As we pulled up to the beach to go SNUBA diving in Poipu, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I've done quite a bit of SCUBA, Diving but I never did SNUBA before. When I was a kid I used to have a job as an assistant dive instructor for an intro dive company that operated off of the beach in South Maui. From my experiences working there I know that when you go diving from the beach, an experienced staff is very, very important.....and SNUBA has much more air hose involved then SCUBA so I was interested how they kept everyone from getting tangled up. As soon as we showed up, I could tell that I had nothing to worry about, these guys were pros.
Before we even got close to the water, we had a very thorough lesson covering all the basics of how to SNUBA dive. We went over the equipment, what it does, and how to use it and some of the common things to watch out for.
SNUBA Diving is very similar to SCUBA Diving except it is a bit simplified. Instead of carrying the SCUBA Tanks on your back you have them floating on a small raft. The regulator hose is extended to about 20 feet long. The SNUBA diver puts the regulator hose in their mouth and swims under the surface. The length of the hose determines how deep the SNUBA diver can go. Because the SNUBA system does not require the user to operate a buoyancy compensator and has a shallow maximum depth, it is easier, and safer to do.
As we got out in the water I was amazed how fast Simone picked up SNUBA diving. Within minutes she had her face under the water and was swimming around trying to get a better look at all the fish. The reef we explored in Poipu was shallow, which made it pretty easy to find the fish. At different times during the dive each one of us was completely surrounded by fish.
Our guide was right there with the group the whole time. He was not only making sure that everyone stayed safe throughout the trip, but he was also there make sure that everything was documented. He had a Sony HD camera in a massive marine housing that he was using to document the entire experience. When we got out of the water we got to see how dialed filming part of this operation really was.
The SNUBA Tours of Kauai van was outfitted with TV screens on the inside of it. Using this on-board video system we could get an instant preview of the video from the day as we were drying off. Some of the footage he captured was great!
As we were driving back home from the dive, I could not help but to replay the mornings events in my mind. I was absolutely amazed how well our guides were able to keep everyone safe and under control. With their two man team, they were able to make things as simple for the customers as going in the water, grabbing the regulator from the guides, (that was attached to a float that was already launched) and go diving. When the dive was done we just had to take the regulator off and give it back to the guide. It was so simple. I did not have to really deal with any: setup, breakdown, or launching of the floats. They made it so easy I think that almost anyone could do it!
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