In 1985 when Linda and I visited Kevin in Hawaii, one of the things I was especially looking forward to was snorkeling in Hanauma Bay.  A large reef a hundred yards or so out protects the beach at Hanauma Bay and it is calm and fairly shallow with a lot of fish swimming among the colorful coral and rock formations.   Often the water is only a foot or so deep and you must swim in the deeper channels.  Anyway ... Kevin and I had been snorkeling around for about 30 minutes when he swam up to me and said: “Dad, follow me out beyond the reef – it’s really cool out there.”  I was a little apprehensive but Kevin assured me it would be OK, he had been out there many times.  So he took off and I followed.  As we approached the reef, the water became very shallow in most places, and we kept to the channels.  The seaward side of the reef was a vertical drop. I don’t know how deep the water was but it was deeper than I could see – it looked black down there.  The channels ran out just before we got to the edge and Kevin used his hands to keep his body from scraping on the coral and I followed his lead about 3 feet behind him.  The water was about 18” deep.  Just as my head and upper body cleared the edge and I was noticing how vertical it was and how deep the water was, a wave broke over me and my snorkel came apart.  I sucked in a lung full of water and became disoriented as I tried to get some air.  The wave also washed me back on top of the reef.  I was so concerned about air that I didn’t notice I was getting cut up pretty bad on the coral.  Kevin immediately noticed my plight – he swam up, grabbed my upper arm, and dragged me out into the deep water away from the reef.  He held me up until I could regain my breath.  There is no doubt that I would either have drowned or been seriously injured if he hadn’t acted so quickly.

After I regained my breath and composure, we decided that we should head back to the beach.  I had lost one of my fins and neither of us was in the mood to continue our adventure.  We decided not to chance crossing the reef again, and began the long swim around the reef with Kevin in the lead and me 5 or 6 feet behind.  As we swam along, I settled down and actually began to enjoy the swim – my pace slowed and I again began to watch the sights.  I soon noticed a long line of fish following us and briefly wondered what they were doing, until I noticed a trail of blood coming from my legs.  I immediately began to recall every shark story I had ever heard and picked up my pace considerably.  We eventually made it to the beach where my injuries, although bloody, turned out to be superficial.  Kevin felt so bad about the incident that I felt bad that he felt so bad.  After I cleaned up and bandaged my wounds we left Hanauma Bay and continued our vacation.

My most vivid memory was Kevin grabbing me – my thought was “My God he’s strong!”  His grip felt like a machine and he plucked me off the reef like I was a child rather than overweight 6 footer.