anywhere = try another mask. A more ideal mask will touch everywhere at the exact same time when it first barely touches you, remember not to press hard.

Once you find a likely prospect, or a couple of them, barely touch it to your face and check for gaps at the temples, dimples, the back of your eye sockets, and smile lines. These are the trouble areas for a lot of people, but if you try enough masks you should find something that works. Sometimes it helps to have a friend look for gaps while you barely touch your face with a likely mask, but once you get the hang of it you'll be able to tell pretty much right away.

Another method, if you don't mind looking a bit strange, is to lay flat on your back or look straight up and see if the weight of the mask alone (do not press when you place it) will create a seal to your face that you cannot draw air through with a very, very, very light inhale. A bad fit, you will be able to still softly inhale through, a really good fit it's stuck to your face by it's own weight and even if you try to inhale a single cc (teeny bit for those who don't know what a cc is) you'll feel the mask move to your face.

A few little hints....

Price - you are likely to find prices from around $35 bucks and up for masks. Some of it is name branding, some of it is quality of the silicon skirt. If you feel enough skirts you'll start to notice a flexibility/softness difference as there are several different grades of silicon (this was passed on to me by an aqualung rep, it seems to be accurate as I could feel the difference between the cheap and expensive models of the exact same mask). The basic thing is, don't automatically think a spendy mask is better than a cheap one... a 90 buck mask that constantly leaks isn't worth much... all things being equal you may want to spring for the spendier mask, but go for fit first.

Single pane vs. 2 lens mask - In general, the single pane masks often have wider skirts than the 2 lens masks. If you have a narrow face, cheekbones or forehead, you may not fit many single pane masks - try one of the fitting methods mentioned earlier, there are some more narrow single pane masks.

Field of vision - Some people think more glass equals more vision. That's not always the case. Some low volume two lens masks fit closer to the face, giving a wider angle of view. While there are a lot of masks that are promoting a wide angle view, and they do a good job of it, it's worth putting the mask on and comparing.

So, you've got a wide face... try several different single lens masks, and really take a look at some of the frameless masks that have come out in the last 7-8 years. There are a few old standards that work great, and many of the larger frameless masks fit those with wide cheekbones great.

That's some basics for now. Keep in mind it's a bunch of generalizations, but I hope it helps for some. If you're in the Kona area, feel free to stop by Wanna Dive and check out our masks. We'll be happy to help you with fitting masks.

The pic above is of a Devil Scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis diabolus). It was out in the rubble, and I saw a couple of our divers looking at it... good find, it blended in quite well. I wish the flash were working for this.

If you like this post... feel free to search my blog archives on the right sidebar.

Apparently the manta dive is hopping....

I haven't actually been out on the night dive for a while, but it's started to pick up again and I thought I'd pass it along. They've been seeing good numbers lately after a very slow spring. They apparently had eight mantas tonight.

Well, the boat work is scheduled and hopefully I'll be back on my boat by the third week of the month. It should be pretty close, but there's a ton of work we'll be doing. I getting pretty excited about it. This is a major job that'll essentially give me a new boat without having to spring for a whole new boat. We'll be removing the old engine, exhaust, outdrive and the engine box, removing all the wiring, ripping up the deck and replacing it then rebuilding the cockpit/deck area and adding bench seats, all new wiring, building the hull extension/swimstep/outboard engine mounts to the existing transom and putting on a couple of reasonable sized 4 stroke outboards. We replaced the fuel tank with twin fuel tanks earlier this year. In the end I should have more usable space on board, as well separate engines, fuel and electrical systems and likely a better and more powerful ride. It should be a big step up in maintenance and reliability issues too. I'm looking forward to it, hopefully it'll be a while before I want to upgrade again... but if boats are anything like cameras... not wanting to upgrade isn't a certainty... Pat and I are both already eyeballing new cameras and we've only had our last ones a year or so. I need a new camera like I need a hole in the head.

So I guess I'm semi-out-of-the-water for now, at least off of my boat. I've got charters lined up next week on a friend's boat, and a bunch of stuff lined up later in the month that I'm hoping my boat will be ready for. I'll have a backup plan at any rate.

The picture above is of a small scorpionfish in a coral head. If you take the time to look in coral heads, they often have something unusual hiding out inside.

Later,

Steve

Leaf Scorpionfish Taenianotus triacanthus

This is a picture of a face of a Leaf Scorpion. You kind of have to look at it twice to see it. I do have some very nice pictures of leaf scorpions a year or more back in the blog if you care to explore the archives (linked on the right side of the page if you are on the home page). Leaf scorpions spend most of their lives just sitting around gently waving with the currents, pretty much looking like a leaf, 'til something edible happens by, then it's a matter of a very quick distending of the jaw and they've had their meal and they go back to just sitting there. These fish seem to be very attracted to antler corals, placing themselves in or under the corals, so you'll often notice the divemasters checking out every antler coral they come across for this critter and a few other things.

Tuesday's night dive turned into a non-happening. My group was all snorkelers but one and when they called on Monday I'd filled them in on the relative lack of mantas and they decided to do other things (if I have a group of snorkelers, I really try to give them the option of not going out if it's likely they'll see nothing), the one diver in the group did join us for the morning dive. We had a couple of real nice dives in the morning, and as luck would have it, it was a good thing for the snorkelers that they decided not to do the night dive - no mantas. Last year this time we were in the front end of a 5-6 month stretch where we had mantas most every night... haven't been that lucky yet this year but I suspect it'll kick in at some point.

I finally sent out my fist e-mail "newsletter" today. I set up for it a long time ago and just never sent one out, figured I need to get started sooneer or later and now is a good time what with summer coming up. I'm not going to send them out too often, maybe quarterly or when something relatively big for the business occurs. If you'd like to get on the list, there's a link on the right side of the blog. Regular readers will get a lot more news from the blog than the e-mails.

That's about it for now.

Aloha,

Steve

We're doing a manta ray night dive tonight...

The mantas have been around the last couple of nights and we're going up with a group tonight.

Yesterday we had some interesting dives. We had a small group on who had to change their schedule from morning to late afternoon and wanted to do two dives right outside the harbor at a site that has a lot going on... a lot going on was definitely the case yesterday. I missed out on most of the fun because I played captain, but I did manage a "captain's dive" in between (Bob's also a licensed captain, as as long as one of us is on board at all times everything's cool). During the first dive, they were swarmed by a sizeable group of uluas (jacks), Bob said there were maybe 30-40 in the group - this is just something we don't see here, I think I've maybe seen 10-12 at a time before. Also seen over the course of the dives were leaf scorpion, a reticulated frogfish that I'm dieing to get a picture of (I couldn't find it on my dive), longfin anthias, 2 dwarf morays (along with several other moray eels), 2 devil scorpions, several pipefish, one of our less common flatworms (Bob had to look it up after the charter, so it definitely was not common), a male Whitley's boxfish was sighted, and at the end of the day as it was turning dark the divers were treated to an active Dragon Moray right near the boat. Overall a lot of good stuff.

The days have turned beautiful here the last litte bit, and today is no exception. I'm thinking of going up the hill to the Captain Cook Monument trail for a short power waddle... it's getting easier, but I've got a ways to go before I take on doing the whole trail.

The pic above is of a Yellowtai Filefish (Pervagor aspricaudus). It's the only photo of these guys I've got, I took it yesterday. This one was particularly colorful, oranger than the picture in Hoover's book (a really great Hawaiian fish book I've got linked on the right side of the blog), and more blues also. They're very shy and tough to get a shot of, I had to brighten this photo a bit as it was back in a hole, but the color's pretty true on the pic.

Aloha,

Steve