Around the World in 150 Days, Day 7, Rocky Water
April 12th, Honolulu: Kari and Cade wake me up around 11:30am. It's an hour drive out to the shark diving and the boat leaves at 1pm. Kari has brought us coffee, so I lay in bed for a moment collecting myself then peel myself out of bed and start downing the iced something or other she brought me. I feel pretty good after 10 hours of sleep.
Half an hour later we're in Kari's car, blasting songs out of her 'Ipod' through the stereo system and singing along as loud as we can in preparation for the karaoke we intend on going to tonight. It's a gorgeous day out despite the forecast again calling for rain, which it has for the last three sunny, perfect days. Hopefully the light allows me a closer inspection of the sharks, which will no doubt cause me to yell "CHAAAAAAARK!!" in a Humberto Brenesesque accent.
We arrive a little before 1pm at the dock, park the car, and walk over to the boat. We're about 10 feet away from the boat and I'm fairly certain I overhear the guy in charge telling the people in front of us that he won't be able to take them out on the boat today. However, when we go up to him he informs us to go talk to the guys on the other boat.
We approach the guys on the other boat, who are currently unloading the passengers from the voyage they just took out. After five minutes of standing there while they move out the people and various equipment the guys eventually turn to us and explain that because of conditions they won't be able to take us out today. Cool of the other guy to dump the responsibility of telling us on to them. We discuss how sometimes when they tell people they won't be able to take them out because it'd be dangerous they get mad for having wasted an hour long drive out to get them.
"HOW THE FUCK DO YOU NOT ENDANGER MY SAFETY!?!" I yell jokingly at them, which they appear amused by. They suggest we simply spend our day getting wasted on the beach instead. I tell them I like their style. After we walk away I regret not asking them if they have any weed, since they seemed super cool and the types to whip some out and smoke me up on the spot.
We walk over to a nearby beach to hang out for a while, though apparently it's covered in rocks underneath the water and the current is so strong that it's not recommended we go swimming. Three enormous sea turtles wash up on the shore and just sort of sit there basking in the sun relaxing, at least until a couple little kids come along and start poking one of them with a stick. Kari goes over and asks them to stop, and tells them if they don't "You'll wind up killing the turtles." The kid holding the stick instantly snaps it in half upon hearing this.
Kari goes to sleep on the beach for a while and Cade and I walk over to a grassy area to practice the seven basic blocks of Kung Fu that I was taught when attending a session at his school the other day. I've spent the last few months doing some boxing training, but increasingly find other forms of self defense fascinating, plus awesome ways to get a work out. My session at the Kung Fu school gave me a huge respect for what I now realize is an extremely lethal defense form.
After a while we decide to go over to Honolulu's most popular beach, Waikiki, so we can actually go into the water. There's pretty bad traffic so it takes an hour to get there, and once we park I run off to the bathroom and tell Cade and Kari I'll find them later. After I walk out I take a stroll down the beach checking out the eye candy, and notice a cute strawberry blonde who is reading lying next to another girl. I walk up and say to her
"Excuse me, I know this is very forward of me, but I saw you as I was walking along the beach and thought you were really cute so I wanted to come say hi, plus I already know we have something on common."
She stares at me blankly for a moment and I point to her book then say sarcastically
"I too can read."
She seems mildly amused so I take a seat and introduce myself. I ask what brings her to Hawaii (the answer will obviously often be vacation, it's simply a way to get in a normal conversation) and she answers vacation. I ask where from and she tells me Melbourne Australia. It may seem weird to come all the way to Hawaii and wind up hitting on a girl from Melbourne, but on the plus side it gives me plenty of material to go forward with.
I wind up chatting to her for a good 15 minutes. At no point does she seem totally enthralled by our interaction, nor does she seem disinterested. I try to crack some jokes, which have mixed results, such as when I ask what the origins of her name 'Phillipa' are
"It's the female version of Phillip."
"No I mean, what kind of ethnic origins."
"English I guess?"
"Ah so your one of the guys who shot all the aboriginals huh?" (Upon later consideration, I doubt most English-Australians would find that particularly funny)
"Actually I'm from New Zealand" (Something she'd told me about 10 minutes earlier.)
I ask her about coming to karaoke with me and my friends that night and she says karaoke isn't really her thing but she'd be down to hang out sometime during her trip. I am without a phone on the beach (don't ever be without a phone during a pick up attempt) so she suggests she add me on facebook. She asks for the spelling of my last name, which network I'm on, and then I hang around and keep chatting for a while. Two things to be learned here; first of all I made a huge mistake by not getting her information as well. I'm so used to whipping out my phone and telling the girl to put her number in there that I blanked on this aspect, as when doing a pick up it's really unlikely that a girl will get in contact with you even if she found you intriguing, because that's just how girls are. For example, I would never allow a girl to take my number and not give hers; it's just a total waste of time. Second, even after you close the contact information you should still hang around for a while and keep chatting (which I got right.) If you bail the second after you get a number/facebook-add you wind up making the girl feel like you didn't have that much actual interest, that you simply run around collecting numbers as quickly and efficiently as possible. While the conversation in this particular approach went pretty well overall (though not great) I'd be pretty surprised if she actually bothers to add me, the consequence for my forgetting to get her information.
After I walk off I find Cade and Kari about 50 feet down on the beach and we hit the water. Unfortunately Wakiki also has quite a few rocks below the surface, and I naturally wind up getting my foot slammed into some fairly hard at one point during my swim. When we get out of the water Kari isn't feeling well so we call it a day and head back to Cade's house.
In the evening Cade takes me for a three and a half mile run down near the beach, which I surprisingly complete without too much difficulty or feeling much out of breath at the end. I haven't been that good about my diet or exercise in Hawaii, so it's good to get back into the swing of things. Hopefully once I get to Vegas I'll recommit myself in the Bellagio gym, but I have a feeling I'll wind up just getting drunk instead.