Two years ago, I had the pleasure to be acquainted with Jess Glazner and Mike Rudenko, the owners of Liquid Cosmos, a unique diving operation based in both the South and North Kohala districts of the Big Island.
My son, Augustus, who was ten at the time, loves the ocean and all things fishy, turtlesk, and dolphinated. He aspires to be a marine biologist. I mentioned this to Mike, and he told me that Gus could obtain a junior open-water PADI scuba diving certification with a dept limit of 40 feet. I love adventure with my son, and I love the planet and scuba diving! 40 feet offers lots to see and do, so I signed him up.
Enter Jess Glazner, PHD student of coral reef ecology at the University of Hawaii, Manoa campus and dive instructor to PADI certify Gus. They hit it off immediately, and within 4 days, he got his certification and was ready for his first pleasure dive. To my great delight, I got to be his dive buddy, as we were guided by Jess. That first dive with my son was beyond, beyond epic. I will never forget it!
Jess knows what's happening on the reefs. She told me that even with logging thousands of dives, she encounters something new every time. I was impressed with her knowledge of the ecology and biodiversity of the Hawaiian archipelago.
The concept I hatched for the summer of 2024 was an informal but serious scuba diving and marine biology summer camp. I figured, 'Why send my kid away, when we could have summer camp together?'
Mike added that for anyone interested in being a marine biologist, it is a big plus to have many dives logged under your belt and to have dive master certification. Marine biology is a very competitive field, and the ability to be accepted into an excellent university program would be greatly enhanced if all the experience and skills were already in the possession of the student candidate and on their resume.
I immediately signed up.
Mike and Jess run a dynamic business. Mike is the captain and designer of Moonshine, the most bad ass ergonomic dive boat for up to six divers. What a beautiful craft she is! Mike commanded her with ease and made us all feel at ease, knowing he knew what he was doing and that everyone's safety was of the highest priority.
Liquid Cosmos taught Gus all about the technical and the protocol necessary to make diving safe and thus pleasurable. They emphasized the importance of being self-contained, the S.C. of the abbreviation S.C.U.B.A. Ultimately, it's up to the individual diver to be able to safety check all the functions of their gear and to understand and utilize all of the equipment. With experience, it becomes second nature. With instructors such as, Mike and Jess, one acquires that "second nature" rapidly and with a firm foundation to anticipate, recognize and respond to problems as a self-contained unit to preserve self and others.
Jess knows the names of practically every fish and invertebrate, in Latin, English and Hawaiian. She has an uncanny knack for spotting hard to notice animals great and small. She taught Augustus fish ID and buoyancy control, which was cleverly disguised as games of hot potato with dive weights and floating horizontal Tic-Tac-Toe on a flat sandy bottom.
Unfortunately, it's the norm that commercial dive boats in Hawaii carry a lot of divers with varying levels of expertise. Due to safety issues associated with having large numbers of clients with diverse levels of scuba diving experience, these boats are restricted to a short list of sites repeatedly visited thereby limiting the scope of experience for divers above the beginner stage.
Fortunately, this was not so for us. Our party of three had Mike and Jess to ourselves on the Moonshine and were able to visit many dive sites that other operations do not go. What a dream come true! Over the next four weeks, we were able to explore largely unfrequented reefs, thus with less human impact along the south and north Kohala coasts. This was designated a marine reserve. The richness of this environment is mind-blowing.
We did reef clean up conservation work and helped gently remove pounds of fishing line and gear entangled in the reef. And then the fish! The coral! The critters! I learned to ID by sight almost 100 different species of fish in one month! The pristine dive sites with gin clear water and 100 ft visibility were other worldly although sometimes challenging. I've dived in Thailand, Indonesia, and Fiji and was under the impression that Hawaii's reefs were not as lush and diverse as in these other places. Boy, was I wrong!
Having access to Liquid Cosmos made all the difference. The Moonshine can do 45 knots and we covered a lot of area. Having the full attention of Jess and Mike and the fabulous dive sites, made the entire experience completely transcendental. The best was that Augustus learned more and almost had more fun than me! If you are serious about scuba, I cannot recommend Liquid Cosmos more emphatically! read more