Maui Memory

  

One of my favorite vacation  places  is Maui. Who doesn't like Maui?

On one of our visits, we met up with some  friends from our city who were also vacationing on the island during the same week. We met them at a favorite snorkeling area, Black Rock, which is by a popular seaside resort. The water was too rough and churning for good snorkeling and the surf there can get  rough. You don't want to turn your back on it. Still, having  swim fins on is a good idea to help navigate better through the rough parts. The beach is full but there's no one in the water. Good. We won't have to worry about watching out for anybody but ourselves.

The surf was too rough to put the fins on in the water, so we put ours on while on the beach and did the backward walk into the waves. Remember, you should never turn your back on the waves crashing, but there was really no choice. My friend and I decided to give swimming a try, don our fins and start backing into the water. Our husbands are sitting on the beach, watching and opting to just work on their current sun burns.

TJ is excited and before I know it, she's already backed into the water up to her calves. Half a second later, a churning wave smacks her backside and she falls down, looking surprised and shocked. I'm rethinking the wading in treacherous ocean water, but drawn to it because it is my favorite beach and I'm in Maui! You just have to swim every day and I think I'm a pretty decent swimmer.

The wave hits the heels of my fins and I take a tentative step backward. Here comes T.J. She's still down, and now she is washed ashore like a piece of seaweed. She looks up at me, laughs and says, "Man, this is rough! " and regains an upright stance, only to be knocked down again and dragged out to her neck by the attacking wave.

She's yelping, flailing her arms to get balance on the sand below, but her head is above water. I'm out of the water taking off the fins. Forget it. I'll just wade. Throw my fins to Mr. Man to guard and turn back toward TJ.  As soon as you can say "FLIPPER", she's  back on the shore, rolling toward me like a red carpet being unfurled. These waves are relentless and unforgiving.

The beach full of people are watching her intently. No one is running to her aide. It's more fun watching her get churned up and spit out again and again. On her fifth attempt, her fin footed self is rolling around on the shore, feet in the air and her bathing suit and cover up are askew as she is laughing and spinning on her back like an upside down turtle in the middle of her own tide pool and eddy. Tough little thing, she is soon upright again, with arms waving in circles for balance, trying to dislodge the pounds of sand from the fins, decides to sit down and scooch into the water when a bigger than usual wave reaches up and smacks her on the back of the head, knocking her over, leaving her panting and sprawled again in the sand as the wave slides back and leaves her high and dry ashore.

She is a sight. Laughing hysterically and looking nearly drowned, rolling around in the surf. I'm no help to her. She is not able to regain balance long enough to stay on her feet for more than 2 seconds. We both have reverted back to toddlers. I have laughed too hard and wet myself. Our husbands are looking away and pretending not to know us. No help coming from them. One last time she is nearly into the surf up to her knees when she is expelled from the ocean like a mighty vomit, covered in sand and crawls up out of the surf and saves herself.

Neptune wins today. As we give up and walk up the beach toward the resort, there is a HUGE sign stating, "DANGEROUS AND TREACHEROUS SURF AND UNDER TOW- NO LIFE GAURD ON DUTY---Swim at your own risk accompanied by a picture of a little stick  man  in swim shorts, waving farewell as a tsunami wave symbol tosses him upside down.

I'm surprised more tourists don't get dragged out to sea and drown. Neither one of us got more than 10 feet from the shore, but the beach side resort full of people got quite the show and I got a delightful Maui Memory and lesson learned. . . . no matter how good a swimmer you think you are, it's always prudent to use caution and take the posted warning signs seriously. I think I still have sand in my ears.                                                                                            

Don't worry T.J. You are a cute sea tortoise and you made a whole lot of people laugh. 

We'll make it into the ocean next time.