You may want to post this e-mail on Smokey's site.

Thanks again for the great instruction you gave us!

And here is a picture of us in Hawaii (Big Island). Our friend (instructor - Steve) would like us to share his info with every one in case they want to do some diving on the Big Island. - To see info on Steve Frisbie - Click Here


Yep, that's us....Matt and Desiree McElheny. Did Gary tell you he bumped into us at the airport the day we came home?? It was neat to see him there and we excitedly were telling him that he must go to Hawaii to dive, especially the "Big Island".

Despite rain, and lots of it....well, much more than they should get, we did manage to get married on the chosen day of May 12th, but not without hassle due to the torrential downpours. But, on the islands it is considered a great blessing for it to rain on your wedding day...so we are blessed for at least 50 years or more. Also, the island was encountering a "south swell" which was making the ocean much rougher than normal. Luckily, we had scheduled our dive trip on Kauai for May 15, because prior to that no boats were going out because of bad visibility and rough water. Yes, that means our first boat diving experience was on rough seas with 4' waves and poor visibility. No sweat...right?? Wisely we both premedicated with Dramamine, but not everyone did. One guy was very sick, but mostly his own fault for drinking heavily the night before. We both decided dive boats are cramped and not too fun, especially if they are small.

Regardless, Matt and I got into the water and had two very good dives without any difficulty. Visibility was poor, maybe about 30' and the surge would push you several feet, even at 40' or so. We did see a lot of neat things and the dive site was called the Sheraton Caverns off the southern coast. By the way...we were the only ones filling out dive logs. Nobody else seemed to care much. Some of the other people seemed a bit scarey too...poor bouancy, darting in front of you, etc. So, because of the weather not allowing us to do all we really wanted, we only were able to do one dive trip on Kauai.

Diving on the Big Island is another story. We stayed a bit south of Kona in a town called Captain Cook. We chose to rent an apartment there which fit us perfect. Also, the owner was a dive instructor who was more than happy to let us "borrow" his equipment for a small donation and take us anywhere we wanted to go. He had tons of OP equipment which was practically brand new. We did 3 dives there and all were shore entry. Diving conditions there were excellent. The waters were much calmer and visibility was excellent. Also, the reef was much more alive and active. We saw all kinds of neat creatures. My favorite dive was when we sat at the bottom and watched for the garden eels to pop up out of the sand. A totally sureal scene. I wish we had a picture of that. We did not see any sharks and I wasn't too disappointed, although Matt was. I could go on and on about what we did see. Lots of fish!!

Anyways...we did both enjoy diving very much and were happy to have takendive instruction and get our certification. We especially felt our skills were very good and felt confident to dive, and believe me....you were there with us because we talked about you often. Bill said this"....." We felt you would have been proud of us, especially if you had seen our excellent boyancy control. Give me clear, warm, blue water anyday....murky, yellow, cold quarry water, not so sure!

Well, it is good to be home. Now, life as usual. I already made Matt promise we would return in 5 years. Thank you again for your excellent dive instruction.