i jumped into a dark ocean.

yes, i did. me, nicole scared-of-everything booth, jumped into the pacific ocean off of a boat.

WHY the crap would i intentionally do something like that? why would i just decide to cowabunga off of a boat into a deep, dark, scary ocean full of sea animals with huge teeth that like 21 year old human flesh? well because you see..i went manta ray diving. ok not really diving..but snorkeling. half of our boat went diving, half snorkeling. i snorkeled because 1. i'm not certified, 2. sharks eat divers.
on friday night, for about an hour, i got to be BFF with some huge-A sea creatures. a manta ray even smacked me in the leg with its wing-fin!! weird. they are like big leather...suitcases. with wing-fins. cool eh?

first thing that happened after i got my scuba steve gear on and jumped off the boat?
overwhelmed.
thought process:
i'm in an ocean. i'm in a dark ocean. big place with lots of animals. there could be creatures below me. if somefin brushes my leg.........somefin better not brush me...

i dipped my head down quickly to get the first glimpse of underneath me, to check for sharks, of course. (because sharks have absolutely been INFESTING the waters here on the big island. 15-18 foot hunting TIGER sharks, to be exact are everywhere)

first thought: ooo pretty coral.
second thought: i'm going to die.
dizziness immediately ensues realizing i was in a fricking OCEAN. (you know the kind, where your head gets all light and your eyes move back and forth really quick. no? anyone? was i having a small seizure?) anyway, not a comforting feeling. THEN..... all of a sudden. FLIPPER, our trusty guide who had summer teeth, (summer here summer there), announced
"HeEeyYy GGuYyyS...look underneath you! hoo hoo hee hee!!"

Not the first words i wanna hear from someone after i jump into a dark ocean and contemplate how my death with come to be. but- low and behold, baby manta rays were swimming right under us, about 8 feet down. they were about the size of...mm..i dunno, a medium rug? haha i dont even know what to compare them to. it was awesome. the mantas feed on plankton, and the plankton are attracted to the lights the divers were shining up at us. so, for about an hour, we got to be in the middle of the feeding ground for about 20 HUGE manta rays. it was one of the coolest things i've ever seem in my life.

later on though, yes...i was literally nose to nose with big bertha, 15 foot 1600 pounder. it was amazing. my fear of dying a watery death left because i was so amazed and in awe of these huuuuuuge sea creatures. it was a whole newwwww world!!! they would come do loop-de-loops right up in our face to suck in the plankton..and in no way were they scared of humans. they came within inches of our faces. i coulda ridden those things if i wanted to! they pretty much look like stingrays- but giant, and without a barb on their tail...so in no way could any of them 'steve irwin' us. totally safe- boring- beautiful creatures. i advise anyone going to hawaii to do this. completely worth it to see ginormous animals fly across the ocean floor.

not cool= trying to get back to the boat after all the lights were shut off and hearing FLIPPER..once more, tell me a huge manta ray was underneath me. not knowing where exactly it was, if i swished my foot in the wrong direction i could totally shove it down the mantas huge throat...so i verrrrry briskly floated back to the boat with a prayer in my heart i would not get tangled. the ocean is a scary, creepy, AMAZING thing.

once we started heading back the the harbor, trusty Flipper pointed out weird greenish baby lights flickering on the side of the boat. it literally looked like we were sailing on stars... but he explained it was the plants/animals/sea creatures natural reaction/defense mechanism to the boats engine, and little lights twinkled all around us. you know the deep-sea fish on finding nemo? with the little light attached to its head? THAT is what it looked like, x20. cool eh?

such an awesome experience.