Makena Landing and Ulua Beach

We went SCUBA diving on Saturday, and it was... AWESOME! It’s been 3 weeks since we were certified, and this was our first time out since then. We originally planned on going to Ulua Beach (where we learned) on our own, but then we decided to pay a guide to take us. Better, safe than sorry, right?

So we showed up at the Maui Dreams Dive shop on Saturday at 7am! After getting all of our gear picked out, we headed out to Makena Landing for our first dive. Before we got in the water, the guide told us that there was a good chance that we’d see white tipped reef sharks. I knew that they were pretty harmless, but I could tell that Kara was a little freaked out!

In to the water and down we went; we cruised along the bottom for a while until we came to an underwater cavern. The guide had equipped us with flashlights before we left, so we turned them on and swam into the cavern. We didn’t go very far until one of us spotted a sea turtle hanging out in one corner of the cave! As we were leaving the cavern, we spotted our first shark!! It was probably about 4 feet long and it was swimming along the other side of the cave. It was kind of mesmerizing to look at it... I mean, it’s a shark!!

After we left that cave, we moved further up the coast to a second cave. This one is called the ‘bubble cave’ because you can actually surface to an air pocket inside it. So we swam inside and then slowly surfaced. It was SO neat inside, as the water surged in and out of the cave, air rushed in through unseen holes in the rocks. A few of the surges were really large, and the air turned to sea mist. It was really quite amazing!

We left the bubble cave and continued until we reached the third cavern called the ‘toilet bowl.’ As we swam up to it, we saw the silhouette of two sharks circling in the cave. There was a strong surge near the cave mouth, so we had to hold on to some rocks to keep from getting pushed in.

We hung out there for a little while, just looking at the sharks in the cave before we continued on to the turtle cleaning station. We saw three turtles hanging out on the reef getting their shells cleaned by fish. One of the neatest things about watching turtles is when they have to swim up for air. They launch up from the bottom and swim up until you can’t see them anymore (because we’re so deep that you can’t actually see the top)! Then if you watch long enough, they’ll reappear on their way back down. We watched the turtles for a while, then turned around and headed back to shore.

Once we got back, we broke down our gear and then drove over to Ulua Beach. This is the place that Kara and I got certified, so we are pretty familiar with it. The dive was very similar to our previous dives at Ulua with one exception... we saw a HUGE spotted eagle ray! It was munching on some coral when we spotted it, but I think it got spooked. It swam away, but came back making a giant circle around us. It must have had a 5 foot “wingspan,” it was incredible!!

Diving is officially my new favorite pastime. Do your self a favor... get certified before you come to Hawaii! That way we can show you some of the awesome underwater sights!!