Big - Bigger - Biggest!
by Todd McGuire
I am an Advance Certified diver from Klamath Falls, OR. I am also on the Klamath Country Dive Rescue team. Most of my dives are in water temps that range from 40-60 degree water and a 6mm wet-suite is necessary. So when and I started planning a trip to Maui, I was excited about getting to dive in warmer water and not having to wear my thick wet-suite.
Besides making many shore dives in Maui, I made two boat dives with Ed Robinson's Diving Adventures. One was a two tank adventure and the other was a three tank adventure. On both trips, the Dive master was René. Both trips were great: The visibility was 60' plus and water temp around 75 degrees. On both trips I got to see the normal reef life associated with Maui diving, but my most memorable dive was by far my second dive of the three tank adventure.
The backside of Molokini Crater is known for it's great wall dives and we were getting some Kona winds, so we all decided that diving the [Enenue Side] of Molokini would be the most sheltered. Our first dive was a deep dive down to 130 feet and the 300' mark loomed, inviting below. On a small shelf, we played with a few reef sharks, checked out some spiny lobster, and then made a slow accent up the wall while checking out the many varieties of fish that hang out there. It was a great dive, but nothing compared to my next dive that day.
That day, when asked by the Dive Master what we wanted to do, all I could say is that I wanted to see something BIG. In fact, BIG is all I could think of. Anyway, after our surface interval, we decided to do another wall dive on the backside of Molokini; but this time, we were to dive on the opposite side of Molokini Crater. This Dive was very similar to the first except the wall was steeper and had a lot of cracks and crevices to check out. I had a great time just checking out the over hangs and cracks. As my air supply got down to 1000psi, I began thinking about making the swim away from the wall and to the surface to get picked up by the boat. On the swim out from the wall, I could hear whales singing. In fact, on the whole dive, whales were sounding in the deep blue water beyond. However, this time the singing was quite loud and distinct. I hoped to get to see a whale all along, but knew the odds were against me. Having finished my safety stop at 15 feet, I surfaced and it wasn't long until our boat was right there picking us up: I had one diver with me and let him board first.
I was just getting ready to board the boat when the Captain Yelled "Whale" and pointed right at me. Believe me, I'm no whale so I look down and below me about 20' there was a great big shadow. Well naturally, I stuck my head into the water and to my amazement, a whale was just sitting there right under me. I was ecstatic...pure spiritual, and I just took everything in that I could. Below that whale was another. The Close whale then rotated slowly and dove. I looked right into His eye while he turned and dove out of sight. To my shock, the whale then came strait back up from the deep blue water just below me. I began to wonder if I was going for a ride, but then the whale held it's depth just below me again. The whale sat there for what seamed like 5 minutes and then humped and dove out of sight and was gone.
I can't say how happy I was, but the people on the boat sure heard about it when I boarded screaming "Yes!!! All right!!!!! That was Fantastic!!!! etc.!!!!" The only bad part was that René was still on the wall with some photographer who re-breaths his bubbles or something to stay down longer than anyone else. I hope that she gets a dive with a whale soon. Thanks René for a great Dive!!! And Thanks to the Skipper form Oregon.
...by Todd McGuire