Swimming with dolphins

Slipangle

So I'm planning our honeymoon to Hawaii. We're planning to start and end in Oahu, I have 3 days in Maui planned with the theme being hiking and seeing waterfalls and the Halekala summit and we'll go to the big Island with the highlight being volcano national park. Last day is pearl harbor. 

So I ask my wife if she wants to do anything on oahu, anything she wants to not do or if she just wants a day that's casual or relaxed.  She says she wants dolphins, and as she tends to not voice opinions much, I take this as something she really wants. 

That would be that as I read it's an amazing experience, but I panic if my head goes underwater. The idea of having a snorkel to breathe instead of holding my breath sounds a little better but the idea of being in 60 foot deep water is a bit terrifying. 

Yeah, so looking to see what anyone has to say about that. I'm weighing options like seeing about trying some snorkeling in hotel pool beforehand or staying on the boat.

Angeline

You can't scuba dive unless you get certified, certainly not to 60 feet, so presumably you'd be able to get over the claustrophobia in a swimming pool back home during classes, before you ever leave for your trip.

Slipangle

Well it's not scuba diving, these things are snorkeling. From what I was reading it sounds like they have you wear a floatation belt . And a tracking device. 

Mind you I'm of course aware that overcoming fears like this is great for adrenaline and dhv reasons. 

Angeline

So you'd stay on the surface? I misunderstood the 60' deep comment. Maybe just some comprehensive swimming lessons at your local Y, where they help you overcome fears would help.

amblrgirl

We did a swimming with dolphins excursion on our honeymoon cruise and we never went underwater. There are probably lots of options for swimming with dolphins, as it's a pretty common tourist attraction. Look for one that works for you. 

Tennee

Go buy a snorkel and mask combo.   Get in the bathtub.  Place face - just barely - in water.   Repeat.  Slowly get head immersed.  Repeat.   Then go to pool.  Repeat.

george

Awesome.  Congrats!!!!

Practice helps.  It's just getting used to it.  That's all.  Take it slow.  

The outfits will require a snorkling vest - bulky and not supercool looking but it's impossible to sink.  So the depth won't matter (except to the dolphins).  Usually, you can't even get your head underwater if you try.  And everyone has to wear them.  The guides will be there to make sure everyone behaves around the dolphins.  And worst case, the dolphins will save you

to prevent your mask fogging spit in your mask and swish it around woth your fingers, then wash it out.  Presto - no fogging.

put sun screenon the backs of your legs.

if you have a pool nearby and can borrow a mark just practice with your face in the water with a snorkle, then sitting in the steps underwater holding your breath (or better, making a slow stream of bubbles from your lips).  Everyone starts this way.

Trick is just go slow.  

george

Oh.  Very important, before the trip, to remind your wife that sex prevents sea sickness....

MissD

We didn't dive deep in the water at all, mostly snorkelled on the surface.

I'd recommend practice snorkelling on a shallow beach first so you get used to the sensation of having your face in the water...

Like_Water

We've done the dolphin swim thing, and there was no submersion required.  It was a lot of fun, actually.  Our "encounter" was in chest-deep water.  The dolphin trainer was able to summon the dolphin(s) with hand signals, slaps on the surface of the water and so on.  After a few minutes of petting the dolphins and watching a few tricks, each person got to hang onto the dorsal fin of a dolphin for a swim of about 50 meters or so, out and back.  Still in shallow water, no underwater activity at all and it was great fun.

You can definitely do this.

Slipangle

So this planning has given some interesting insight into myself - and in particular how I have changed because of MMSL. I'll get back to that point. 

There seems to be 2 different categories of dolphin experience, captive and wild. With the captive experience you're in a more controlled setting and you're going to have physical contact and interaction with a dolphin. It's in a man made pool, and you can probably interact with dolphins while standing on your feet. Prices are in the same range although there are more options in captivity, but generally captivity is a little more expensive. Some options are a lot more expensive. But for around  $200-$300 per person in captivity you're getting a 30 minute experience. 

