I was vacationing with my mother and older brother in the Hawaiian Islands. Most of our time we were on the main island called O'ahu, the rest of the time was spent in the ocean. One day we decided to see how we fared at snorkeling. We took the mask and mouthpieces out to the beach right behind the condo in which we were staying. It was fun but boring, at first. We didn't really see anything but rocks and coral, at first. I had gone out further than I would have if I had known how far out I had gone. I saw something that looked purple on the ground, I dove down to get a better look...and it was weird looking. I still don't know what it was, probably a purple rock. That experience ended fairly uneventfully.
We decided to go to a place where more people snorkeled, we figured it would be more interesting. If we had only known. We went to a popular place called Sharks Cove (that's why I call it that.) Right when I first put my face in the water I could see fish all around me. The three of us stayed pretty close together for the most part. It was so cool to see all the different fish. They seemed to be used to tourists because they would swim right up next to us. It was all fun and games at first. My mom had some trouble with her mask and it started to rain on our stuff back on shore, so we didn't stay long. None of us really found out why it was called Sharks Cove until later.
We had such a good time that a few days later we were back. We wanted to see more things than we'd been able to see on our previous visit, boy did we ever. My mom didn't come this time, it was just Rendon and I. I started to get out into deeper water and saw a huge school of decent sized fish, there had to have been over 400 of them. It was so cool. I dove down to where they were (only about 6-8 feet) and they would scatter and swim all around me. I loved it. I didn't suspect anything. I got Rendon's attention and he came over and saw the fish with me, he also very enjoyed them. It was then that Rendon saw a group of people out further than we were, they seemed to be looking at something. We decided to go see what it was.
We started to go out there to see what all the fuss was about. I got there and Rendon wasn't with me, he had been distracted by another awesome fish. I saw that he was coming to join me, and it was a good thing that he was. I looked under the water and saw two swimmers dive down about 15-18 feet and go under the coral reef and come up through a hole that was a good 6ish feet from the point the swam under. I couldn't see how there could be any harm in doing this, so I decided I wanted to try. Rendon caught up and I told him what I was going to do. At first he cautioned me not to do it, but I really wanted to. If only I had known then.
I got to the point above the cove that I thought would be best to dive from. I secured my goggles and took one last deep breath. I kicked my feet up, pushed my head down, and started heading for the ocean floor. As I approached I noticed how dark it was under the coral. I hadn't really thought about that. When I got down to the level of the coral I could feel my mask and ears being pushed on by the pressure, but that couldn't prepare me for what I would see under the coral. I got to the ocean floor and looked under coral to see a shocking sight. There was nothing there. No fish or anything, that should have been my first clue. I started swimming under at a quick pace because the total absence of fish had put an eerie butterfly feeling in my stomach (even 15 feet under water.) I was also swimming quickly because my eyes hurt from the pressure.
I got under the coral where I thought the hole would be, I looked up.....and there it was. But when I looked up through the hole I saw something that made my stomach turn. I could see Rendon up above me but he wasn't even watching me. I had just done something I though was awesome and he didn't seem to care. I quickly swam up to alleviate the the pressure from my eyes. Rendon had apparently been watching but was trying to fix his mask on my return journey. The first words he said were, "I'm doing it." I let him know how much my eyes hurt from the pressure, but he wanted to do it anyway, I don't think he knew how much it hurt. He made the same dive and came up saying it didn't hurt that bad. I felt a little lame for it hurting so bad.
At this point we decided to swim back and get some dinner or something. We joined back with my mom and were going back to the condo but we decided to stop at another beach first. It was nice and relaxing. We just chilled, my eyes still kind of stung. We went home and showered and got ready to go out for dinner. Rendon was showing me some of the options of restaurants we hadn't tried yet. While we were talking he looked at me and said, "Is there something in your eye?" I didn't feel like there was. He told me to look to the side, I did. "Oh my gosh! Dude, go look in the mirror."
Apparently, my mask was too tight so when I dove under the coral the water pressure had burst the blood vessels in my eyes. The doctors said it wasn't serious unless it affected my vision, it didn't. They look much better now.
They do have sharks there though...sometimes.
Pictures of Sharks Cove (I didn't take these)
