New Hatch

Through the much anticipated wait, i finally received my new Hatch Custom speargun from Mike Hatcher. I was super stoked on the outcome of the gun as it looks great! I got a chance to use it the other day and did  very well with the gun. I got a bunch goats, rois, and a nice size papio.









Its a rear handle gun, white track, white handle, and white reel line.  Im going to post up some more posts of the new gun and how I do with it on future dives.

Sorry for the absence of posts lately, I haven't been able to frequently update lately due to my architecture finals that i gotta dedicate almost all of my time too. I greatly appreciate those of you who check the blog out from time to time though, thanks for your support and patience!
Also i am going to put a contact page up, I am curious on what you guys (the viewers) are interested in seeing on this blog for future posts, and what you guys like that I've posted so far and what not.  Feel free to drop me a pm or email.

Mahalo Nui Loa. Kaoru Lovett

Ulua Time

Diving with my friend Jacob Kahiapo at his home ground. Initially we went out searching for the typical catch of some uhus(parrotfish), goats( goat fish), and ukus(grey snapper). We were joking around about seeing an ulua that day. So we swim out, shot some fish, and there we go we spotted an ulua. We were both excited considering that this could be Jake's first Ulua. Enjoy the vid guys. ps. scroll down for video :P

Jake schooled me, i only got these two.

Jacob Kahiapo, throwing a
 shaka with his Ulua

Mokuleia Dive

Signed up for the Gene Higa Dive tournament today with my dive partner Brandon. The Higa is a dive tournament held by Hawaii Skin Diver once a year. It is a big fish tournament (biggest fish wins) so there's alot of pressure to land that monster fish. The Tournament is a swim out held at Mokuleia on the north shore of Oahu.
This would be the first official tournament that Brandon and I are going to enter, so were pretty stoked and crossing our fingers for good conditions and a lucky catch.
We decided that today was a perfect day to go start scouting for the Higa do to the fact that it was perfect conditions- no wind or waves. We covered lots of ground today but didn't find any spots that would be "contest worthy."
After scouting in the deep for majority of the day we decided to make some dives on the reef to get some fish on the kui. We were fortunate enough to land on some nice size uhus as well as some other reef fish.
Although we did not find productive grounds for the Higa, it still was a good dive and we had fun.

PS. there is also a kumu that was one of the fish that brandon shot, its hidden behind the uhus.

Hatch Customs Hawaii

Today i visited my friend Mike Hatcher of HatchCustomSpearguns. He was kind enough to let  me sit in and watch some of the steps in making a speargun. Mike is currently working on a new gun for me, it's going to  have a white track, white handle, and white line.

Mike was also working on other guns for his other customers. If any of you are waiting on a gun from Mike, then perhaps one of these guns are yours!

These are the guns after mike had branded them with his company logo. They all look really good! 

I was surprised when i saw the amount of labor and intensive care that Mike has to put into his product in order for it to come out as beautifully as they do. Also watching Mike work on my gun made me want to take it out diving more and more.  If any of you are thinking about buying a speargun, i strongly recommend a Hatch. This is my second gun from Mike, the guns are dead accurate and are built with professional craftsmanship. Not only that but every gun comes with a lifetime warranty. Big Mahalo to Mike for all of the work and generosity. Its scheduled to be finished by this tuesday, but i can't wait!

Hawai'i Ocean Expo.

I attended the Hawai'i Ocean Expo this past weekend. The Ocean Expo is an annual two day event held at the Neal Blaisdell Center on Oahu. This event is an Expo where numerous ocean realated buisness gather in one area and set up booths to advertise there product. All types of people from experienced ocean men and women to the beginner ocean go'er gathers together to check out the latest and greatest ocean toys. The Ocean Expo is also an attraction for fishermen as it is also where one of the biggest fishing tournements in Hawai'i holds its weigh in. Fishermen go out the friday before, and spend their weekend trying to catch the biggest Ulua (giant trevally) where they then bring it in to the expo for the weigh-ins on sunday. Some of the booths that i found especially interesting include Naoki's Catch of the Day Gyotaku booth, Mike Hatcher's Hatch Customs booth, Fresh Catch Seafood booth, and the HammerHead Spearguns booth.
I took some pictures for you guys to enjoy.

Naoki presented his Gyotaku work beautifully on the back wall. I especially like the use of multiple boards to divide up the print of the bigger fish , such as the Ahi, Mahi Mahi, and the Uluas.

This was the other part of Naoki's presentation of his artwork,

I thought this shirt that Naoki made was especially interesting. Its a whole bunch of menpachi printed together in the form of a dive flag.

These are a couple of my personal favorites, I find mu difficult
in Gyotaku to truly capture the essence of the fish, Naoki does this very well in this print.

Another favorite of mine, a large kumu not too overloaded with
detail.

Mahi Mahi on the hunt.

Family of Uluas getting lucky with a school of Aholehole

The Alaska adventure booth also used Naoki's gyotaku to
attract viewers to their booth.

The Alaska Adventures picture wall

Boats, Boats, Boats!

Ono grinds at the Fresh Catch booth. I got a pokebowl with
shoyu poke, it was super good!