Hawaii Skin Diver The Breath of Freedivers

So I'm probably one of the single digit percentage of the divers here that goes out without a wetsuit. Shorts, rashguard, that's it. Since the jellies have been coming around I've always avoided diving during those times. Any of you guys don't care and still go out? Just curious. I need to be careful to take care of my supple skin and beautiful complexion you know.

are you shame to dive with your blue and red shallowman suit?

I always go bare-back, but I always check da moon calendar. Especially since I am allergic to da box jelly.

Back in my prime-dive condition (now not so much... ) Shorts and bare-skin was the way to go (old school...). Freeze 'da okole for a bit, but after a few strokes good to go! As far as those "jellies" are concerned, I used to occasionally get them on my face. Not a good feeling . 1 pc wetsuit's the way to keep them off of you. Reef-rash's another thing to watch-out for. I mean you know there are certain types of reef-growth that nails you on contact...You know, the burning-itchyness.....The more you try to ease it by scratching or rubbing, the more intense it gets? Yeah 'dat kine... Worse thing about it....it stays with you for a while... "Shallowman...my advice to you if you want to keep your supple -skin and beautiful complexion protected, wear a wetsuit..." (imo)

Great advise there PH.
Another word of advice SM: it's also good to wear a condom, just in case.
~AB~

Take note guys. This guy is truly the last samurai . But there is another of the spoken 1%.
That be Ryanshogu. But he just so damn big no more wetsuits in his size

i am truly humbled in their presence
~AB~

He no need one speargun....All he gotta do is Ki Ai...and 'da fish going "maki" lol

So where the heck are they before they appear anyway? I seen all kinds of pictures of jellyfish polyps -- anybody come across anything that looks like jellyfish polyps under rock or stuff when they're out looking in caves or anything? Bio, you know anything about this? Do they just break off when we see them or do they break off and grow then just head to shore together those couple days? Seems so weird that it's still such a mystery.

Figure I'd offer my 2cents on this one since the jellies really affect me a lot.

I guess a long time ago (when I was young) I use to dive like someone had mentioned shorts and no shirt but after numerous times of getting stung all over and then scratching like crazy for days I wized up. For me doesn't matter what kind of jelly fish I get stung from; box, man-o-war, noseeum, etc. they all cause me pain and relentless itching. Oh and yes the s--t on the reef that stings as well... I get all kinds of kakios on my legs from that stuff what ever it is? I heard it's fire coral?

Sometimes using a full suite is not necessary and over kill just to protect from jellies so on days when I don't want to wear a full suite (like beautiful hot summer days where even the water feels hot) I use a long sleeve lycra top with hood and the Under Armour Heat Gear Legging with borad shorts over for my bottom half. Most of the name brand sports companies make lycra/spandex/etc leggings so I guess they all would work and if cannot find in the men's section look in the ladies section because they have lots of choices. This helps to dive "light" while still having some protection aginst jelly/reef stings as the only place you can get stung is around your mouth and on your cheeks where the hood cannot cover. This is better than getting stung all over trust me!

Anyway hope this helps

SM, Don't know where the box jellies are when they are in the polyp stage, but if they do have a polyp stage, it should be somewhere near shore I would guess. They appear where there is calm water and not at brackish locations. We've grown the moon jellies in the tank so I can tell you the polyp stage is only like a 1/4 inch tall. Then a mess of jellies can be released from that.

The stinging stuff you run into diving could be all kinds of other gelatinous critters. You get a lot of this from windward places where they blow in from the open water.

Best protection is to wear a full body lycra suit. That is thick enough to prevent from getting stung. Then you can get the omer stinger thing for your face and mask/snorkel if you are still paranoid about getting stung.

Carry an epi pen if you know you are allergic. Not worth it. Carry some "Jellyfish Squish" if you aren't allergic but it hurts like hell.

Bio,
1. When you guys grew the moons, did the polyps grow on a particular part of a rock? Underside?
2. How big were they when they hived off and how fast do they grow once they release?
Man, I'm gonna figure out where they are before they appear and be famous.

I don't know if this is more of comment or a question. I am back in California now, but on Monday the 11th I was diving at Ala Moana around what the Franko's Map calls Turtle Reef, by the surfers at Kewalos. About an hour after I got out of the water I got hot and started itching. By the time I got back to my place it looked like I had a few thousand mosquito bites all over my body, front and back, from my knees to my neck. All the skin around the mosquito bites was bright red. I looked like some special effects guy had gone to town on me.

I took a hot shower and that slowed the spread of the bumps, and after a few hours they started to go away. By the morning you couldn't really tell except I had three or four lines on my butt of purple marks that was kind of sore.

Was that a box jellyfish, or was that from scraping coral? I don't want to go through that again and the next time I am in Hawaii I am wearing something other than board shorts and a rash guard.

Thanks.

Sounds like something other than Box Jellies. When you are stung by Box Jellies visible well defined lines will show and most will be driven out of the water immediately after getting stung because it hurts/burns so bad.

Man-o-war stings sometimes have many red bumps caused by the very fine parts of the stingers but yours seems to not be this and when stung like the Box you'll know immediately but not necessarily drive one out of the water. Depends on how your body reacts. I got stung by Man-o-war many times and kept on diving and only stopped if any of my lymph nodes swelled up.

Your stings seems to be most likely from NOCUMS (Not sure on the spelling but this is what I've been told they are called, small transparent stinging organisms), fire coral or something else. I got zapped many times from NOCUMS all over the place and though it didn't drive me out of the water the night and days after itch so bad.

Like I said in a previous post in this thread, I really don't get to cold while diving so my wet suite/lycra long sleeve/lycra leggings is mainly for protection against stinging stuff in the ocean.

Pronounced "no-see-ums"?

Winter diving I use full suits, summer is for my shortie. I use my shortie only because it is more water-dynamic than surf shorts and rash guard. The chest loading plate helps too. Been stung hundreds of times and is a good thing I am not alergic. If you are stung or can't stand the pain, Jellyfish Squish is what you need. Find it, buy, carry it in the car!