Last night my wife and I went out on your Manta Ray night snorkel with Kris and Buddha. This is our first trip to Hawaii, everything is new to us. From the very beginning Kris and Buddha were kind, generous and very concerned with giving us all a great time. It was clear by their rapport with the other owners and operators they had a positive attitude and were a friendly and respected team. They gave a safety briefing that would make the USCG proud. The RIB was in excellent shape and was clearly crewed and maintained by professionals.
We soon found ourself off the coast of The End of the World/Kualanui Bay, where we discovered many other charters, and very crowded waters. With some tours having over 30 guests in the water on a stringer in a sharp chop as wind and rain picked up.
Kris and Buddha made an excellent judgement call to hang back and not put us in the water until the situation was more safe. We left the fracas and motored a short distance away to an alternative site that was less populated.
Buddha did a recon and gave us the go-ahead. Fantastic, as most of us had given up and figured it just wasn't our night. Within minutes of being situated by the crew we were seeing multiple Mantas gliding and rolling below us. The mood of the group went from sad resignation to absolute joy instantly. Kris kept the craft between us and other boats who were shifting their position to our hot spot while Buddha gave us a biology lesson and left no question unanswered.
After a good while, (and with the rain now on full) we headed back North. The weather started getting rough...(you know the rest)well, Kris made an excellent decision to not run along the rough water coming back off the shore but instead to run into the wind and get us into calmer water turning in once he got in line with the marina. Kris was smart enough to get in behind a larger craft when the swells grew and within a few minutes the other operators who had chosen a route closer to shore gave up their course and were lined up behind us like ducks in a row.
We weren't the biggest boat, or the fastest in rough water, but the crew kept us safe, relaxed and comfortable through some very tricky conditions.
I heard Buddha say, "I'm not doing this for the $$$, I do this to give people the experience of their lifetime".
Mission accomplished Sir.
Phil And Merritt Waters
Cleveland Moto