Handmade clay orchids in Kailua-Kona Hawaii...

OK, so the picture is of an anthurium... we don't have much blooming in the yard right now.

The other week someone called me out of the blue to ask if I knew where the shop with the lady in Kailua who makes handmade clay orchids was. I don't get down to Alii drive all that often so I didn't know and wasn't any help with that question. The other day Pat and I went to town for happy hour at Don the Beachcomber's (good mai-tais and pu-pus) and went for a stroll down Alii drive afterwards. We walked by the shop and decided to go in. Well, the clay orchids are pretty much amazing. They look like the real thing. They're made out of a soft polymer or something rather than what we'd traditionally think of as clay, so they almost feel kind of real too. We were quite impressed.

I thought I'd give that business a plug as it's not the typical touristy type of business you see all over the place. If you are ever wandering downtown you might want to keep an eye out for the place just to take a look at their orchids. Here's their website, you can check out their gallery to see the type of work the owner does... very lifelike.

Interestingly enough, the shop is run by a mother/son team (as far as I can tell in one visit, sorry if I'm wrong) and the son is someone I've run into at the boat ramp on occasion. He's a marine researcher/diver and videographer and we know some of the same people. If you visit them, tell 'em you found out about them from Steve from Wanna Dive... they'll actually have a clue as to who I am... it never hurts to build up some good will.

Aloha,

Steve

This last week was shark week for Wanna Dive in Kona I guess...

Aloha,

I wasn't actually on any of these dives as Bob was leading them at the time and I was Captain up topside, but this week Bob and his divers saw a tiger shark in the distance on one dive outside the harbor, a smallish whaleshark overhead on another dive at a spot long known as "outhouse" and occasionally mentioned as "thunder reef", and then topped it off yesterday with a 10-12 foot hammerhead at "golden arches". It was a good week for the shark fans. I lucked into my second tiger sighting ever just a few weeks back, but it's been a couple of years for me for both hammerheads and whalesharks.

The picture above isn't from the other day, it's of a whaleshark (I figure about a 26 foot long one) I saw on a dive at "sand chute" a few years ago. Nobody had time to get any pictures on this weeks sightings as they were gone in short order. Whalesharks can get HUGE, but are completely harmless as they eat plankton, although they can handle something sardine sized, and are basically filter feeders. Tigers and hammerheads are always a thrill to see. The tiger I saw a couple weeks ago was about as close as I'd care to have it (say 20-25 feet) but I've swam very close to a hammerhead (say 5' or so) before - they're gorgeous animals.

Later,

Steve

Whew, busy, here's a quick underwater photo to tide you over while I'm not posting much...

Here's an adult male Spotted Boxfish (Ostracion meleagris). I've got a lull coming up in a few days, I'll put in an extra post or two then.

Aloha,

Steve

It's 1am and I'm winding down from the manta dive....

Aloha,
I pulled a double today. I've been working pretty much straight through since the 16th, luckily I don't have to turn right around and get up for a charter tomorrow as I have to get up at a bit after 6 am to make the morning charters. I've been up since 5:30 yesterday, these doubles turn into long days for me. Tomorrow's a day off - to go to the dentist.... yuck. After that I have another busy stretch. August is panning out quite nicely so far, with lots of charters but still plenty of space available to add additional divers.

The manta dive tonight was kind of weird. The plankton (small shrimp/crustaceans and other critters that the mantas feed on) has been pretty light the last few evenings so the manta numbers have been a little light. Tonight was primarily fly-bys, where the mantas come in to see if there's anything worth sticking around for. Luckily at the end of the dive there was a manta feeding beneath the boat tied off to us so our divers got a good closeup view for several minutes.

Here's another frogfish photo from yesterday... it's a bit too reddish, I'd probabaly want to play with it a bit if I were going to print it up, but I like that you can look into it's mouth a bit so it's a keeper for me. This frogfish is the same one that Pat took a photo of and I posted a couple months back. Cathy and Bob have been watching it for several months, I'd only dove the site twice since Cathy found it, couldn't find it (the frogfish) the first time, but this time I did. It's grown a fair amount since the first photo. It's surprising how fast they grow. I'd always thought it took much longer for them to get up to size than it really does.

