Wild Ride

by Elissa Goodman
(Overland Park, Kansas, USA)

My husband and I took a cruise to Maui. Living in Kansas, we have no oceans or beaches near us, so going on vacations we always hit the beaches - what better place to see a beautiful beach than Maui!

I packed our fold up rafts just for this occasion. As we stepped into the water we could tell the waves were pretty strong, though we had no worries since we had been snorkeling in the ocean before.

We got on our rafts and just laid there soaking up the sun. I could tell the waves were bouncing us around more and more. After about half an hour of floating I sat up and noticed we were very far from shore. I told my husband we'd better paddle back closer to shore before we get out too far.

It was very difficult swimming while holding our rafts. Every time we would try swimming, the waves would catch our raft and it would act like a sail boat and push us further and further out to sea! I would paddle more and more and every time I would stop to rest, the wild waves would push us right back to where we'd started. We were going out further and further and just couldn't get ahead. I yelled over to my husband, I am exhausted and I don't think we are going to make it back to shore. All I heard from him was gurgle, gurgle and some other watered down words.

I could see in the distance a surfer paddling his surf board hoping to catch one of those wild waves. I yelled to him a few times and he finally heard me. As he paddled over to me he could tell I was having trouble and he asked if I was ok. I told him our problem and asked if we could hitch a ride back to shore with him. He let us hold on as he caught a wild wave and we finally got back to shore. To this day if it wasn't for the nice surfer, I think my hubby and I would still be riding the Maui waves!

Hi Elissa!

Wow! That is quite the story! Thank goodness everything worked out and you both made it back to shore in one piece!

Sheralyn