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Ok, I had this video that I took a year and a half ago sitting on my computer so I thought I'd put it on the blog. It's about a minute and a half long clip of the manta dive on a night when we had mantas. I beleive there's 5 in this video. Keep in mind I did this without the aid of video lights, and the divers who are right in the action get a much better and brighter view. We, as well as most of the boats, work with videographers who have all the gear to produce professional videos for customers who want it.
The manta ray dive is, in my opinion anyway, one of the two world class adventures (the other being a walk out to the lava flow, if active at the time, to stand next to a live river -OK, moving goop pile - of flowing lava) most anyone in reasonably active contidion can do in Hawaii. It can be done by both divers and snorkelers, although snorkelers really should be comfortable in the water.
Remember, this is only about 87 seconds out of a 40-50 minute show... it's quite amazing!!! Sometimes it's not this great, sometimes it's better. There's no guarantees when it comes to live animals. The most mantas I've personally counted at one time (we're talking in my immediate field of view) on one of these dives is 17. The video guys can check to see how may different mantas have shown by comparing spot patterns on the manta's bellies, I've heard of reports of as many as 22 showing up on a single night.
We don't always have mantas, but it's getting to where they are pretty conditioned to show up when the divers are around as plankton is attracted to the divers' lights and it pretty much becomes an all-you-can-eat buffet for the mantas.
This is likely the last video I have to share for a while. I'll try to get some short clips on dives the next couple of weeks.
Later,
Steve
