20 foot waves and sharks!

Not really! But my kayaking adventure with my friend Sue this weekend felt as exciting as 20 foot waves and sharks.

Sue and I planned to kayak on Sunday; however, the wind was really whipping off the Koolau mountains (here on the windward coast of Oahu) and it didn't look good to me. Sue called me after her morning beach walk and said 'It's great out there. The water's totally glassy.' Sue's famous last words.

I think I've been in a kayak maybe 4 times. Sue more than that, but pros we're not.

Didn't look glassy when we got to the beach, but not too bad. So out we went.

We were just headed a mile or so offshore of Lanikai beach to the bigger of the Mokulua islands. The Mokes, as they're known here. Not far.

La di da and giggling all the way out, Sue and I caught up on all the latest as we meandered out into the deep blue sea.

Hmmmm.... the wind seems to be picking up. And as we get closer to the island the waves seem to look fairly substantial. All is good though and we surf a wave onto shore and jump out.

But why are all the people leaving? As we look around, we see the big dark clouds threatening not too far away and we can feel the wind pick up even a bit more. So, we check with a guy who is leading a kayak group. He advises leaving as there's a storm coming in, which is bringing 30 foot waves to the North Shore.

Sue and I had planned to hike around, have a picnic and swim on the backside of the island, but we decide after watching the waves come up another foot or two that we better just hightail it off this island of doom.

So, like good ocean adventurers should, we watch the water and plan our entry into the crashing surf. Apparently we're not very good at the entry planning part since we were immediately turned upside down only 10 feet from shore. At least we were close enough to gather everything quickly together, pull ourselves back to the sand and consult on Plan B.

After much reflection we simply decided to follow a couple who looked like they knew what they were doing. Success!

With the wind wailing across the water, threatening to blow us out to sea, I paddled like crazy while Sue pushed us along in the shallow water attempting to keep our nose pointed into the waves so we didn't go over sideways once again. What a team!

Soon enough Sue clambered into the kayak, gracefully like Shamu she said, and we paddled our middle aged arms off to get out of the blazing wind that wanted blow us far far away and land us on some remote island where they film 'Survivor'.

As we paddled there was no chatting going on and I frequently had images of the Viking ships with the sweaty men rowing to chants of 'One' 'Two'. 'This sucks' ran through my brain a few times, but in an oddly exhilirating kind of way.

As Sue and I landed back on Lanikai beach, we spread out our towels, drank a beer and pondered the offshore island that from our vantage point seemed so peaceful.

Sue said, 'Well I guess we've learned that it can be really different out there than it is in here.'

That's for sure. And I learned, when Sue says it's glassy, check the weather report!