Electric Beach

Everyone likes some crazy underwater pictures taken with a cheesy cheap underwater camera from the pharmacy, don't you think? My lovely tour guide, Tim, took me snorkeling at this little local spot known as Electric Beach while in Hawaii.

Tim works for a fishing charter and dive boat operation. He'd come home from work day after day and tell me about how he had to rescue people from this spot. Electric beach seemed less than appealing and quite dangerous to me, yet he insisted that I go.

I'm glad that I did. For real. Some of the neatest things of nature that I've ever seen.

Electric Beach, also known as Kahe Point Beach, is located on the west shore of Oahu. An electric plant is located directly across the street from this beach access point. The electric plant has giant pipes that suck cool water into the plant, use it to process electricity, and then shoot 80 degree water back out into the Pacific Ocean. The rapidly heated warm water attracts sea life of all shapes and forms.

Some fish we spotted during our dive into the 20-foot deep waters were parrot fish, damsel fish (like Dori from Finding Nemo), unicorn fish and the Hawaiian state fish (that i'm not even going to begin to try and spell). We spotted green sea turtles and polka-dotted eagle rays, too.

This is what the power plant looks like. I suppose that little plant can supply power to much of the island. Crazy, right? & It all revolves around the ocean.

This spot can be a dangerous place to dive due to all of the boat traffic and strong currents. The currents, that are emmensly enjoyable on a cloudy chilly (still 80 degrees) day in Oahu,  are crazy heavy. The underwater pipes from the plant shoot out tremendous amount of rapid flowing heated water. If you get caught in the dismissed water you could be shot out to sea in a matter or minutes. Hence the need for rescuing people from this dive spot.

Such a neat experience and not nearly as scary as I thought it was going to be. Have any cool underwater camera stories to share?