Kukurei Diving @ Kiribati

Date: 28/5/2011
Location: Ouba, Abaiang, Kiribati
Type: Drift

Conditions: Salt, Boat, Current
Day/Night: Day
Weather: Shine

Air temperatures: 32 degrees C
Water temperatures: 29 degrees C
I was: Warm
Water visibility: 20m

[Entry]
Surf ini: -mins
Time in: 10:18
Air: 200bar

[Bottom]
time: 52mins
Avg: 5.4m
Max: 7.6m
Safty: -mins

[Exit]
No dec time left: -mins
Air: 80bar

[Equipment]
Tank: 12littres(alum)
Weights: 3kg(BCD)
Wetsuit: -

[Marine Life Sighting]
[Species,Size,Number,Activity]
Coris gaimard, small, some
Centropyge bicolor, small, some
Flame angel, small, some
Octopus, big, 4

[Comment]
We saw many great healthy corals and many tropical fishes swimming around there
How beautiful...

One fine Sunday afternoon, we were talking over some cans of beer.
We discussed about a name of our diving service.

Emil(our manager) suggested to use Japanese,
but I suggested that it should be a Kiribati language name.

There are a lot of diving services around the world.
Some of them are in developed countries like Hawaii.
But many of them are in developing countries like Maldives, Palau or Thailand.
And almost all of them are managed and operated by foreigner like European or Japanese.
They employ local people in low salary...

I think the ocean is its local people's, not foreigner's.

Our diving service in Kiribati is all managed and operated by Kiribati people.
That’s a great point of us.
I think that is a kind of "Fare Trade" .

So I strongly suggested a Kiribati name to impress that point.

Then we pointed out some Kiribati words as the name.
-Mauri
-Te ke roi
But these were not the greatest.

That's where an idea came about from Mimi.
"Kukurei!!"

Kukurei?
Kukurei Diving....

Oh, That sounds great!!
"Kukurei" means "happy".
Kiribati people often use the word in their conversations and songs.
It has a good meaning.
It also has a good feeling to hear and easy pronunciation for English speaker and Japanese speaker.

Kukurei Diving!!

All of us perfectly agreed with her idea!!

We still at the first stage of full diving service,
but we are going ahead step by step, day by day.

Date: 16/4/2011
Location: West Betio,Tarawa,kiribati
Type: Drift,Photo

Conditions: Salt,Boat,Wave
Day/Night: Day
Weather: Shaine

Air temperatures: 32 degrees C
Water temperatures: 28 degrees C
I was: Warm
Water visibility: 15m

[Entry]
Surf ini: --mins
Time in: 10:55
Air: 200bar

[Bottom]
time: 36mins
Avg: 9.4m
Max: 13.7m
Safety: 3mins

[Exit]
No dec time left: --mins
Air: 120bar

[Equipment]
Tank: 12littres(alum)
Weights: 4kg(belt)
Wetsuit: 3mm shorty

[Marine Life Sighting]
[Species,Size,Number,Activity]
Trigger fish(Tenuonuo),50cm,some,slow
Flame Angel,5-10cm,some,nervous
Eel(Terapono),big,1,static
And so many beautiful tropical fishes!

[Comment]
We went out of the reef today for the first time
This point is about 30m off reef edge.


There are so many beautiful healthy corals


We watched colorful fishes which were dancing on a table coral.
I'm not sure that they were fall in love or not after dance.


Suddenly, We encountered a big eel
It was very big and had very sharp teethes.
We looked at each other for a while, but he didn't come out of his hole.
Maybe he was shy.

On the way back, the surf was up because of strong wind.
So we could enjoy real splash mountain
It was more fun than that of TDL.

Ti rangi ni kukurei

Date: 08/04/2011
Location: Betio,Tarawa,kiribati
Type: Wreck

Conditions: Salt,Boat
Day/Night: Day
Weather: Shine

Air temperatures: 33degrees C
Water temperatures: 29degrees C
I was: Warm
Water visibility: 5m

[Entry]
Surf ini: 109mins
Time in: 13:13
Air: 140bar

[Bottom]
time: 24mins
Avg: 7.3m
Max: 9.1m
Safty: 0mins

[Exit]
No dec time left: ?mins
Air: 70bar

[Equipment]
Tank: 12littres(alum)
Weights: 4kg(belt)
Wetsuit: 3mm shorty

[Marine Life Sighting]
[Species,Size,Number,Activity]

Some school of middle size fishes.

[Comment]

This sank ship is easy to find because the top of the ship comes up water.
And it has fallen into decay.
If we had a flash light, We could enjoy an exciting exploration inside it.


Butterfly fishes


Some school of fishes


I kukurei!!

Date: 08/04/2011
Location: Bikeman,Tarawa,kiribati
Type: Wreck

Conditions: Salt,Boat
Day/Night: Day
Weather: Shine

Air temperatures: 33degrees C
Water temperatures: 29degrees C
I was: Warm
Water visibility: 10m

[Entry]
Surf ini: --mins
Time in: 10:48
Air: 220bar

[Bottom]
time: 34mins
Avg: 8.5m
Max: 11.8m
Safty: 0mins

[Exit]
No dec time left: ?mins
Air: 140bar

[Equipment]
Tank: 12littres(alum)
Weights: 4kg(belt)
Wetsuit: 3mm shorty

[Marine Life Sighting]
Species,Size,Number,Activity

So many colorful tropical fishes!

[Comment]
We enjoyed the 1st dive in Kiribati!!


The sank ship is quite big.(over 50m long)
And it's in its original shape.
We could see many kinds of small fishes around there.
If we had a flash light, We could explore inside the ship.


This point is very near Bikeman islet (sand bank).
We also enjoyed snorkeling around there.
Our guide said that there were 2 Japanese bombs of WWⅡ around there.
But we couldn't find it because he was bound with catching an octopus...