Ka'anapali, Hawaii
Under the parking lot light we squeeze into our wetsuits, doing a few jumps to force it the rest of the way on. We grab our buoyancy compensator vests (BCD) with the tank attached and air valve turned on and slide in. After we secure the buckles and cummerbund velcro, we grab our masks, pulling the band around our necks, and check that our flashlights are working. Booties on and fins in hand, we head to the beach.
It's a long walk to Black Rock from the parking lot. As we walk through the Sheraton resort the tiki torch flames blow sideways with the warm ocean breeze. We walk down the winding resort walkways and some guests at the beach bar drunkenly yell out, “Hey! I wanna go diving too!” We laugh and continue our trek to the beach. The moon glistens off the water and the stars are the fullest I have seen in years. We cross the last bridge to the beach over a glowing lava flow-style lazy river with some guests enjoying a night swim. The resort here is beautiful at night.
Finally we reach the sand, the waves crashing on the shoreline and the upper rock face of Black Rock to our right. Depending on the current and surge forces, we hope to go from the north end of Ka'anapali beach around Black Rock to Lionel's point, exiting at May's Beach.
Time to dive! I give my regulator a quick purge making sure the air is on, and double check my tank gauge to make sure I am at 3000 PSI. I pull my mask up from my neck and put it on making sure there’s no hair in the seal that would cause it to leak. Putting my regulator into my mouth, I start breathing from my tank. As I walk into the water I grab my BCD's power inflation hose and fill my vest’s air bladder so I can float. Once I am floating in the water with the group we all turn towards the shore, making sure we don’t get pushed too far in by the waves, and slide on our fins. In the dim glow of the resort lights we turn on our flashlights and prepare for our descent.
As we turn around spotted eagle rays flap their wings and dive under the surface right in front of us. I have always wanted to see spotted eagle rays when diving or snorkeling! We are off to a good start already! We all give each other the OK signal with our fingers and simultaneously sink to the bottom, holding the deflation button down, hoses raised next to our head on our left sides.
Once down, I let a tad bit more air into my BCD to keep me neutrally buoyant, this way I am floating just above the bottom and not damaging any coral below me during my dive.
After all giving the OK signal once more, we’re off to explore Black Rock.
Surrounded by pitch black except for my and each divers’ light beams, I look around the ocean and observe the incredible behavioral changes of the critters I am used to seeing during the day. I shine my light at a small school of fish, Hawaiian Drascyllus (Domino Damsel), which are only found in Hawaii. If you pause for a moment and listen you can hear them purring in the water!
Continuing on, we shine around and see a giant green sea turtle sleeping tucked under a rock cliff. A gray flash cruises by me, a small white tip reef shark, too cute to be afraid of.
We drift by one of the most interesting sites, a large eel with a fish sideways in his mouth looking face to face with another white tip shark. We look closely at some cauliflower coral and find a rare nudibranch.
As we explore more of the reef, the diver in front of me has a spotted eagle ray cruise in from the dark and come face to face with her, attracted to the light. Several other large eels cruise by us, using our light to assist in their hunt. Eels have poor eyesight, yet choose to hunt at night!
As we continue our dive we see spiny lobsters, slipper lobsters, more white tip sharks, turtles, and colorful reef fish. At one point I turn off my flashlight and look around, taking in the darkness of the ocean. A small glimpse of glowing faintly comes from the dark, the bioluminescence in the water.
After 40 minutes, we are finished our dive. It goes by too quickly when you are under water, taking in the sites. We were able to go around all of Black Rock because the current worked in our favor, letting us drift around the reef to the other side.
At the end of the dive, I was ready to go again! If you are a diver, a night dive in Maui (and many other destinations) is a MUST do!
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