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Ocean Concepts, Oahu
My first introduction to Oahu diving was, as they say, a spoiler. As I descended on the 176-foot, fully intact wreck of the Mahi, which rests in a sandy plain off the island's west coast, a group of about six spotted eagle rays made a slow, circling pass around the wreck, like a precision squadron of flying carpets. There was easily more than 120 feet of vis, and the water was dead calm. I watched the formation head off into the blue until the faraway blue edge swallowed them up. The dive staff from Ocean Concepts made it clear during the briefing that bottom times were restricted to a prescribed amount of time, so I never felt as if I had to rush off to the next thing. Instead, the next things came rushing at me.
When I reached the deck at about 65 feet, the first of several moray eels poked its head out of a mass of cable on the bow. I followed the divemaster into the wreck and from room to room through the shadowy passageways of the penetrable areas, and when I exited an extremely gravid tiger shark made a slow pass just a few feet from me. It was so massive that I'm sure I felt the tug of its gravitational force, and it seemed ready to give birth at that instant, its belly was so taut. It slipped slowly away into the blue as I gaped in awe. While I did the safety stop, the eagle rays returned and did several precision passes along the sandy bottom.
I left the water in a state of euphoria as we headed off to a shallower second site called Makaha Caverns.
With the nickname "the gathering place," Oahu has something for every kind of diver, from sprawling resorts amid nonstop city lights and action, to bucolic getaways where your only companions are the beach, the sea and, at night, the stars. Ocean Concepts, a PADI 5 Star and Career Development Center, has shops throughout the island. They will transport you from just about anywhere you've landed to some of the better gathering places on the island. Which brings us back to Makaha.
This site is a maze of lava-tube swim-throughs, passages and archways that seem to be inhabited by not only every green sea turtle in the ocean, but also every interesting shaft of light in the sea. Between the aggregation of turtles, the eerie shifting beams of light in the caverns and the already heightened state from the dive before, I was beginning to feel completely intoxicated.
Afterward, on the way back to the hubbub of my hotel in Waikiki, I told the divemaster that I was afraid to get back in the water and didn't want to lose the memory of the day's dives. He looked at me with that astonished look people give when you've just said something, shall we say, less than smart.
"Dude," he said. "There are more than 600 species of fish in Hawaii; 30 percent are endemic. You've seen about 20. We had some killer dives today but, trust me, you've just scratched the surface."
I thought about this until he dropped me off at the hotel.
"So," he said. "Spoil you tomorrow."
"Yep," I replied. "Tomorrow."
