It looks like a lake...

Chun's 10 May, 2005

Chun's looks like a lake today (but note that one poor soul is out waiting for a miracle). Yep, its flat, no waves... it may be a good day to hit Shark's Cove, though, and snorkel. There are some lava tubes and caves at Shark's Cove that are fun to swim through. I like to think of these tubes as being of two categories - fun ones and scary ones.

The fun ones are those that you can swim down to, swim through and get back up for air in 30-45 seconds. The scary ones are those that take a minute and a half or more. I don't know why we do the scary ones. I really get the willies even thinking about it. But, when you are out with friends and even other old guys (like my Surfing Buddy who is also over 50) and want some fun, we just give in to peer pressure...

My 18 year old daughter, who is on the Kahuku High swim team and the women's water polo team, well, she also taunts me. "Come on, Dad!" she says - and then darts for a cave opening. When we finally pop our heads up through a hole gasping for breath, there is that nervous giggle. Maybe she knows that she is in better shape than I am and that what is a challenge to her might be considered "life threatening" to me (well, it feels like it).

I remember my first cave, though. It was a dive from outside the cove back into "the Blue Room." I had never gone through a cave before, and I was just snorkeling around with my wife. We happened to run into one of my old students and his wife who were walking around out on the reef shelf where it is rocky and dry in all but really high tides. We were in the water and my student says, "You should go through that cave there to the Blue Room." He pointed out where the cave entrance was, and told me that it wasn't too far. Well, I thought that I could go in far enough to see how far away the cave was, and then I could turn and swim back out if it was too far.

I dove down about 6 feet and looked into the cave (which seemed large enough to turn around in). As I started into the cave, it was erie. The water got darker and darker, then just as I was starting to get a bit nervous, I saw the water getting lighter just ahead. As I swam toward the light I really had to exert myself more than I had imagined. But, I emerged into this small cave that opened on one side to the air. I thought is was so cool. After catching my breath I turned and headed back out into the open sea. As I started from the cave, though, I could see the lighter water from the outside cave entrance even as I started my swim from the cave. So, going back out wasn't nearly as nerve-wracking as going in the first time. I think it is always easy to swim toward light. It is scary to swim into darkness.

One of the scariest caves I've done requires that you swim down to an opening about 35 feet below the surface. You swim straight in for about 20 feet, then hit a wall and have to swim down another 6 feet or so. The water is nearly pitch dark here, but you go by feel. Then you swim under this ledge for another 6 feet or so, and the cave opens up a bit more. Once the cave starts to open up, you can see that just 20-30 feet ahead there is a faint light in the water You swim for that, and a hole opens up that is about 6-8 feet across. It doesn't have straight sides but goes mostly straight up for 40 feet or so. When you you come up to the surface the hole you are in is say, 8-10 feet across and are in the middle of a big shelf - maybe 60 feet from the ocean. When the waves are really big it is sort of a blow hole. But, you can always feel the surge if there are any waves at all... It seems really scary to swim that one. It takes me way more than a minute to swim the whole thing. Fortunately there is another way in and out that is only down 10-15 feet and goes out in another direction. That other way out even has a little "rest-stop" cave that you can come up in and catch your breath if you don't want to swim the whole way in one breath.

Well, maybe diving will be fun. It is only possible when the waves are small on the North Shore...