Reaching New Heights and Depths
If there’s one way to test your limits and fully embrace adventure, it’s by experiencing two completely different types of diving in the span of 24 hours. One moment, I was free-falling from 14,000 feet over Oahu, and the next, I was floating beneath the surface of the Pacific, face-to-face with enormous manta rays. Here’s how it all went down (literally and figuratively).
Skydiving had always been on my bucket list, and there was no better place to do it than with Skydive Hawaii. Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous, just ridiculously stoked. I went with three friends, so we had the entire plane to ourselves, which made the experience even more special. The tandem instructors were awesome, even matching our harnesses to our outfits, which was a super funny touch.
The small plane ride up was chilly, especially with the door open, but it gave us an incredible view of Oahu’s north shore, flying over the coast and Waimea Bay. As we climbed higher, we even spotted a whale breaching below, jumping out of the water, and onto its back to be submerged again! Finally, when we reached our altitude, it was our time to jump and I left the plane with a front flip followed by four more flips. That initial drop was sent in the best way possible!
Free-falling from 14,000 feet felt like a video game or like a VR Headset. Passing through clouds and seeing the coastline stretched from a birds eye perspective made Oahu look unreal from above. The ground felt like it was approaching faster than expected, but when the parachute deployed, everything slowed down and I got to control the pulley system to make turns as we floated back to the floor.
Keeping up with the theme of diving, the next morning, we hopped on a flight to the Big Island for another bucket-list-worthy experience: night time diving with manta rays. I honestly wasn’t expecting this excursion to be as breathtaking as it was, but from the moment we got on the boat, I knew it was going to be special.
We got in our wetsuits and dove into the ocean, where massive underwater lights were placed by the crew to illuminate the water. Slowly but surely, the manta rays appeared, and I was absolutely shocked at how enormous they were because some were spanning up to 23 feet.
The dive instructors gave us a rule: no touching the mantas. Their skin is covered in a delicate mucus layer that protects them from infections, and human touch can damage this making them vulnerable. However, the manta rays had other plans, as they brushed right up against us while showing us their signature flips —it was crazy.
Manta rays do these flips to feed on plankton, plankton that is attracted to the bright lights set underwater. By flipping and somersaulting through these areas, they efficiently scoop up food into their giant mouths, which was also a crazy sight to see, a manta ray’s mouth wide open coming towards you. Watching them move so gracefully, despite their massive size, was definitely hypnotic.
One of the most mind-blowing things we learned is that manta rays, like sharks, have a special ability to sense electromagnetic fields. The crew told us they are naturally drawn to people with good energy because of this, which made it even more incredible when they stayed with our group of eight almost the entire time. Whether or not that’s scientifically proven, we all felt honored to have these animals choose to be near us.
Going from jumping out of a plane to floating beside manta rays in 24 hours was hands-down one of the craziest experiences of my life. One moment, I was falling through the sky with my heart racing, and the next, I was floating in the peaceful ocean, completely in awe of massive gentle creatures. Experiencing such extreme heights and depths back to back really put into perspective how vast and incredible our world is. If you ever get the chance to do either or both in the same day, do it, you won’t regret it!