There are 2 places with captive dolphins in Oahu. One has an option to have dolphins pull and push, the other says they no longer offer that out of concern for the safety of the guests and animals. That is a big hell no for me because I don't expect in my lifetime to be comfortable with the idea of water shoved at my face, and I am sure dolphins would pick up my discomfort. Wife might go for it though. 

On the other hand, the experience in the wild ranges from 120 to 200 and is a 3 to 3.5 hour experience  (A 3 hour tour? LOL ) No guarantees but the sights say there's a 90 to 95% likelihood of an encounter, and you could be swimming with a pod of up to a hundred dolphins. Also these experiences mostly have a stop with tropical fish, sea turtles and whale watching in winter months  (we're going in January ).

So getting back to the original point, the encounter in the wild has more appeal to me. Before I'd have preferred the safety of staying in my comfort zone with the dolphins in captivity, but now pushing my boundaries is something I look upon as a goal rather than seeing risks as a thing to avoid. 

And what's really cool, my wife is more concerned about this being an experience we have together (i.e. if we go in the ocean will i get in the water with her) than the particulars of her interactions with the dolphins. 

In terms of practice, we fly in to Oahu from Michigan with a 4 pm arrival, we're keeping that day clear for recovery from the flight but I might get some beach or hotel pool practice time. More likely though will be in 2 weeks,  we're taking the kids to a water park and getting 2 nights so we can get a free Hawaii night through hotels.com. There will be scuba practice opportunity then. Also I might have business travel that will present hotel pool practice opportunity. Outdoor pool isn't happening in Michigan even if it is warm because pools have been closed, and my bathtub is less long than standard so it isn't really practical. 

Tennee

Let's analyze the actual root cause of this:  "I panic if my head goes underwater."

Like, at all?  Like, at the pool or lake you don't go under?  Or is it a confined-space thing, as in something over your head or on your face?  Or is it "I can't breathe"?  Or loss of control?  Or E, All Of The Above?

You have to demystify this.  Take the fear out of it.  I did SCUBA a million years ago, when I was young and immortal - loved it.  Much later in life, when I realized that I was in fact very much a mortal, I did the Fire Service thing.  Wearing a SCBA pack can be very scary, especially in pressure situations.  Its very confining.  Its a pressure situation, since the building is kinda on fire.  I'm not in control of shit other than me.   I might die if I panic.  Paging @ffp20 @NeverSleptOnTheCouch for how they handled this with their Newbies who have trouble.  We'd get them comfortable with the mask, the pack, have an Intro before they ever completed that training Mod.  Pretty soon, you don it with full gear, spend some time just regulating your breathing.  Then we'd have you breathing air while doing simple motions - walk, climb steps, pick up equipment.  Then you're laddering the side of the building, executing a climb and lock, deploying a roof ladder, doing a mock extraction, etc.  Crawl, walk, toddle, run. 

I would say you should demystify this now, before you're 'out there' and in a pressure situation you created.  Call a dive shop, and y'all go get your basic PADI Open Water.   They have a deal with an indoor pool.  Even if you live in rural po-dunk, I betcha someone has a dive shop and a pool, you just might have to drive some.  

Don't go out there unprepared and create your own pressure situation.  Captain this, Captain. 

LL80

Just FYI: I've done the "in the wild" dolphin experience. Pretty reliable, saw plenty of dolphins. They know when they come down the coast every day, drop you in ahead of them, you watch them swim by, get back in the boat and repeat a few times. Then at the end, as you said, they bring you somewhere else to snorkel for as long as you want. I was one of the last people back in the boat there but plenty of people only swam around for a few minutes. You'll be able to get away with sticking your face in the water for very short periods of time. The dolphins go by in maybe 30 seconds or so.

Also, you can usually get better deals once you get there as those trips are discounted unless you had your eye on some specific one, but to me they all looked about the same. When I went we booked it the afternoon before and saved about $30 or so per person.

