Tag: ocean

Waves

raining17Leave a comment

I walk across the beach, the warm sand sifting beneath my feet. The soles of my feet burn as each sun-tinted grain touches my skin. I curl up my feet, feeling the sand between each of my toes. I take a deep breath of the salty air and look up toward the sun, closing my eyes, letting the sun’s rays wash over my skin.

(Photo Credit: atlantisbahamas.com)

I walk toward the water, the sand growing cooler and spongier under my feet. I stop, letting my feet sink into the wet sand. I relax and let my weight fall, seeing how far down I can go.

I take another step forward and dip my big toe in the water. The salt is tingly on my skin, and I ease my foot in. The water is cold, but refreshing. I take another step. I ease in to my ankles, then my knees, then my waist. I stand in the water, feeling the current course throughout my body.

I take another step. The water is up to my neck. The waves crash over me, pushing me down. I am completely submerged. I try to swim to the surface, but I can’t tell which way is up. The water is colder now, too cold, and the salt is stinging my skin. I am tossed around as the violent, churning water surrounds me. My eyes burn as I search for light.

I am caught in a vortex of water, spinning around and around, unable to break free. The waves are choppy and the water is cold – the warm, soft sand only a memory from the past. Seconds feel like minutes as I continue to struggle against the water that holds me prisoner. The once clear, gentle, welcoming water has turned dark and cold. It pulls me toward its depths, holding me tight in its grasp.

(Photo Credit: brigadewakesurfing.com)

I am starting to run out of air. Lights flicker behind my eyelids as my lungs flutter from deprivation. I can’t breathe – I am being suffocated. I toss and turn as the water pulls me down, down, deeper, deeper.

I can just make out the bottom in the distance – a faint line of dark, jagged rocks. I am afraid of striking them, and I struggle even harder. I can see a light now, but I don’t know where it’s from. It could be the surface, or the light dancing behind my eyes. The light flickers, taunting me. Still bound by the waves, I struggle to move toward it. I’m afraid to get too close. I don’t know what the light means. I don’t know if it’s coming from the surface, or if it’s something far worse – I don’t want to go the wrong way.

I am beginning to lose consciousness. My vision is going blurry, the edges are starting to go dark. The waves are enveloping me, suffocating me, before I have time to choose. I have no strength left, and no more power to fight.

I force my eyes open and struggle to remove myself from the water’s grasp. I can’t move. The waves control me, pulling me down, down, down. I hit the rocks and the light is gone. I couldn’t decide.

Below

raining17Leave a comment

I dove off the scorching rock, my hands piercing the bright blue water. Completely submerged into the cool, salty ocean, I propelled myself forward, deeper and deeper. Pushing past tangles of seaweed and batting away the occasional bottle or can, I swam down, into the depths of the dark, murky waters.

There it was, looming in the distance, dark and tremendous. I swam faster, excited. I got closer and closer, my heart beat faster.

It was gigantic, almost unreal. A piece of history, something from the past. I swam up to the wreck, pushing aside a broken board and slipped inside.

Photo Credit: financesonline.com

What I saw made me freeze, I was in awe, unable to move. It was a scene from the past, just frozen in time. Tables still set for dinner, but chairs overturned, as if guests left in a panic. It was an abandoned ship, but a ghost town. The tables had accumulated millions of barnacles, the silverware rusted and the tablecloths disintegrated.

I shivered, looking around at a life that existed over 100 years ago. It was the past, but my present. I took one last look, and swam back up to the surface.

Are we destroying our ocean?

thericemuncherLeave a comment

Over 70 percent of the Earth is covered by oceans and over half of the human population lives near the ocean. Yet, human’s do next to nothing in keeping the oceans clean.

In the past half-century the use of plastic has multiplied by 20. More than 8 million tons of plastic is dumped in the ocean annually – that’s about one garbage truck per minute.

That’s expected to increase to four garbage trucks per minute by 2050. We are on track to have more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.

At this point the production of plastic is irreversible and the 165 million tons of plastic that’s in our ocean right now will have to be cleaned, but we have to ask ourselves: will we do something to stop this destruction? Or will this wanton dumping continue until we destroy our ocean.

 

Santa Cruzin’

raining171 Comment

I don’t consider myself a water person – unlike the bounty of surfers and ocean fanatics that I now surround myself with, I grew up inland and only ventured to the cold Oregon Coast 1-2 times each year.

Now in California I have many more opportunities to go swim in the ocean, or just be near the water.

However wonderful my opportunity is to many, even sometimes to me, when I heard I was going camping for a week at Santa Cruz Island, I was less than enthused.

The idea of being surrounded by ocean for five days straight, no matter how clear and beautiful I knew it would be, scared me. We were to be completely isolated – an hour boat ride away from land.

Photo Credit: http://www.nps.gov

My trip seemed to be the most popular out of the four – everyone wanted to go, and I even felt bad for taking up a spot when I wasn’t nearly as excited as some who couldn’t go.

Once I was on the boat to the island, standing with salty wind blowing through my hair, watching the island grow bigger and bigger, I began to feel excited. No longer was I wishing I was on route to Yosemite, I found myself looking forward to the next week, and what was to come.

What I thought would be a long, torturous week turned out to be adventure-filled and an amazing time. The ocean, originally the object of my fear, was beautiful, full of creatures, and the best part of the trip.

Photo Credit: upload.wikimedia.org

Out of all the camping trips I’ve been on throughout my life, this one was the most fun. And not only did I explore caves, but I also explored my limits.

