From the Tiger Beat Archives, April 1971
David and I had been planning a secret trip for many months and last December our dreams finally came true. We took off for five glorious days on the Hawaiian island of Maui. But just so the trip wouldn’t be a secret to YOU, we invited Tiger Beat’s Chief Photographer, Kenny Lieu, along! I kept a diary of our whole trip so I could tell you about our every move. So, just for YOU, here is a day-by-day account of our exciting Journey!
At 9:45 a.m. on Sunday of December, the heels of our giant jet landed, and after months of planning and preparation, we felt like a couple of excited little kids, waiting for some fantastic treat that’s been promised for so long that it doesn’t seem like it’ll ever come true–but then, after hours of seeing just water and the curvature of the earth through the window, David suddenly said “Look!,” and pointed to the right. There they were, like emeralds thrown carelessly into the sea–the Hawaiian Islands! Enormous pillars of clouds stood like giant soldiers guarding the tiny spots of green, and far off, near the horizon, there was a rainbow.
The big airport in the islands is on Oahu, which is the island of Honolulu and Waikiki on it. David had been there before, and he thought there would be too many people there, so we decided we were going to another island, Maui, which many people think is the most beautiful of all. We sat in the Honolulu airport just long enough to watch a football game on TV and sign about thirty trillion autographs, and then we climbed into this tiny plane that looked like it was about the third one ever made, and we took off for Maui.
FRIGHTENING FLIGHT
What a flight! We were shuddering and bouncing all over the sky and getting caught in huge winds that rush over the open surfaces of the sea. It was like being in an insane elevator! When we finally touched the ground, we both just grinned like a couple of idiots. It was so reassuring to be on the ground again!
As I climbed out of the plane, I almost had to rub my eyes to make sure that they weren’t playing tricks on me. Maui is so beautiful that there’s no way to prepare yourself for it! You can look at postcards and pictures, think about beaches and palm trees and girls in grass skirts, but they don’t begin to get you ready for the reality of paradise and paradise is what Maui truly is!
The wind blows, warm and perfumed with ginger, which grows wild on the slopes of the mountains. Every available inch of space is crowded with green and the flowers are so big that they look like phonies until you get up close and find that they’re so perfect and elaborate that they have to be real! Orchids hang from trees the way morning glory does back in California, and it’s all growing wild! Steep, peaked mountains clothed in deep green reach up into shifting gray mists which almost always hang over their tops, sometimes spilling like cream down the sides, bringing short, warm, drizzling rain to the lowlands!
HAWAIIAN FLOOR SHOW
We just drove around a little, looking at the island and pointing things out to each other, and then we went to our hotel and checked in. We dressed up (a little) and went down to dinner, and we saw a Hawaiian floor show, complete with beautiful girls in grass skirts and fire dancers. I had always thought it would be kind of corny, but I really dug it, and so did David. And the girls were really fantastic!
After dinner, we went straight to our rooms because we had decided to go skin-diving’ the next day and we wanted to rest. Both of us are terrible at getting up on time, so we each promised to call each other to make sure we were up!
The next morning (actually, it was pitch black) I woke to the ringing of a telephone. Naturally, it was David, and despite my arguments that the dark is for sleeping through, he insisted that I get up and meet him down in the restaurant. He was being very mysterious and kept saying he had something to show me. David had been to Hawaii twice before, so I took his word that it would be worth it and climbed groggily out of bed.
He led me out onto the beach. It was almost completely black, but the sky was beginning to grow pale off to the east, like somebody had spilled watercolors across the horizon. The water made splashing noises in the dark, and just as I began to suspect that David had finally lost the rest of his mind, he said in a whisper, “Now! Watch!” And I did. Suddenly the sky turned bright amber, then yellow, then orange, and the dark rolled back like a window shade to reveal a swirl of brilliant colors splashed together just above the sea and reflected on it, too, so that the horizon disappeared altogether and there was nothing but color. And then, slowly, as if its sleep had been disturbed like mine, the sun climbed up out of the water to begin its long day.
The shop is called “Skin-diving Hawaii,” and it’s located in Lahaina, which is Maui’s biggest city, and probably the nicest city I’ve ever been in—all green and sparkling clean, nothing like a city on the mainland.
