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Waimea Bay Beach Park

Today we tried out Waimea Bay Beach Park on the North Shore. You have to go early because parking is limited; we arrived at 8:30 and had no problem finding a place to park. When we left at noon, we were stalked by people who wanted our parking spot.

See this rock? This is called "Da Big Rock"
or "Jump Rock".

People like to jump off of it.

There are lots of different spots where you can take a flying leap. I chose the second highest area. I figured if I could make myself jump off the next highest, then I could move up to the highest spot after that.

I was wrong.

As you can see in the picture, the spot we were jumping from slopes downward. I have to tell you, this was pretty scary. There is nothing to hold on to, and you inch forward to the edge knowing that if you slip, you will slide off the edge and possibly bounce off the face of the cliff all the way down.

Then, once you make it to the edge, you look down and the water is so clear, you can see the bottom. It's like looking into a swimming pool. The water is plenty deep enough but it doesn't look like it from up there. It looks shallow, and waaaaaay far away.

It took all the nerve I possessed to actually jump from Da Big Rock. I knew if I thought about it for very long, I would scare myself silly and not do it. So I didn't look for long, and I just went for it.

There is one absolutely sickening second when you are leaning out so far that there will be no pulling back and you know you are committed to this jump like it or not.

The fall lasted only a second or two, but it seemed like a long time. The image of that clear, green water coming up at me is pretty firmly etched in my head.

When I hit the water, I went much deeper than I had expected.



I also got an unexpected saline flush straight up my nose and out my ears.


Next time I'm heavily congested, I'm going to go jump off this rock.


Even Emily got up the nerve to jump which really surprised me. She's not normally a daredevil and let me tell you, it takes a lot of nerve to make that leap.


This is an unretouched photo out of my little point-and-shoot camera.

No fancy camera, no fancy lens.

It really is that beautiful here.
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  1. AnonymousJune 18, 2009 at 7:26 AM

    What an experience! I know Ben and Kerry will be anxious to try it. GG

    ReplyDelete

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