Secret Beach – SarahRuthSeeks

Brian and I went to secret beach snorkeling, it was his first time there and my second. If you recall, my first time snorkeling there felt like a bit of a dud, so I set low expectations for Brian. We went left coming off the beach this time, and were rewarded heartily.

We encountered turtles twice, we’re not entirely sure they were different turtles. You might get sick of my turtle pictures, but it’s kinda like when people have kids and can’t stop posting pictures of them. So here’s some turtle spam.

My proudest capture, beside that first turtle picture, was of this eel.

I think a bit of ignorance is bliss when doing these types of things, because immediately a million thoughts came to my mind like “are they aggressive? Should I ‘run’? What if I get stung by it?” But turns out he’s pretty scared of me and I didn’t see him again once he disappeared. I think this is a Dragon moray eel.

I’ll spam you with more fish/sealife pictures.

The “necklaces” you see around our necks are these waterproof bags

The water was really calm. My only regret was eating stromboli too closely to going, I didn’t digest it well horizontally. I was not nauseous after, though. For some reason it felt like there was a hole in my snorkel (well, there is… but in this case the snorkel was vertical and it still felt like water was getting in). Brian said the same thing, so maybe it was some weird fluke with wind? Hopefully it was a one off.

These posts take an overwhelming time to create/edit. I’ll probably only post pictures of cool new animals I see moving forward. And of course sea turtles.

Ok, just kidding, I’ve only been to two places. Secret Beach on Marine Corps base and Lanikai, the beach right by our apartment. I prefer the one next to our apartment; so far we’ve seen sea turtles every time, we don’t have to drive, and Secret beach was quite barren with fish. Lanikai feels like you’re in the cast of Finding Nemo.

Brian bought a Go Pro previously for his scuba diving in Guam. It’s a really old version, the 4, but it’s still kicking so we brought it out with us today. Right off the bat was a bit “slow”, we tried out a new section where we heard there were turtles, but there were not many fish like we’re used to. However, before long the turtles did show up. We saw one, then a pair. We chased them for a bit back toward where we’ve seen the most fish. You’re supposed to stay 10ft away from them. We did our best once we saw them. There are two videos after the pictures. I’ll save you some time and say you don’t need to watch them and there’s nothing too exciting after the first 20 secs or so.

This video of Brian chasing the turtle might make you dizzy to start but it evens out.

Once we moved back toward Lanikai there were plenty of fish to see. Here’s a small sample. I didn’t realize how far zoomed out the GoPro is, you can’t preview the image on the GoPro so… these are amateur hour. I cropped and zoomed a lot when editing afterward. But will improve!

Finally, you can’t go home without a few selfies.

Shaka is the friendly gesture Hawaiians give each other, and it means “turtle”

The first time we went in Lanikai, I felt INCREDIBLY nauseous afterward. Bizarrely, I haven’t ever really experienced sea sickness. I read up about it, and it can happen if the waves are a bit rocky and you pick your head up a lot (It was my first time, so I was pretty nervous we were in the middle of the ocean a lot when really we were like 20ft from shore… so I kept lifting my head to check for shore and Brian). I have definitely improved, and the second time we went in Lanikai I was fine… the waves were much quieter. Today I felt woozy again, but not as bad, and it was REALLY hot, so I don’t think heat helps. Brian is very helpful in cleaning off the gear and letting me shower and lie down when I get home.

The second time I ever went snorkeling was with Megan at secret beach on the Marine corps base. It’s really really shallow, even out 50 feet or so from the shore. Very calm. The population of fish was very low, but there was a ton of beautiful coral. I think if we went again we would go to the sides. You also should time this correctly to go during high tide. You already should try to find the channels between reefs otherwise you risk hitting them with your knees kicking, and damaging reef is bad. If it’s low tide, It’s almost one way in, one way out. High tide you can sneak over them.

You can see the reefs through the water here, I will try to get a better picture to show what I’m talking about when I say channels, but it’s simply sand flooring between reefs.

Still plenty more places to snorkel and I shall report back with my expert opinions, of course. Also stay tuned for me to convince Brian to get the GoPro 9.

Snorkeling at secret beach redeemed

The definitive guide to snorkeling on Oahu