Yesterday, we stopped in at Maui Dive Shop’s Wailea
location, looking for a little excitement. Everett, the sales rep suggested
,maybe, we’d like to get dive certified. It only takes a few days and we would be
certified for life. (That’s dive certified ;-))
My husband is ready to go with the flow, sign up, pay the
man our money. I, however, am only ‘interested’. I want to dive; I just don’t want to commit to
three consecutive days in which I would have to get up early and actually DO
something and be somewhere at a specific time.
It goes against the grain of my vacation philosophy of ‘I’ll get to it
when I get to it.’
So I thought it prudent to “test” the waters, so to
speak. I challenged myself – if I could
get up, get mobile and go snorkeling three mornings in a row, then I could
surely get up, get mobile and go diving three mornings in a row. Today, day one
of my personal challenge, saw me get out of bed bright and early, and armed
with a map indicating good snorkel spots, head off to Olowalu, south of Lahaina
on Route 30. I’d packed a lunch the night before and even though the unusually
loud crashing of waves on shore in front of our condo had kept me awake much of
the night, I hoped my energy levels would pick up once I hit the water.
The map said cars often got stuck in the soft sand in the
parking area, so I made sure to park on solid ground. At
Oowalu, waves crashed mercilessly on shore, just like at the beach at our
condo. Today is the first time since we
arrived we’ve seen swells this big on the south west coast (see video below). In any case, that wasn’t going to stop me. I
was going snorkeling come hell or high water.
Or not.
It wasn’t the hell or high water that stopped me. It was the
sign – the one that said “WARNING: Sharks May be Present”.
Of course, Dean was
ready to ignore the sign’s message as if it were a highway speed sign. To quell my obvious concerns, he sought the
opinions of some local divers who were just coming in off the water. “No big deal,” says the diver, “Sharks are like Labrador
puppies, curious and playful most of the time.”
Nope.
Not gonna do it. Not putting a big toe in the water.
Reluctantly,
Dean agreed to find a ‘safer’ snorkel beach. But with such big swells, we
decided to call it a day. When we arrived home, a neighbour told us
there'd been a shark attack yesterday at the very Kihei beach where we’d
spent most of the day.
I’m
still undecided about the diving thing. It
all depends on whether I can get up, get mobile and go snorkeling tomorrow
morning.
The beach in front of our condo has been a wonderful place for a morning dip ... but today conditions were less than ideal - unless you are into body surfing, like these fearless youngsters.