NWHI day 3-Transit

Meet Mrs. Parker, she's the queen of the galley and makes our meals along side the "chief", you will meet him later. She is on top of the game and is always preparing the next meal. If you cross her path you will be the next meal. ha ha!

Today for lunch we had a healthy salad and cheeseburger deluxe with onion rings on the side. Everyday like clock work we are eating. 7-8 am breakfast, 11-12 lunch, 5-6 pm dinner

Since today was a full day of transit everyone was gearing up for tomorrows big day. Keo a UH undergrad student is here to research and he and his fellows were getting ready for tomorrows dive at french frigate shoals. I am amazed to be a part of this awesome group of people.

I hear there are aggressive big Uluas who will bite you if you have anything shiny so I decided instead of being eaten by 100 lb Uluas and become the prey, I would be safe and low key. I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds. More to come, good night..zzz

NWHI Day 2

Well after 24 hour boat ride we finally arrived at Nihoa. I had a great sleep and felt good to be on a boat again. The day was spent going over safety drills and practicing launching the boats. These guys got it together and safety is the utmost importance. We store our dive gear here in these lockers and everyday we must wear our hard hats and life jackets.

I have my own corner in the lab where I can get my camera gear together and get things ready to film. Everyone has the top of the line gear from slr cameras to lights to all kinds of video equipment.

John and Rob got some great footage on our first dive this afternoon and even documented a dozen new species found. These guys are great scientist and know every fish in the book by their scientific name.

Our day ended with this amazing sunset and what a way to close the day. We did our drills, did a 30 minute dive, and tomorrow have a full day at french frigate shoals. I can't wait:)

NWHI Day 1

Well I made it board the NOAA ship today and the Captain let me take the wheel. For 2 seconds. Everything is high tech on this ship and the boat is so huge I get lost every time. We fueled up 50,000 gallons of gas and ready to sail around the world. There is hot water:), food, weight room, but internet is slow so will do my best to keep everyone abreast of the action. South swell arrived so hope everyone is getting some good waves and catching a few for me also. Tomorrow afternoon we arrive at our first destination in Nihoa and will practice our entry dives. Stay tuned!

My Dream Trip

What is your perfect dream boat trip? For surfers its going to Indo to surf perfect waves with no one out. For divers it's being on a boat with ton's of 500 lb tunas swimming around. For videographers like me it's always been to get go to the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. I've always aspired to get footage like I see on National Geographic and was fortunate and blessed to have this opportunity to join this trip. I hope to bring back some amazing images and stories that will educate our viewers about the Northwest Hawaiian Islands.

I have always struggled traveling to make the 50 lb/bag weight limit but on this trip its all good. Yup I got my house and lot except the dog going. This was just half of my gear. I got my lap top and cameras ready so stay tuned.

My bed where I'll be writing my blogs from...

My closet with my essentials... 3 pairs of clothes, dive gear, and favorite drinks! Well gotta go back and get my rest of my gear and load the ship. Stay tuned!

Tanks

What an eventful weekend and week ahead. To start if off saturday was spent working, editing, packing and gearing up for our next Red Sea Ocean Adventure (more to come). But Al Ah Nee calls me up and wants to dive so we (Travis, Me, Al) decide to brave the windy weather on our Kayaks. Yes we go paddling and barely make it in as the winds picked up. God I miss my boat! Later we heard another kayak diver got swept out and was rescued by the coast guard that night! It's a good thing it wasn't us getting rescued.

South swell arrived Monday and decided to grab a few barrels at big rights! Just me and two friends out for awhile and scored! Got a call from fellow diver Brent Ching to go scuba dive so since I've haven't scuba dove for a long time I wanted to try.

Passed by the afternoon crowd at bowls and headed to the Alantis shipwreck outside Waikiki. The sun was about to set so we gear up and joined Capt. Roger, first mate John, Brent, and a few other guys.

Here I am down at 80 ft. on my dive. I forgot to add weights to my belt so John had to help me with a extra belt so I could get down. It was a new experience and cool to do. I didn't poke any fish but took a few pics.

Tanks Brent for inviting me and keep up the diving!

HSDTV at OIA Game

Last night we were invited to promote Hawaii Skin Diver at the OIA moanalua/damien football game and it was fun! OC16 put a booth together and a good crowd showed up. I think the last time I've been to a football game was 20 years ago.

Merlinda Garma our host was there to sign autographs and take pictures with her fans. Feels great to see the youngsters who admire her and want to get to meet her. This girl wanted a autograph for her brother who was on the field playing.

Moanalua won the game and everything turned out well. Lots to do this weekend so gotta get to work now!

Tuna Cowboys

One of the prize catches of any diver is landing a nice Yellowfin Tuna. Well we know where they coming up regularly and they are here! One of our friends Sebastian and his friend just speared these big boys and invited us over to film so are gearing up!

One more diver spot open and if you want to join us check out our website for the next upcoming trips http://redseaoceanadventures.com/travel/upcoming.html. to Mexico! Ariba ariba! Bring your own wasabi!

Mentawai Party Night

Last night our Red Sea group that went to the Mentawais had a get together to reminisce old times. It's only a month ago and they want to go back. So we headed back in time to share stories of the trip and recollect the great memories made.

The young guns, Skye, Chris, Steven were planning their next Red Sea trip and it's great to see them hanging out. As I always say, its about the relationships and new friendships that has always been the key to a successful trip.

The old guns, Al Ah Nee and Kyle Chikuma represented and still stoked on their beng-beng session with overhead surf and no one out.

We had a big spread of poke, steak, salad, and much more...Thanks Mike for organizing the event!

Every time I travel I want to upload pics and share stories live on location, so decided to invest in a laptop that will do the job. Now just gotta make time to upload the pics when I'm there! ha ha! Have a good day everyone!

Dream Boat?

After selling my boat, I felt like a fish without water so had to make do and figure out a plan. The next best thing was to borrow a kayak! Yes we can launch from anywhere, get exercise, and get some fish! This is two man kayak so hit me up when you guys are free to dive. Well I'm ready to go dive but just so darn busy. I have just enough time to sit in this kayak take a picture then go back to work. Hopefully some day soon I will be able to own my dream boat to take all my friends and family diving/fishing!

"Strange Fish"

On our last trip to Indonesia our crew caught this "Strange Fish" while fishing. It did not need water to survive and lasted a while sitting on the sink. I thought it was the coolest fish ever and just posed the entire time I filmed it. I bet if he wanted to walk and jump over the deck he could, but instead the boat crew had it for dinner that night. Poor thing:(

On a brighter note: I finally got over my 14-day jetlag, getting over a 10-day cold, and gearing up for a trip of a lifetime:) Details coming soon...