Hawaii is a place designed for outdoor living, whether it’s swimming the endless sea, hiking the mountain trails, or hang-gliding off the steep volcanic cliffs.
In the ocean you can feel the power of the sea, with wave energy increasing as the square of wave height. A two-foot wave whacks your knees and tugs at your feet, but a four-footer will knock you down.
In my youth I would make regular trips to Makapuu Beach to body-surf the perfectly formed waves created by the wind and the shape of the bay and the gentle contours of the ocean floor. These waves were reserved for body surfing and boogie boards — no surf boards allowed.
The days at Makapuu would be color-coded with flags; green being nearly flat and some would say uninteresting; red meaning big 8-foot plus surf and rough undertow. Red days were the best even though an eight-foot wave was bigger than I could safely handle. Instead of riding these monsters I would desperately swim out between breakers, careful to dive under those curling on top of you.
Once past the breaker line I could safely ride the swells, letting them take me up and up, then down into the trough, momentarily blocking my view of the coast. The water is very clear out beyond the churn and spray, and brings with it a kind of peace; a sense of balance within the power of the sea.
Inevitably it was time to swim back to shore and brave the gauntlet of breakers on what I thought of as “the other side”. I can remember being flipped upside down more than once, and being held against the rough bottom by Neptune’s implacable hand. Then up and gasping, fighting through the white ocean foam which offered little in the way of traction, like swimming in air without, you know, air. And finally crawling up onto the beach and collapsing like a primordial sea creature emerging into the sun for the very first time.
In thinking back on these times it seems bit reckless, putting myself at risk, held aloft by little more than the crazy confidence of youth. But that feeling out there on the swells, of the ancient sea letting me share her ways and keeping a memory, deep and blue? Priceless.
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