Diving with a Hobie Adventure Island

I used to go scuba diving with my Scupper Pro kayak–I bought a version with a tank well to hold my bouyancy compensator (BC) vest and tank. I’d paddle to a place I wanted to try, anchor the boat, put on my fins mask and snorkel and drop into the water, then fill the BC with air and work it over the side. Usually the boat would capsize but I expected that, so it was no big deal. The big problems were:

• I was diving alone. I didn’t know anyone else that wanted to attempt kayak diving
• If the wind came up or changed direction while I was down I could be in a bit of a pickle–standard sit-on-top kayaks don’t do all that well with a twenty knot headwind
• Getting the stuff back on the boat in 60 feet of water, half a mile from shore, after a long dive was always “interesting”
• Getting back in a Kayak made top heavy with gear was a challenge, usually I’d flip it at least once or twice and have to re-do all the gear lashing
• Long paddles back. Fifty pounds of gear makes a kayak more than a bit sluggish

So two days ago I took the Hobie Adventure Islands and my scupper pro and went diving with Lane and Jeff. We assembled the boats at Makena Landing. We left the masts off because there was no wind at all. I took the Scupper Pro since I’m more experienced with Kayaks. Jeff was dubious about the venture–he had limited experience with kayaks and didn’t like what he’d had. I got him launched in the Adventure Island without drama. I paddled and they pedaled out to a reef about a mile away. Jeff was immediately convinced that these Adventure Islands are pretty cool. “Beats paddling, dude”. he said as he effortlessly left me behind.

I should mention that I’ve modified the Mirage Drives with the Turbo fins. Simple to do and a huge improvement. Lane pulled up along side me and said “lets see what the difference is in speed”. I’ve been paddling kayaks for a long time, and paddling my stand up board almost every day. I’m not weak at it. So I paddled as hard as I could and Lane leaned into the turbo fins. He immediately pulled away and in a short time had the boat almost planeing while I chugged slowly along. There’s no way to describe the difference that doesn’t sound like hyperbole except to say he was riding a bicycle and I was walking.

We got out to the dive site and anchored. I used the bow strap on the scupper pro to tie it to one of the Adventure Island’s amas. Lesson one–the stability of the Adventure Island can be lent to a standard kayak. I could almost stand on the Scupper Pro. I put on my fins, fiddled around on the boat. Dumped my BC over the side and hopped in after it. No problem. No capsize.

We started our dive by moving the anchors off the reef and into some clear sand. There wasn’t enough line to provide sufficient scope (should be at least 3 to 1 — three times longer horizontally than the depth), so they started dragging. I carried them to a rock and jammed them under the edge. I have added a length of chain to the Hobie anchor kit to increase the holding power and enable the anchors to be rigged for breakaway reversing. To do this you shackle the chain to the eye on the bottom of the anchor, then use a zip tie to tie the chain to the upper eye. If the anchor gets stuck you can often free it by pulling hard enough on the rope to break the zip tie which pulls the anchor from the bottom.

I plan to at least double, and perhaps triple the amount of line in the anchor bag.

Incidentally, the Hobie anchor bag is nicely designed with an eyelet on the bottom to feed the line through and a good solid brass snap hook on the bag. I pass the free end of the line through the eyelet and tie a big loop to the snap hook. Then I can wrap the loop around the ama support and clip it with the snap hook. To deploy the anchor you just unzip the bag and take the whole thing out. The bag is big enough for the anchor, four feet of chain, and probably 200 feet of anchor line.

We finished the dive (not a great one, but a worthwhile experiment) and got ourselves and our gear back into the boats. It was absolute simplicity, the stability of the Adventure Islands made this potentially exhausting and frustrating task very easy. And once again Lane and Jeff demonstrated the value of the Mirage Drive by leaving me far behind on the way back. I had told Jeff to let me help him land because the surf was big, so I found him lounging outside the break line. He told me he’d go diving in the Adventure Island’s anytime. Quite a conversion.

Jeff had to hit the sack, he works nights, so Lane and I swapped tanks, hung out a while to gain some interval time, left the Scupper Pro pulled well up on the beach and pedaled to a reef about two miles away. When we anchored we found a strong current near the reef, caused by the heavy swell draining off an exposed section of reef.

We geared up and dropped in, double checked the anchors against the current, and did our dive against the current. Again, not a great dive. Lots of untouched coral but not much other life. We coasted back to the boats and hooked the anchors on the top of a big rock, so they’d be easy to retrieve.

I was amazed at how easy the stability made getting everything back in the boat. I clipped my BC to an ama, tossed my fins and mask in the seat, hopped into the kayak. Stood up and walked aft to pull the BC into the well. Got everything put away, retrieved the anchors and pedaled back to Makena. Effortless.

The big advantages I see are:

• Stability–absolutely wonderful.
• Re-boarding–better and easier than a big dive boat with a ladder. I’ve rigged a stirup for getting back on board that makes it completely trivial. Anyone who has done boat dives in heavy swells knows how the boarding ladder thrashes around. The Hobie moves with you–no thrashing.
• You can launch anywhere and go anywhere
• Three modes of propulsion–backup to the backup
• Wind isn’t a problem. If it picks up you sail, and you can pedal against even relatively strong headwinds, at least twice as much as a paddle kayak
• Gear doesn’t make it top heavy, in fact it seems to increase the stability.

These are perfect dive craft, superior in almost every way to a engine-driven boat and way nicer than a standard kayak. Considering that you can get two of them for $6000 they make far more sense than a powerboat, and they are far more versatile than a standard kayak.

I continue to be amazed at how good and useful these boats are.