What a Thrill in Hawaii

Wow! This was so cool! Awesome! These are just a few of the words that were spoken by the people on our boat after coming down from a climb to the sky in a parasail in Hawaii. There is just something special about parasailing above the Pacific Ocean. It's like skydiving but without the fear of falling . You can see the dolphins in the water below you. You can see your hotel from the sky, a view only seen by airplane or helicopter before this.

We were picked up by a van at our hotel. This was nice so we didn't have to bother with finding a parking spot at the marina. There were a few other riders we picked up on the way to the docks. A total of 6 people were going to share our experience with us today. As we got to know each other on the ride , we soon realized that we were already at the marina. We were instructed to wait by the side of the boat until the captain came to greet us. We boarded the boat and were instructed on how the harness and life vest were to be worn. My husband and I took a challenge that was offered when we were departing the dock area. The captain asked if we wanted to take the "Extreme" ride. Well of course now he had our attention. What was the "extreme" ride we asked. If we wanted to, we could have our parasail rise up to 700 feet! Awesome! Of course we had to try it. We have been on other parasailing adventures before but never that high up. So we strapped ourselves into the tandem harness and off we go. As we continued to climb to the 700 feet limit, we watched our new friends in the boat below slowly get smaller and smaller. We were pretty high up and they were far far away. We dangled our feet and laughed. Almost at the same time we said to each other that it was so quiet up there. It really is peaceful and almost like there is no sound but your voices. Just as we were enjoying the view, our descent started. But it was too soon for the ride to be over with. A ride at that height should last about 15 minutes. It seemed that we were not up that long yet. But the captain had other plans for us. He brought us down just enough to dip our toes into the cool waters. Then he increased the speed of the boat and off we went back up to the sky. He slowed down the boat again, this time he dunked us in the ocean completely. How refreshing! Now if you don't want to be dunked in the water, just tell the captain when you get on board. They will not do anything to scare you or make you do something you don't want to do. For us, we loved it. Soon it was time to head back to the boat and give someone else a turn. We all took pictures for each other when we went up in the air. They also have a camera on board where they will take pictures and then sell you the roll. Convenient if you don't want to chance getting your camera wet. We had a great time and enjoyed watching everyone else have fun too. You could tell the "newbies", they were the ones screaming on the way up ! After we got off the boat the van took us all back to our hotels. It was a wonderful activity and worth the money. If you don't want to parasail you can ride along with your friends and family as a non-flying passenger.