Why My Ears are Ringing or Diving Hawaii

Friday May 8th I planned on diving the Molokini Crater. However, when I got to the dive boat, the planned had changed to dive the back wall of Molokini. A group of people who were diving all week with this organization had already dove the crater and were looking to dive the back side. This turned out to be a really bad idea. First of all, getting near the backside is tough. The waves crash on the back side, so you have to get in the water a fair distance away and then swim over there. There is a strong current from the wave action which really messes with your equilibrium. In addition this is 90+ foot dive and I haven't dove since August of last year. I was the first one in the water and it took me a while to equalize. What really blows about this dive is that there was nothing to really see. I am normally an airhog anyway, but after 19 minutes I was running low on air and went back to the surface. Since this dive my right ear has been ringing.

The second dive of the day was much more to my liking. This was a 50 foot dive on a sunken shrimp boat, The Saint Anthony. During the surface interval the Bride got to snorkel the inside of the crater and said it was absolutely amazing. The St Anthony was great and my ear felt better was in the water. I was not going to continue if I felt any pain. I actually had hope that a good equalization would solve the problem. Needless to say it did not.

The dive site has a large abundance of fish and turtles. The photo below is of the dive master clapping and bringing the yellow tang in. He started clapping and I looked behind and all I could see was this huge school of fish coming my way. It was very cool.

The boat also had a couple of sea turtles who lived on it. I took a bunch of photos of the turtles but unfortuately, not many turned out. This was the best of the lot.

The second day of diving I did was Tuesday May 11 on the Big Island. We went out and did a night dive with the Manta Rays. I don't have any photos because it was a night dive and the flash reflected off all the plankton in the water. However, I do have a professional video of the dive and when I figure out how to get it cut down in length I will post it.

My last day of diving was also on the Big Island and we left from the hotel. This was the best dive of them all. We dove the reefs on the west side of the Big Island. We also explored some lava tubes. This was a very easy and fun morning of diving. It was just me and another diver on the boat.

The Bride did some snorkling while we dove. This is a white tipped reef shark that I was able to photograph in one of the lava tubes. It was actually very difficult to see the shark due to the lack of light and my eyes not having adjusted. I am not sure how big this one was. But looking at the other fish, he could not have been more than 4 feet long.

I also was able to get a good photo of me swimming with a turtle. The dive master on the boat was a marine biology student at the University of Hawaii and was a very informative man. I wish I had a job like that when getting my masters.

And finally I have the obligatory photo of me diving. You can't go diving with out it.

And if anyone is worried about my ear, I have been to the doctor and she did not see any damage, just a little swelling and has put me on Claritin-D to drain the fluid off. We will see how that works the next couple of weeks.

Tomorrow I am back in the pool.