lost king Hanauma Bay Tag | The Ring Finders

I got a call from Emily in Sydney Australia on Monday 27 July. She was vacationing in Hawaii on Saturday and while paddle boarding down the Anahulu Stream and trying to adjust the strap on her wrist she fell off the board and her Go Pro HERO 3+ with all her vacation photos came off. She reached but missed and watched it sink out of sight. The depth wasn’t deep merely a paddle board oar length but it was so murky her friend who dove for it couldn’t find it. A local diver from Surf N Sea tried with a light but it wasn’t found. Emily found me by Googling lost camera. I have thousands of dives in the ocean but I never went in a Hawaiian stream. Emily emailed me a Google map of the approximate location to look. A little farther out then the splash in the bridge pic. I checked my schedule and surf and tide reports then decided Friday at 4:30 on a high tide would be best. I was hoping the ocean water moving up into the stream would keep it clean. My buddy from work Tony acted as my Safety Observer keeping paddle boarders, kayakers and kids out of my dive zone. After donning my scuba gear I went in to check it out visually before getting my Excalibur detector involved. As I approached the bridge head on, when I was a few yards from the suspected location I let the air out of my BCD and down I went. It was only 8 feet deep but as soon as my feet touched the bottom a plume of muck exploded upwards. I immediately went still and remained neutrally buoyant at a foot off the bottom then slowly moved forward. The slightest movement stirred up the muck. The first thing I found was a HE>i John 3:30 wrist band. This was going to be successful. When the shadow of the bridge blocked my light I surfaced and told Tony the visibility is OK if I go slow. He was still directing water traffic away from me so I started pass number two. I was just about to turn around when I saw a square silted over shape in the sand with a small grey string sticking up. I pulled the string and a Go Pro HERO 3+ came into view. Wow I thought and I didn’t even get a chance to use my detector. Sometimes the Mark 1 Eyeball is just as good. I emailed Emily about our good fortune and we are arranging shipment of the camera back to Australia. The camera waterproof container looks intact so she should have all her vacation photos back. Aloha to Emily