Snorkeling in Hawaii

This past weekend, George and I, along with our friend Jason went snorkeling in two different coral reef areas surrounding Oahu. While I had been snorkeling once before - very briefly in Jamaica - this was my first full-fledged snorkeling experience. It was awesome! Once I got used to it, I totally forgot I was breathing through a little tube and really started to enjoy being like the fish under the water's surface.

According to George and Jason, we didn't have the best conditions for snorkeling on either day. On Saturday, the sky was cloudy and we actually had a little rain so the visibility into the water was limited somewhat. On Sunday, the surf was a bit high and kicking the sand around in the water enough to partially obscure the water. Nonetheless, we still saw some really neat stuff on both days. We snorkeled at two different sites. The first was on the Ewa side of the island, at a place known as "Electric Beach" because of its proximity to the Hawaiian Power generating facility. The other place was near Waimea Bay on the North Shore near the surfing-reknowned Banzai Pipeline. We saw a lot of awesome fish including the one pictured here called a Surge Wrasse. No, I didn't take this picture, but the colors really were that bright! Maybe sometime I'll head out with one of those disposable underwater cameras and try to capture my own shots. With any luck, we'll have even better conditions for the trip we are planning this weekend to Hanauma Bay on the southeast corner of the island. Everyone who I've spoken with who has been there says it is absolutely amazing there. Stay tuned... :-)