Waikiki, Why?

The sea is a cruel mistress. I'm thinking of breaking up with her.

My holiday in Hawai'i has meant that I have been minorly injured more times than I have been in the last seven or so years. Small cuts, insect bites, scrapes, strains and bruises... and with the exception of the bites, they have all been a result of the sea.

Swimming in the sea was the first time I had gone swimming since my school days. Alyssa and I went to Waimanalo, and we had a relaxing swim there. A stray rock in the sand gave my foot a bruise/scrape that didn't hurt too much, but was somewhat painful to walk on for a few days.

Then Waimea Bay, a seemingly innocent beach with a shore-break that can hurl an unsuspecting, grown man into the sand hard enough to make his back hurt for a week. Not that I didn't enjoy the beach there, but the waves can take you by surprise. And if you're trying to body-surf, your timing had better be excellent. Also, the Jamba Juice Gift Card that Alyssa's parents gave my for Christmas was swallowed by the sand, never to be seen again.

Going body-boarding at Waimanalo again was fun until a Portuguese Man-o-War found my leg (it didn't hurt nearly as much as the last time I was stung, in Durban, when I was about seven, and I knew them as bluebottles).

I decided to try my hand at surfing at Waikiki, which is a beautiful, if somewhat touristy place. After just an hour and a half of trying, and a few waves caught successfully, I was exhausted by the effort. It is physically demanding, but extremely worthwhile.

Worthwhile enough for me to go again a week or so later, with Alyssa. Having lived most of her life in Hawai'i, I was surprised that Alyssa hadn't surfed before, especially because she took to it so naturally. She caught some excellent waves, while I wasn't as lucky as I had been the previous trip, and in my search for good surf, I discovered the best waves were directly over rocks, and a fall there cut my hands up reasonably well. I expect I will keep at least one scar from that.

Surfing yesterday (the first time I had traveled to the beach alone), with a borrowed board, was great fun. The waves were uneven at best, but a few good ones sent my riding the waves. The board wasn't waxed, which kept me slipping off. Since the waves were few and very far between, a lot of the surfers just sat on their boards chatting for a while, and I met a kind Southern Californian gentleman, who gave me a bar of "Shark Bait" surf-wax, and hopefully my next trip to the beach will be more productive. That's not to say I didn't have my toes relatively cut up by the end of that trip.

I extended my holiday in Hawai'i by a few weeks, as I simply wasn't ready to go home yet. And I'm still not. I haven't surfed enough yet.