RAS

One of my friends from growing up on the ship came to Hawaii with her husband to go to U of N. From time to time we would go on fun outings together. We went from the top of Mauna Kea down to Waimea to a grocery store where we bought bread and cheese, sodas and grapes that we consumed on some benches in the shopping area. 

One of my favorite memories was another time we went with them to Waimea. It was nice to get away from the regular, everyday normal to a completely different environment. This time, after we got the stuff from the grocery store, we climbed up the hill behind the shopping area to eat up there. There were cows in the field and the view was incredible, looking up at Mauna Kea and down to the deep blue ocean - so peaceful and relaxing.

Sadly, they ended up getting divorced. Incidentally, all five of the main girls that I grew up with on the ship ended up getting divorced. They say it takes two to tango but each of them seemed to have had very legitimate reasons - from their husbands’ cheating, abuse, homosexuality, mental issues and some of their husbands just plain not wanting to be married anymore. 

I wonder if there was something about the girls growing up on the ship that led to this turn of events but it saddened me. I was sad for my friends, although all five of them seemed to find success with their second marriages. 

24 – Hawaii, California

I’ve written elsewhere about certain Hawaiian locals not being particularly friendly to white people and about barneys, who are haoles who are so haole that they don’t even know it. I knew I was haole so I wasn’t a barney but in one particular circumstance, I could understand how the locals would consider me to be so.

There is a surf spot within walking distance from where we lived. It’s a little bay called Hanos. On the right side of the bay is a reef where the waves form and then cut across the bay. Since my reef incident in Tonga when I was sixteen, I have had severe RAS (Reef Avoidance Syndrome). So I would have to try to catch the waves once they came off the reef.

The problem was that the locals would catch them on the reef so the waves were usually occupied by the time they got to me. If you try to catch a wave when someone’s already on it, you hear, 

            “Get off my wave”, particularly if you are a haole. 

So I had to wait until the locals had all caught waves and there was an open one for me. So first of all, I was a haole trying to catch waves. 

I was borrowing the boogie board and fins I was using. But these weren’t boogie board fins. They were big, cheap, snorkeling fins. So not only was I a haole trying to catch waves, but I was also wearing big, dorky fins.

The fins were giving me blisters so I decided to wear socks to prevent the blisters. Mind you, I didn’t have ankle socks. I only had the long, white tube socks, which bunched up at my ankles. So, here I was, a haole trying to catch waves with big, dorky fins with white, bunched-up tube socks. So you see how the locals might think I was a barney.

One time I went too far over and the wave took me over the reef.  I just knew I was going to get trashed. When a wave comes in, it lifts the water up higher over the reef but if the wave pushes you down or you’re out ahead of the wave, you’re done. If you can stay upright on top of the board, you’re usually okay but the wave flipped me over on my back.

I continued to hold on as closely to the board as I could but as I washed in toward the shore, I was just waiting for the inevitable laceration of my back. Again I was saying over and over, “Please Lord, please Lord, please Lord”, hoping that I would be spared…and I was. The wave kept me floating above the reef and this time I came out unscathed.

Hawaiian sunset


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