Later... gotta hit the hay before I slump down on my keyboard...

Steve

Quick, lock up the booze cabinet!!!!

This gecko's after margarita residue, no way we're letting him help himself.

10-12 foot Tiger shark on today's dive in Kona Hawaii....

Sorry no pics, it was a training dive. I had a 12 year old on the dive and a tiger shark went near us. The student probably only saw the tail end of it as it was heading off, but I got a pretty good look at it from about 25 feet away... first good look at a tiger shark since I've been here. I've only seen a glimpse of one once before, in the first year I lived here.... new divers get all the luck, he isn't even certified yet (dive # two of the OW class) and he's seen a fish that most divers here dream of. Anyway, the shark paid no attention to us, it was swimming along the rocks near shore.

The water's nice and comfortably warm now, I saw 79/81 today on my computer. It took a while to warm up, but we're about where we usually are this time of year now.

Here's a shot of a Zebra Moray (Gymnomuraena zebra) I took back in '03 with my first digital camera. I may have posted it before, but I'm not going to look back through the archives tonight... I hate doing repeats, but I'll take a chance, I liked this photo quite a bit at the time I took it.

Later,

Steve

Fit at 50? Another post on gettin' old....

Howdy,

A few months ago I mentioned I was losing weight... well, I've pretty much stabilized at 217+/-, which beats the heck out of the 240 or so I was late winter and early spring. The pounds haven't changed since my frist weight loss report, but I do look a hair thinner (I've been lifting a lot of scuba tanks lately so that's probably helped). I haven't really stuck with the diet at all the last month and a half or so, at least I haven't gained any.

Well, the other week at the Hilton was a bit of a wake-up for me. Other than the short walks (maybe a mile) I do with Pat on occasion I really haven't walked more than a couple hundred yards at a time since tearing the hamstring this winter. After walking the length of the resort and then some I started to realize, hey I'm noticing my leg's a bit more sore/tired than expected... not good, as I've only got a few months to build it up before our trip this fall.

We're doing Vegas for the dive show and I typically walk for hours and hours when I'm there. After Vegas we're hitting the Grand Canyon and other hiking areas for a few days... I may have to actually exercise to get ready for this trip. I've basically got 3 months to get it to where I won't notice it... quite doable I suspect, as long as I actually work on it. We're really looking forward to the hiking after the Vegas visit... gonna check out Antelope Canyon and some other slot canyons, and Pat's on a mission to lose weight herself - she's doing quite well, down 2 sizes - so I've got some competition as far as the weight loss thing goes... Can't let her embarrass me ya know.

I never really took a "before" picture, although I suspect we can find a picture of me at 240/250 somewhere, but my goal is to be able to take a sub-200 pound picture by the time I'm 50, which is coming all too soon. It's surprising just how much better the first 20 pound loss has me feeling, so it'll be curious to see how I feel at 200 or less... haven't been there in 20 years for any length of time, so I've got the work cut out.... Just say no to non-fiber carbs!

Here's a small frogfish a customer noticed at the tail end of our 100 minute dive I mentioned the other week... nice find. To give you an idea of the size of the frogfish, the piece of finger coral it's on is a bit smaller than the size of a little pinky finger. The fish was maybe an inch or so in length. It was sort of tough to get a shot of it, this was as close as I could get without risking bumping anything.

Later,

Steve

Doo be doo, doo doo be, doo be doo be doo be doo!

Aloha,

Anyone who has lived here for any length of time and ever listened to the radio will get the title of this post. It's the refrain from the most radio played Hawaiian song of the last decade or two, by my guess anyway.

Here's the video by the guy who wrote?/produced? it.



It's Aloha Friday, no work 'til Monday....Doo be doo, doo doo be, doo be doo be doo be doo!

Later,

Steve

PS: I actually do work this weekend, but I just had to share. This song kind of grows on you.