Oahu in the winter - Swim at your own risk!

I came to Oahu thinking that I was going to enjoy the warm waters of the island.

I was very disappointed.

Oahu in winter is a surfing Mecca. The North Shore hosts some of the most prestigious surf competitions in the world. The north northwest winter swell can generate monstrous waves.

Surf is fun to watch. But I did not come to the North Shore only to watch a surf competition. I wanted to catch a great wave myself.

The problem was that signs “No-Swimming Advisory” were everywhere on the North Shore. What a bummer!

I am doing fairly well at bodysurfing large waves. I thought these no swimming advisories were for the faint of heart. There's nothing I can't handle.

I put on my rash guard and jumped right in the water.

As soon as I entered the water, enormous waves started to pound me relentlessly. I mean these weren’t waves, they were mini tsunamis. But that’s not the worst part.

The worst part was the massive rip current which pulled me away from the shore. I panicked quite a bit, as I had absolutely no control in the water, on top of being pounded by the waves.

Fortunately I remembered a precious lesson I learned in Australia ten years ago: when caught in a rip current, don’t ever swim against it. In fact, people who attempt to swim against rip currents drown. The only way to survive is to swim parallel to the shore until you are out of the current.

All in all I stayed 10 minutes in the water. I spent 9 minutes just trying to get back to shore.

So now I’ve added rule number 3: respect no-swim advisories.