The man who went with us to dive was named Neil, a nice, huge, sun-brown guy from California who decided that Hawaii was the life for him, and actually did something about it! He helped us choose our gear, and then we packed up about fourteen sandwiches, climbed into a boat, and took off. Neil uses the boat for catching turtles, which the hotels serve to their guests as a delicacy, but David and I had decided that we wouldn’t have anything to do with that end of it. We were skin-diving as sight-seers only, and we aren’t into killing anything. In fact, we didn’t even carry spears for self-protection.
(Editor’s note: Consuming turtle meat has been banned in the United States since the enactment of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, making it illegal to “take” (which includes pursuing, trapping, harming, wounding, harassing, or killing) endangered species, encompassing all six species of sea turtles found in U.S. waters.)
About an hour out from land, Neil stopped the boat, and we strapped on our aqualungs, masks, and flippers, put our weight belts around our waists, and went over the side! It was so strange! The weight belt kept dragging at me as I swam around on the surface, becoming used to the fins, mask, and breathing equipment, and I remember thinking that it was too heavy. Finally, Neil led the way down.
We glided into a green, silent world of shifting light and flowing shapes. It was like flying—we hung suspended over a fairy-tale landscape, breathing freely and effortlessly like a couple of giant birds. Of course, we couldn’t talk, but I could see by David’s face that he was completely flipped out, and I was, too! We went down and down until we reached the bottom—about fifty feet deep.
The first thing Neil did was catch a giant turtle with his hands and let David and me take turns riding it. It’s fantastic! You hold on for dear life to their shells, and they just streak through the water while your hair flows out behind like seaweed. I’ve never felt anything like it. We made Neil let that turtle go, and then we went back up. We had been down for more than twenty minutes, but it hadn’t felt like any more than five.
SOME UNDERWATER PHOTOS
Back in the boat, we laughed and shouted about all we had seen and done, pretty much ignoring Neil’s advice that we should rest quietly for a while. All we wanted to do was go back down! Finally, Neil gave in, and we all got strapped in again, and I grabbed an underwater camera. I was going to take pictures to show everyone I knew because I knew I couldn’t describe the things I’d seen.
Over the side, I remember thinking once again that the weight belt was too heavy, but I was so eager to get down that I ignored it. Once again, David and I glided into that magic world, but we were doing separate things now—he was looking for a turtle to ride, and I was snapping pictures like a madman, so we weren’t really watching one another like skin-diving partners are supposed to do.
I swam along, fighting against the weight from my belt, thinking that I was probably using a lot of air because I was working so hard. I was so busy taking pictures that it never occurred to me to check my air tanks, and so I was really unprepared when I suddenly realized I was having a little trouble breathing. I looked around for David and couldn’t see him, so I went to work on my breathing valve, thinking that it was shut too tightly. To my surprise, it was all the way open, and then the truth hit me. I looked at my air gauge, and it read zero!
DAVID TO THE RESCUE
We couldn’t swim too fast, because you can get hurt very badly coming up too quickly, and that was the longest thirty feet I’ve ever traveled! By the time I got to the top, my lungs were bursting, and I grabbed the biggest gulp of air I’ve ever had in my life, but my troubles weren’t over, because my weight belt, camera, and other equipment immediately pulled me under again! David went down with me and helped me get my weight belt off—it dropped slowly to the ocean floor below. I got my tank off and handed it to David and somehow got back to the boat. It was only while I was lying on the floor of the boat, breathing long, shuddering breaths, that I realized I didn’t have the camera anymore! David and Neil looked for it for the rest of the afternoon, but it couldn’t be found.
Well, I flipped out. I was thirty feet down, which is a long, long way, and it was impossible to inhale any more. I flailed around for a second in panic, and then David materialized at my side. I signaled to him that I couldn’t breathe, and he took my arm and we started up.
I had put on the wrong weight belt, a belt intended for a man about twice my weight, and I had used up all my air trying to drag it along. If it hadn’t been for David… well, I don’t like to think about it!
I can’t believe I’ve run out of space and I’m only part way through our second day in Hawaii! Well, I’ll be telling you more about the most exciting vacation of both David’s and my life right here next month!
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