Photo Credit: i.ytimg.com

Drowning

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“Swim deeper,” they said. “You’ll be able to breathe.”

I’m drowning – the water is swirling over my head, pushing me down and shortening my breaths. I’m told that I’m doing fine, but in reality I’m plummeting.

I’ve been told that this is normal, that everyone should be able to breathe when pushed underwater. However, I know that something’s off.

Maybe I can learn to live while drowning, and pretend that it’s as easy for me as it is for everyone else. But there is a solution, and it’s the realization that I’m ten feet under that helps me to get there.

When underwater, it’s easy to pretend that I’m above, and to fake it until I truly do well. I can either learn to live under the surface, or swim to the top. It is on the surface that I can succeed.

“Swim back up,” they say, “You can make it.”

Photo Credit: http://www.c2.staticflickr.com

The little Dolphin that couldn’t

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The little dolphin that couldn’t. When he was born his mother was ripped apart by a Great White Shark. Mr. Dolphin now had brain damage. Furthermore, his fins where shredded to pieces he could barely swim, he was slow.

While swimming in the seas of Japan Mr.Dolphin encountered some cold hearted fishermen. Mr. Dolphin was not smart so he approached their vessel slowly and foolishly. The fishermen viciously harpooned Mr. Dolphin inflicting life threating wounds to him. Close to death Mr. Dolphin decided to let the currents carry him westward.

Mr. Dolphin found the coast of Hawaii, where he met an average looking dolphiness, looking for a mate. Mr.Dolphin approached her, Mr.dolphin was instantly rejected by the Dolphiness. The dolphiness would have a child with another dolphin. Mr. Dolphin would swim far out to sea where he would die alone and forgotten.

(this was  experiment made with my friend infamousdolphin to test the power of cooperative creativity.)

Ocean

displacedlocalLeave a comment

The ocean has been a constant throughout my childhood. I have lived in Los Angeles, and right now my family is living in Oxnard. Having the ocean a stone’s throw away has given me comfort and is a constant reminder that i am a single person in a sea of people.

At my previous school the ocean was visible from all of my classes. Here at OVS, while the view is fantastic, it is missing the pacific ocean view that I have had my entire life.

The sound of the waves has been a constant in my life and without it I feel as though something is missing.

Something about the water makes me feel like I am safe and at home. It might be the fact that the places I have always called home have been less than a mile away from the Pacific.

The constant crashing of waves was a natural metronome for my tennis playing and it felt as though the beating of my heart was in sync with the crash and the wind moving the sand.

The ocean has calmed me and has provided me with a rhythm that still beats in me today.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes with a Side of kirbyfullyloaded.

yrreskrap2 Comments

So my wish came true!

I was able to go to the beach with an amazing friend of mine, Emmy (kirbyfullyloaded).

It was nice being able to be away from the dorms.It felt like the first time in a long time since I had been away from school related things.

Emmy’s mom is amazing. She made us breakfast everyday. In fact, this morning she made us chocolate chip pancakes and we ate them watching the high tide with the early sun.

Chocolate. Sun. Sand. Ocean. What else could a girl ask for??

Anyways, after breakfast, we both changed from our pajamas into our bathing suits (although it probably wasn’t the best idea considering my massive food baby) and ran to tan on the deck of her house. We listened to Maroon 5 together and made plans for our next weekend date! Hopefully we will be able to surf and bake a bunch of fattening goodies.

Weekends like this really let me value my friends and realize importance of spending time with good people.
Being able to stay up late with Emmy, snacking on random cookies, seaweed, and digestive wheat crackers (trust me, they taste absolutely amazing), just to keep us awake while we talked all night until the early hours of the morning was great.
Painting our nails for hours, singing along to music, critiquing singers for foibles in their voices, and not being able to wake up from staying up so late…priceless.

It lets me step back and realize how blessed I am with my friends.

Thank you Emmy for letting me stay at your house this weekend.

You are an amazing girl. Never change.

Life’s A Beach.

yrreskrapLeave a comment

Usually I have an undeniable, irresistible desire for Korean food or home.

But this time, it’s the beach.

The weather has been beautiful lately here in Ojai. I mean, how lucky are we to have summer weather in the end of January?

It started with the semi-annual sale at Victoria’s Secret.

Discounts on swimsuits and free shipping on orders over $25!!

So I bought one and it arrived last Monday but since I was unhappy with it, I sent it back. Now, I have to wait until February for the new one!

NOW ALL I NEED IS SOME SAND AND A LOT OF OCEAN.

But I must have patience because being at a boarding school, I don’t have many chances to leave and head to the beach whenever I want to.

I JUST WANT SUMMER!!

Sometimes life’s a beach.

Sunsets

kirbyfullyloadedLeave a comment

No enhancements were made to these photos.

I love sunsets.  They’re in bad romances and lame, angsty teen novels, unforgettable movies, and great literary master pieces.  Artists and poets have colored miles of canvas and thousands of pages depicting and describing their radiant beauty.  Twilight (ironically the unfortunate name of another angsty teen novel) is an enchanting hour.  It is the time of day when all three of the great celestial entities exist together.  The sun sets, the moon rises and the stars just begin to emerge.

Kona, 2003:

I’m lucky enough to live by the beach.  The bay we live near faces south instead of west, so the sun never sets in front of my house, except for a short time in one season.  All year, I look forward to winter sunsets.  As December rolls around, the sun inches slowly south on the horizon, sinking into the sea right over the Channel Islands.

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