Here are some scuba photos from my trips to Maui. If you want to see a larger version of an image, just click on the image itself and you will see it about four times larger.

The little puffy guy I'm holding here is a spotted pufferfish (Hawaiian name o'opuhue) that grows to about 13" maximum. When they puff up, their skin feels very "sticky/prickly", almost like velcro. This picture was taken in November 1992 on my first "instructed" dive by my divemaster before I got certified. It's on Maui (like all the others) and was in front of the Maui Intercontinental Hotel in Wailea.

I don't know exactly what kind of octopus this is. He was wedged in between some rocks and the divemaster coaxed him out. After first being frightened and squirting out some ink, he calmed down and actually became very curious about us and hung around for several minutes. When you pulled his tentacles off anything underwater, it sounds like you are pulling up a huge piece of velcro! Supposedly octopi are extremely intelligent and except for the fact they only live a couple of years, they might have evolved to have extremely complex social interactions much like dolphins, whales and other intelligent creatures of the ocean. This picture was taken on the same dive as the two pufferfish above.

Here my buddy Larry and I are making like mountain goats hiking down the rocky trail to McGregor Point lighthouse on Maui. Larry's girlfriend Jerrol was our "sherpa" and helped us carry down our gear and acted as the official photographer for this dive. This was taken in February of 1996.

Here my buddy Larry is helping me get my tank and BC on as we prepare to enter the water at the McGregor Lighthouse dive site after our long climb down in the previous picture. In the background is the highway that takes you to Lahaina from the Maui airport.

That's me on the left with my buddies Fernd (middle) and Larry (right). We are at the Kihei, Maui public boat launch getting ready for an early morning departure on a Maui Dive Shop boat trip to Pinnacle Point on the south side of Maui. Notice that beautiful rainbow over our heads in the background. Larry's girlfriend Jerrol took this great shot in February 1996.

Everyone's heard of the famous Iron Man Triathlon in Hawaii that combines open ocean swimming, bike riding and running in a gruelling event to test one's endurance. Lesser know but equally challenging is the Aluminum Man Triathlon sponsored by Crazy Shirts in Hawaii. When my buddies and I are on dive vacations on Maui, we make sure to compete in this test of stamina every day after diving. The Open and Chug events are easy, but I always get a killer headache from the Crush <g>.

In addition to these photos, I wrote an article about diving on Maui I posted to the Scuba Diving Forum on Compuserve in December 1993 after my first dive trip to Maui. By the way, through that forum on Compuserve, I've hooked up with several other divers from across the US on Maui for some great diving. I've also met several Maui residents through the Scuba forum and have developed some nice friendships that I get to renew every time I visit Maui.

Last updated: November 03, 1996