With 20 years of experience on the water along the Kona coast Ryan Leinbach is well versed in the Kona Marine life. She has been a professional underwater videographer and photographer on the Big Island of Hawaii since 2004 and she has been published both nationally and internationally from National Geographic to the BBC, several Asian TV channels, and film festivals.

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Her specialty is humans with wildlife and animal behavior. As a videographer for so many years she was not just a crew guiding tourists, but a photographer/videographer tasked with getting images of the tourists and marine life. In accomplishing this task Ryan quickly learned that to get the “money shot” both the human and the marine life must be comfortable and relaxed. The knowledge gained from observing marine animals 200 days a year for 20 years has afforded her a vast database from which to pull in her current endeavors with Kona Coast Expeditions. “It wasn’t always just about the shot; it was about making sure that the shot would come together. Sometimes you have one chance, one impression on an animal.” As a videographer and photographer aboard charter boats Ryan’s passion is “taking people to places they only dreamed they could be and then allowing them to relive that experience

forever” with the images she captured.

 

Ryan is also active in the research community here in Kona, she serves on the ID committee for the Manta Pacific Research foundation and has been a researcher and volunteer with Manta Ray Advocates. The research she and the Manta Ray Advocates compiled is some of the most complex data on wild ray populations in the world. For 5 years they tracked the Kona Manta Ray movements between the manta rays night feeding sites and found that quite a few of them would trek 15 miles from site to site even when they didn’t need to it for food. Also, even though Kona has over 300 Manta Rays Identified on the coast only about 30 sustain the manta tourism industry and come more than 50 times a year.

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With Ryan's two decades of experience, Ryan is a seasoned and sought after captain in Kona. She loves taking guests on charters and showing them the amazing things our ocean and island have to offer. “I want to treat guests like I would want to be treated when I go on excursions while on vacation. I want to see all the cool things too, still after 20 years!” She was fortunate enough to work with one of the first charter companies who began taking tourists to look for offshore marine mammals in 2005 and has been doing it ever since. We feel this gives her an edge in guiding and finding wildlife on our Fabulous 5 charter. Ryan is excited to be a partner in Kona Coast Expeditions