hawaii

Seasport Divers

Vertical Awareness dive site

Location: Lehua Rock, Lehua, Hawaii
Depth: 40-130 ft
Visibility: 13-30’
Who it’s For: Advanced Divers

What Makes it Special:
Highly developed dive skills are necessary to tackle this exhilarating site. Due to potential for strong currents, maintaining neutral buoyancy and depth perception is crucial. The time spent honing your skills will pay off when you lay eyes on the dive’s majestic, sheer-sided seamount.

Christina Hepburn

Monk seal at Vertical Awareness.

This site also hosts a smattering of larger marine life. Uluas, tunas, wahoos, Galapagos sharks, and even monk seals coast along the imposing rock face. Coral blooms cling to the crags and deep crack in the seamount, providing smaller fish refuge from the site’s apex predators. The 240+ feet of rock face means you can explore the site for hours, but the most popular features are found between 50 and 100 feet.

If you like being challenged on a dive, Vertical Awareness offers much to be explored. Seasport Divers fields two custom-built, Coast Guard-certified dive boats on charters to Vertical Awareness and other sites around Hawaii. For more information and to book a dive at Lehua Rock, visit www.seasportdivers.com.

Seasport Divers

Vertical Awareness dive site

Location: Lehua Rock, Lehua, Hawaii
Depth: 40-130 ft
Visibility: 13-30’
Who it’s For: Advanced Divers

What Makes it Special:
Highly developed dive skills are necessary to tackle this exhilarating site. Due to potential for strong currents, maintaining neutral buoyancy and depth perception is crucial. The time spent honing your skills will pay off when you lay eyes on the dive’s majestic, sheer-sided seamount.

Christina Hepburn

Monk seal at Vertical Awareness.

This site also hosts a smattering of larger marine life. Uluas, tunas, wahoos, Galapagos sharks, and even monk seals coast along the imposing rock face. Coral blooms cling to the crags and deep crack in the seamount, providing smaller fish refuge from the site’s apex predators. The 240+ feet of rock face means you can explore the site for hours, but the most popular features are found between 50 and 100 feet.

If you like being challenged on a dive, Vertical Awareness offers much to be explored. Seasport Divers fields two custom-built, Coast Guard-certified dive boats on charters to Vertical Awareness and other sites around Hawaii. For more information and to book a dive at Lehua Rock, visit www.seasportdivers.com.

Seasport Divers

Sheraton Caverns, Kauai, Hawaii.

Location: Poipu Beach, Kauai, Hawaii
Depth: 35-65 ft
Visibility: 13-30’
Who it’s For: Novices to Advanced Divers

What Makes it Special:

First thing’s first: bring a camera and a flashlight. This popular site delights novice and advanced divers alike with some of Kauai’s most gorgeous underwater vistas. Located just off Poipu Beach, the coral and marine life live relatively untroubled by harsh ocean swells.

Seasport Divers

Boat ride out to Sheraton Caverns in Kauai.

The site’s main attraction is a trio of striking lava tubes that tunnel toward the Sheraton Kauai Hotel’s house beach. Divers kick through these massive structures, with communities of reef crabs, spiny lobsters and shrimp scampering between the nooks to crannies. Remember to crane your neck to the tubes’ lava ceilings: you’re sure to spot some crustaceans and turkeyfish dangling from the cracks.

Outside the tubes, even more sea life darts about from yellowmargin and white-mouth moray eels to gentle sea turtles—even the elusive leaf- and giant anglerfish make the occasional appearance. With the wide variety of marine life, this site comes by its affectionate nickname, “The Circus,” quite earnestly.

Seasport Divers fields two custom-built, Coast Guard-certified dive boats on charters to Sheraton Caverns and other sites near Kauai. To book a dive at Sheraton Caverns, visit www.seasportdivers.com.