Hawaii Skin Diver The Breath of Freedivers

Hi, here's an experience that i'll never forget.
Me and my dive buddy Nevin decide to go and rent a kayak for this week end. Everything was going good till we got to the spot, just past rabbit island, waves got bad and we started flipping over. oh yeah, we had a "tandem" yak so it was pretty awkward . Anyways on one of the times I went over board with my fins and didn't realize it until nevin said "hey your fin is sinking". so I dive to retrieve it but it seamed impossible to catch, finally at about 30 ft down I realize that it's not gonna happen ( at least not without wearing fins) so I went up. feeling like crap and pissed off about losing the fin, we were still trying but no luck, oh! not to mention that we didn't notice that we were drifting further and further away from the initial spot and ended up in about 80-90 ft, we gave up after 5 mins. So we decided to stay in the shallows due to my only having one fin. after a couple of hours of diving the sky turned overcastted and we decided to head in with a couple uhu for the day. Well on the way to shore there's a spot that I had found not too long ago that had a pile of some good sized uhu and some occasional game to include papio,omilu and cuda's. so we hit it and after like 30 min Nev hits his papio and heads for the yak, so while he's doing that i figure that maybe the comotion has brought in some bigger game or something. Well "or something" is right. On my last dive of the day i do my usual breath up and I take my last breath pack air and head down about 15-20 ft and come to my little perch and wait for something to come in. about 1min down all of the fish just scram and disappeared so I think to myself "yeah! some game!" NOPE!!!! a 6-7ft white tip side swipes my one fin and comes right past me on my left side just close enough for me to give him a swift but stock to his gill plate. Immediately I go up to the surface catch my breath and head back to the yak while taking the kui with fish off my belt, ol whitey was done yet. He comes back around and tries again this time I was ready, gun pointing down I jabbed him on his snout with the tip penetrating to the barb. This gives me enough time to stick my head up and yell to Nevin who is at the yak trying to string his fish, "Get on the boat!" "Huh??" he says, I yell again "GET ON THE BOAT!!!" finally he realized that something was wrong he ditches the papio and gets on the yak. In the mean while im still swimming crippled since I only have one fin but still hawlen okole with this huge freaking white tip behind me. I turn to see again, bamm!!! he's charging!! another quick jab with the gun to his snout and I have more time to swim the next 15-20 yards to the yak. right before I get there I notice that Nevins gun is still floating so I grabbed it on the way. Finally at the yak, I give Nev my gun and accidentally let go of my kui, I didn't care, getting out of the water was my main objective at that moment. Just as I get in the yak and we get situated here comes whitey underneath us. Welp! there goes that catch of the day.
Feeling safe now we head over to Nev's gun and retrieve it, surprisingly it still had the papio attached to the shaft, which made me think that maybe my catch was down there still and that I should go and get it really quick. Well, we both kinda talked me out of it real quick. But it's not over just yet. this isn't called "the worse luck" for nothing. On the way in we head for the only patch of sand that was close enough to the vehicles. little did we know that the surf had gone up and was kicken, so we head in anyway, one wave comes miss, next wave comes we catch it for 10-15ft we lean back, it's turning, it's turning CRASH and burn!!!!!!, all of our gear all over the place!!!!! masks, his two fins and my one, guns, gloves everything. we Spent the next 20-30 mins recovering our gear. What a way to end the day!!!
Needless to say I came out of this with a new found respect for mother nature, sharks, guys who own and use kayaks on a regular basis and most of all just glad that I can "still" dive another day. Oh, and arms and legs bruised to hell from getting hit so many times by the yak, ores and guns jumping in yak lol. So i guess i don't have to sell the set of beuchat fins after all, ha.. ha...


Sorry for being too long but just had to share our bad luck. hope you enjoyed.
laters.

I feel for you! Although I'll come clean and admit I did chuckle and laugh a bit. That does sound like some terrible luck!

Glad to hear that you guys made it in okay.
just a few good lessons to learn from your experience.

1. dive off a one man kayak (makes a big difference)
2. Know your area (especially if not familiar with divin' off a yak)
3. Make sure the wind is down (variables, or blowin' on shore)
4. Strap everything DOWN! don't get lazy, unless you can afford to buy all new gear, and end a dive on a short and sour note.
5. If you got fish on your okole, you can expect the tax collector to do the usual fly by. (dump it in the yak, preferably in the hatch or tank well with plugs) ran into some pretty agro tigers cause the fish was danglin' off the yak, lucky wasn't on my okole.
6. save up the dough, and buy a boat! better yet, become good friends with someone who has one. you'll never want to yak again.

hope this helps everyone who is considering buying/using a yak.

dive safe, dive aloha

Hey Carlos, that sucks. Guess thoughs white tips like you I got a new 16ft zodiac, 25hp mercury will be here in about two weeks. I'll keep in touch and let you know when she's ready..

john

Hey fng bring that bad boy up to kbay maybe this time we wont sink the boat lollll

I dive yak all the time, ditto all the advice from maui boy.
TIE DOWN EVERYTHING!! And if you don't want the visit from the tax man, stash your catch in the yak.

Hey Carlos I took my tandem out to rabbit on veteran's day with burningoat. We deployed off the kayak on the inside of the island...made swimming out tough, but at least we didn't have to deal w/ the choppy seas on the ocean side. I had a horrible day out there cuz I got sick and had mad cramps...til the opelu school showed up and I accidently shot a 25 pound kahala. My shooting line busted and the fish took off with my shaft. Believe it or not I got the fish and the shaft back. (What a wrestling match!) And its super cool when you can surf your kayak in...but it stinks when it rolls you...been there done that. Carlos we can start a tandem kayak diving club complete with rolled kayak/lost gear support group. Maybe your fin will find mine! Better luck next time Carlos.

C-Trout

carlos..i was at work today and trav called me up asking the same thing...he was laughing...i said damm this sucked at least i got a papio and not a chunk of my okole missin...eh we go dive thanksgiving mourning ...went westside on sunday and the water was all glass...i'll call u up..shoots..


o ya next time rent 2 one man yaks..

hey thanks for the advise guys.
Thing that spooked me the most is that the damb thing was pissed!!! it's back was hunched over, fins down, and bouncing around side to side like it had mad shark disease. lol
lessons learned the hard way are always the best ones. . but yeah amma definately stop carrying fish on hip from now on.
My wife says i got too comfertable in the water now and that this happen to give me a reality check. (she's very superstitious, but i believe her on this one).

FNG, yeah.... sounds good. I'll have to take you up on that.

C-trout, ha, ha... yeah we proly should huh? I'm sure we ain't the only ones that lost gear out at that spot.
but luckily i still have those other fins or else i'd be screwed for the next couple of weeks
laters.

Man, that's one crazy story. It was kinda funny....glad it wasn't me! I just started to get into kayak diving. It's rather fun, and I'm debating on buying a yak. Dive safe! aloha!

sean...ya that was crazy...well at least we had fun at k-bay on thanksgiving...shoots