Witnessing my daughter’s growing snorkeling confidence in Hawaii

We had told our 8-year old daughter Kate about the beautiful island, the volcanos, the many different landscapes and the awesome water life. This was our first trip to the Big Island of Hawaii for the three of us together. I’ve visited Hawaii two times before with my wife Marie and this was the first time we brought Kate with us. To get her prepped for going into the ocean, I had taken her a couple of times to our local pool to teach her snorkeling. One time I also brought my brand new GoPro that my wife had bought including a water proof case, specifically for this upcoming trip.

When we arrived the first day in the afternoon, we scouted a nearby beach we wanted to go to the next day, which was Kahalu’u Beach. It is a relatively quiet area as you can stay at the shoreward side of a reef so the water movement isn’t too crazy. Perfect for Kate to get used to snorkeling in the ocean.  

The next day, we arrived early - our condo was only about 10 minutes away - so we could park easily. We were already dressed in our bathing suits and headed for the water. There was only a little bit of actual beach sand which was ideal for putting our flippers on. The water felt cold initially, but we shouldn’t complain with a water temperature that was in the upper 80’s (over 30° C) so we got used to it promptly. Kate was hesitant as the water was shallow and it became rocky already very close to the shore. She held hands with either me or my wife the whole time. I had my GoPro with me and took a lot of photos and some videos. There were so many different fishes, with an abundance of yellow tangs.

Kate timidly enjoyed most of the snorkeling and her mask kept filling up with water. I tried to adjust it for her as her hair was caught inside the mask. That only helped a little; the mask just wasn’t the best fit. All in all we spent about an hour. 

The next couple of days we tried out different snorkeling locations (Kate always holding hands with us) and also traveled all around the island, visited Volcanoes National Park, and Hilo on the other side. That’s where I was able to get a lot of photos and videos of green sea turtles (honus). 

I have a tutorial on my YouTube channel in which I color a 12x8” photo of a sketch I did with water soluble graphite pencils of a honu. 

In Carlsbad, CA one of my friends had given me a lot of tips of where to go and what to do on the Big Island, ranging from what restaurants to eat at, art galleries to visit, to the best snorkeling spots. She said that one of her all-time favorite snorkeling tours is with Fair Wind snorkel boat cruises and that the morning cruise to Captains Cook's Monument at Kealakekua Bay is awesome. So we made a reservation. The day before our trip we went to a store and rented a full face mask for Kate to see if she’d like that better than a regular mask. If so, we’d buy it, if not, we’d just return it the next day after the cruise. 

The day had come. We got up early again - I believe we got up early pretty much each day as you just cannot stay in bed on this beautiful tropical island with so much to see and do. We checked in and received our boarding tickets. As we would board about 30 minutes later, we sat down at some picnic tables and had a simple breakfast. Kate also tried another snorkeling mask, a regular one that covers eyes and nose, as a precaution the full-face mask wouldn’t work for her. 

We boarded the large catamaran with about 30 other people and set sail. The views of the island from the boat were spectacular. The Kealakekua Bay was much further south and we spent all our time on the outdoor decks. The boat turned around Keawekãheka and Cook Points and slowed down. The boat stopped above an anchor point and one of the crew members jumped in the water to attach the boat to it. The water was as clear as ever as you could easily see the bottom. You always hear that visibility underwater in Hawaii is 100 feet, and that probably was the case here too.

The captain laid out the rules for us. One of those was that you always had to stay in the deeper parts of the water, so you wouldn’t touch - and damage - the sensitive corals. The water could be entered easily at the back of the boat by stairs that went underwater. We put on Kate’s full-face mask and all three of us jumped in. Kate swam around a bit, but she didn’t like the mask as it was too tight on her face. We switched to the one we tried that morning and fortunately that worked well. 

She held my hand and all three of us swam away from the boat. It was probably about 20 feet deep. The bottom was covered with rugged rocks, corals, urchins and vegetation. And lots of fish everywhere.

Marie took Kate and they swam together for a while. Suddenly, Kate let go of Marie’s hand. She was on her own. She looked comfortable and was taking great pleasure in her time in the water.

At some point, she took a deep breath and dove underwater, enjoying the weightlessness among the fishes in the deep-blue water. As she rose back up to the surface, she blew the water out of the snorkel with a strong puff. She knew she could do this but hadn’t done so yet other than during practice back home at the pool. She appeared in front of me and later told me she was photobombing me.  

We spent a lot of hours in the water and had lunch on the boat. I asked Kate how she gained so much confidence suddenly. One reason was a well-working mask, but the main reason she said was the depth of the water. In other locations she was afraid to accidentally touch urchins or any other animal or sharp rock underneath. But here, because the water was so deep, all that was at great distance from her and she felt completely venturous to move around freely. 

Marie still says that was the best snorkeling experience ever. In hour house, we have a 3 by 2 foot photo on the wall, of Katie photobombing me. 

Check out my daughter's account of this snorkeling trip here.