OneLoveOneSpirit Dolphin Swim Adventures

My husband and I had an amazing experience swimming with the dolphins with Captain Ray and Shelley! Shelley was knowledgeable and quite an expert out on the water. She put me at ease as it has been at least 5 years since I’ve gone out swimming in the ocean. Our excursion into the ocean started out with spotting a couple of beautiful manta rays. Soon after that, we meet with the dolphins. I felt like we hit the jackpot that day as we were able to glide with several pods of dolphins. There was, at one point, where I felt like I was actually part of the pod as I was flanked by dolphins on all sides. One even broke away and swam around me to check me out! It was so awesome! We did a lot of swimming that morning and the time went by so quickly. From start to finish, it was an exhilarating experience, one I won’t soon forget.
If you ever find yourself on the Big Island and want to swim with the dolphins, look up OneLoveOneSpirit. They emphasize respect for the ocean and its wildlife, meeting them on their terms, honoring their presence and letting them call the shots in terms of getting close to them. I cannot recommend OLOS enough!

No one has reviewed this yet??? First of all I have to say that we got very lucky. The other people who were booked with this tour canceled and we essentially got a private boat! Captain Cathy and Shelley were our guides and they were great. Their safety talk so much more interesting than the one on the airplane! These two ladies brought over 40 years experience between them and did they ever deliver.
We left at 8am and I’m not kidding, we hadn’t finished reading the waiver yet and they yelled out that there were dolphins to see! Then there were 2 humpback whales. They knew the local waters well and where to find dolphins. A little bit of a ride up the Kona coast and we were there. Along the way Shelley taught us about dolphins and how to best interact with them in the water. There were drinks and snacks provided but we spent all our time searching the ocean for things to see.
Once we found a dolphin pod Shelley slipped into the water and had us swimming with the dolphins almost immediately, well the dolphins swam with us since we were so slow. It sounds cliché but it was all truly a wonderful experience. Shelley has been swimming with dolphins long enough to even mimic their sounds. She points them out to us and helps us to get the best out of the experience. The spinner dolphins swam around and under us, they were all around!
We swam till we were tired which, together with the excitement, was around 30 – 40 mins maybe. One easily loses track of time here! Even back on the boat we just drifted watching the dolphins play and jump while Captain Cathy brought out some sandwiches.
On the way back we swung around for one last try at spotting another whale. We caught a spout on the water but they were whale shy today.
Overall we very much appreciated the care and attention that we got from the both of them. It felt less like a tour and more like some friends taking us out for a boat trip. Even if the other people had kept their booking there would only be 6 total people in the boat. We saw other dolphin tours with around 8 or more people and one guide in the water. How can they take care of so many swimmers if there was a problem?
We understand that nature tours can be fickle, sometimes the dolphins or whales just aren’t around. But we had one truly memorable experience and are now very spoiled in our expectations of a nature tour! :)
Very much a recommended outing especially with Captain Cathy and Shelley!