Hawaii Kauai Snorkel and Scuba

R

roilciuc

Member
My family and I went to Hawaii this past winter break, we were on Kauai. The best snorkel spot we found was at Lihue beach. The two scuba dives we did were at 92 feet and 60 feet. Whales were everywhere but sadly I didn't see one underwater, we had one breach along out boat 7 times in a row. I'm talking about a full body leap out of the water, it was amazing. Sadly my sister couldn't see it because she didn't do a safety stop from 90 feet and lost her vision for a few hours at normal temperature, so PLEASE REMEMBER TO DO SAFETY STOPS!! One day when I have more time I'll get some videos up too. Everything is shot with a GoPro 2 with the underwater case.
View attachment 13517View attachment 13518View attachment 13519View attachment 13520View attachment 13521View attachment 13522View attachment 13523View attachment 13524View attachment 13525View attachment 13526View attachment 13527View attachment 13528View attachment 13529View attachment 13530View attachment 13531View attachment 13532View attachment 13533View attachment 13534View attachment 13535View attachment 13536View attachment 13537View attachment 13538View attachment 13539View attachment 13540View attachment 13541View attachment 13542View attachment 13543View attachment 13544
 
Herbie

Herbie

Banned
did you guys get your syster back under pressure Ben? Losing your vision from missing a safety stop is not in any way normal or healthy. If she was effected by rapid decompression that dramatically then she could have, no DID have nitrogen bubbles moving in her system that could have caused much bigger problems (yeah, even bigger than blindness). Sorry to be overly concerned, but I don't like to think that a dive company would just send you on your way after something like that. Did they suggest immediate medical attention?

Great pics though. Aren't the whale calls amazing underwater. You just think they have to be somewhere right near you, but they could be miles away.
 
Funlad3

Funlad3

Well-known member
As much fun as Kauai looks, I really hope that it hasn't gotten that bad in the four years since I've been there. Maui and the Big Island have always seemed to have better snorkeling to me, but I've never seen Kauai that bad... :(
 
T

tribalturtle2

Member
I went out to Oahu, Maui and Kauai back in 2000. If anyone goes to Oahu, go to North Shore find a dive guide and ask them to take you to 3 shelves or 3 tables, its usually loaded with giant sea turtles, when I went there the dive guide took me through the lava tubes(it was just him and myself). On Maui went as a group and tons of stuff to be seen and a giant black manta rays!

From your pics looks like everything is bleached out. What kind of visibility was there on the days you dove?
 
brettz16

brettz16

Member
Herbie said:
did you guys get your syster back under pressure Ben? Losing your vision from missing a safety stop is not in any way normal or healthy. If she was effected by rapid decompression that dramatically then she could have, no DID have nitrogen bubbles moving in her system that could have caused much bigger problems (yeah, even bigger than blindness). Sorry to be overly concerned, but I don't like to think that a dive company would just send you on your way after something like that. Did they suggest immediate medical attention?

Great pics though. Aren't the whale calls amazing underwater. You just think they have to be somewhere right near you, but they could be miles away.
Click to expand...
I think you would be surprised with some of the dive operations out there. My last dive was in Grand Cayman. Im by no means an expert and my brother(with asthma) has never dived in his life. Next thing you know our instructor took us to the south wall. I looked at my gauge when we hit the bottom and we were 120ft. Then went through a cave that opened up into a 3000ft drop off. The instructor had my brother by the arm the whole time, but still. Did many safety stops on that dive.
 
R

roilciuc

Member
Well they didn't really realize why she was blind. The instructors said its no big deal from 90 feet because they used to do that back in the day. They had her do a longer stop on the second dive. She recovered pretty fast though but it could have definitely been worse. Yeah I was very very disappointed with the coral life, it was more of a fish and turtle trip for me.
 
R

roilciuc

Member
WE don't have DAN insurance. I've never even heard of it. The visibility was about 30-50 feet on the shore snorkeling spot and I believe it was 100+ feet on the dive site.
 
poidog

poidog

Active member
I share the same concern with everyone else. The minute she got to the boat and was having DI symptoms she needed to breath the on-board oxygen (hoping there was oxygen on board!). Was she advanced certified? No way should you pass your depth limit for your level of certification. I just finished my Advanced certification that certifies me to dive pass 60 ft to rec limits of 130. It was a lot of work, and a lot of dive to prove I had the skills and stamina for more advanced diving.

As Jeni said, we are all responsible for our own diving saftey. This is a very safe sport, when you dive within your limits, and know the symptoms of problems if they do occur. Please die from diving every day, and 99% it's because of diver error.

If this happened recently I would highly suggest you call DAN and get a reference to a doctor familiar in Dive Medicine in your area and have your sister get checked out.
 
poidog

poidog

Active member
I share the same concern with everyone else. The minute she got to the boat and was having DI symptoms she needed to breath the on-board oxygen (hoping there was oxygen on board!). Was she advanced certified? No way should you pass your depth limit for your level of certification. I just finished my Advanced certification that certifies me to dive pass 60 ft to rec limits of 130. It was a lot of work, and a lot of dives to prove I had the skills and stamina for more advanced diving.

As Jeni said, we are all responsible for our own diving saftey. This is a very safe sport, when you dive within your limits, and know the symptoms of problems if they do occur. People die from diving every day, and 99% it's because of diver error.

If this happened recently I would highly suggest you call DAN and get a reference to a doctor familiar in Dive Medicine in your area and have your sister get checked out.
 
Pufferpunk

Pufferpunk

New member
Never, ever, ever dive without DAN insurance!!! Most ins companies will not cover chamber visits or helicopter trips to one. My husband has been in the chamber 2x.
 
poidog

poidog

Active member
Herbie said:
did you guys get your syster back under pressure Ben?
Click to expand...
And just to clarify, this does not mean jumping back in the water and descending to a pressure depth. What Herbs means is that a visit to a chamber was critical to get back under pressure. Diving back into the water is ineffective and dangerous.

Pufferpunk said:
Never, ever, ever dive without DAN insurance!!! Most ins companies will not cover chamber visits or helicopter trips to one. My husband has been in the chamber 2x.
Click to expand...
Yup, and it's only like $45 a year.

Some plans do cover. My Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO does cover (I had to call them and ask - make sure you have the scientific treatment name) on a reimbursement based claim only. So if I'm in beleize I'm forking over the couple grand for treatment hoping my insurance covers it... or get DAN and they cover it and pay directly from minute #1.
 
fwadiver

fwadiver

New member
Advocating going to 90 feet on an AL80 is really more the problem there is no room for error as far as gas consumption and no way you have enough air to buddy breath and keep a safe ascent speed if someone has a problem a that depth even on a bounce dive. Unless she wears contacts blurred vision is a neurological symptom. Its possible she has lingering damage that you cant detect. The chances of a hit go up dramatically with depth which is why additional training is recommended for deep diving, and even that training is in my opinion sub par. Most instructors take you down to 90' and then 130' for 5 min dives and hand you a deep diver card, and you really never get any experience task loading while narc'd or with the problems that can occur.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top