NeverSleptOnTheCouch

yes Tenee,

perhaps I have something helpful to add. Having grown up on the water, masks and water were just natural, but I can appreciate the OP’s concerns.

regarding acclimation, there is nothing like ‘seat time’.

In the fs, new members with ambitions to work interior after a state fire academy program, once  after being cleared by a doctor for lung capacity and general fitness, we would have them wear scba frequently about the station, reading, cleaning tools, walking about, control their breathing, till it was very boring, before ramping up activities, darkness,  and techniques. It seemed effective.

I would recommend, when the wife is not around, wear the mask and snorkel around the house for some evenings, for increasingly longer times.

Make supper, wax the car, vacuum, take a dump, mow the lawn if you dare. Take a shower.

Get some time looking though the mask, your peripheral vision compromised, and breathing through a tube, till you just don’t care.

Then, move on to pool time.

Angeline

LMAO who else is picturing the bathroom scene? 

Just yank it off if you feel a cardiac event coming on. You don't want to make the Daily Mail. 

NeverSleptOnTheCouch

Heh, seat time....

Crashaxe

2 things, @Slipangle

It's good that you are doing this soon, as the Federales want to stop dolphin encounters , most likely because people are having too much fun. The USG motto being as usual, "We're not happy until you aren't happy." 

Feds Want to Ban Swimming With Hawaii Dolphins

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/feds-want-ban-swimming-hawaii-dolphins-n637031


Also, I can highly recommend this dolphin experience on the Big Island: http://www.hiltonwaikoloavillage.com/resort-experiences/dolphin-quest  ;

It is done in shallow water, and is really entertaining and educational. My kids have done it twice, and I have done it once.

I've seen dolphins when scuba diving off Lanai, Oahu, Molokini, Florida, and the Virgin Islands and the captive dolphin experience is hands down much more entertaining.

MissD

Not b/c people are happy but b/c - to play devil's advocate 

Sometimes the people feel:

a) they're not domestic animals and their behaviour, while can be tamed somewhat, is never completely under control - U.S. ridiculous lawsuits. 

b) not natural to keep them penned up/on display purely for human pleasure.

(Note: I've done swam with the off the coast of Cancun, and it was completely underwhelming... I just felt sad for the dolphins when I left).

Slipangle

Cool. Another part of my thinking on preferring wild over captive is that I see I can do captive dolphin experiences in Orlando and that's more accessible on future vacations. The kids probably had their last disneyworld trip this summer that they're going to get as kids, next time we're in Orlando they'll be teens and universal studios will probably be more their speed and we'll actually have a rental car so we can get around to other sites. 

Around 30 years ago I was in space camp. We were to do a team exercise where we had to assemble a pyramid structure underwater. Just holding breath, no equipment. I couldn't participate because I couldn't stay under more than 5 seconds.

Around 8 years ago we went on a cruise. Not the first I've observed this, but I looked into the water and thought damn that's a long way down. My concern is more like a heights fear.

Mind you, same concerns kept me off waterslides, and I'm a different person now and I've done waterslides, so I'm sure the snorkel and flotation equipment should work fine for comfort with doing this. 

And I wear a cpap mask daily so I'm used to masks for breathing, I know it's different but I'm sure I can adjust. 

Now it's just a matter of finding some place I can find a selection of snorkel gear. Being off season, the local sporting goods stores don't have much selection. Planning to try a scuba place  but it's not open today or tomorrow. 

Slipangle

Crap, got mask and snorkel but it didn't occur to me that I can't wear my glasses. What are my options besides everything being blurt or contacts? 

Tennee

Slipangle said:

Crap, got mask and snorkel but it didn't occur to me that I can't wear my glasses. What are my options besides everything being blurt or contacts? 

They make optical masks - ask the dive shop.  Cha-Ching.   If you have contacts, I'd go that route.