It's tradition on the big island of Hawaii for dive sites to have at least 3 names. This place has around 8 that I am aware of. I've seen it referred to as Dog Beach, Crescent Beach, Rip-Off Beach, Alua Beach, Nai'a (Dolphin) Bay, Manta Ray Bay, Honokohau Beach and Harbour Beach. I have no idea which name is the most commonly-used so I'll go with Dog Beach since it's an off-leash dog beach, which makes it the easiest name for me to remember. It's on the South side of the entrance to Honokohau Harbour. The reason I came here is that it's supposed to be a place to reliably dive with tiger sharks. They are attracted by the sport fishing boats cleaning their catch in the harbour. There are apparently around a dozen of them that have been identified and named, including the 16'-long "Laverne" (which researchers say is actually several large sharks). Apart from the good chance of seeing tiger sharks, this site is also supposed to be one of the best shore dives in Hawaii.
I parked at the end of the road that runs along the South side of the harbour and walked down a rough lava path to the small sandy beach.
I swam out from the sandy bay over the shallow rocks at its entrance. On a rougher day or at low tide, this might be more difficult.
I swam down the slope, heading a bit to the left away from the harbour. I was diving just after dawn (dusk and dawn are supposed to be when sharks are more active) and it was the Fall, when female tiger sharks come into the shallower water near shore to give birth so I figured my chances of seeing one were as good as it gets. In the shallows outside of the bay, there was a flat area of wide lava steps.
As I swam deeper, the wave-battered bare rock in the shallows gave way to a covering of coral.
This coral slope met a flatter sand/rubble bottom at around 70' deep. I continued swimming along the base of the coral slope away from the harbour.
So I didn't see any tiger sharks (or any sharks during this dive). I swam up shallower to the top of the slope near the lava cliffs West of the beach. The surge here was pretty strong. There were some mooring buoys here (I'm assuming for dive boats. Some dive charter boats leave the nearby harbour and drop off their divers in the water here at one of the most well-known shore dives on the island. Hence one of the names for this place: "Rip-Off Beach).
Despite not seeing my tiger sharks, this was by far the best dive of the few I did during my visit to the Big Island. The variety and abundance of fish was noticeably better than at the other sites I dove. Towards the end of this dive, I heard some strange chirping sounds. I assumed it was my camera strobe's capacitor charging up a bit weird (it's about 40 years old). When I got out of the water, I could see a big pod of spinner dolphins hanging around in the area where I had just been diving.
