Sandy Beach

We spent a couple of days hanging out at Sandy Beach.  Sandy Beach is on the Leeward side of the island, just north of Hanauma Bay.  The ridge in the backdrop is Koko Crater, the formative dormant volcano.  This beach has really amazing waves - very strong, rough, dramatic, almost always a barrel.  Not a popular surf spot because the waves break really close to the shore.  It is popular for body boarding, skim boarding, and boogie boarding.  Because the surf is so dangerous there are very few children on the beach... it's just too dangerous.

It's really hard to describe how alive this water is - how dynamic the surf - how crushing these waves are.  Try to imagine as you flip through the photos.  I didn't do too much swimming - neither did Matthew.  It was like getting beat up constantly!  But a great atmosphere and the surf is mesmerizing. Also, note the rain off in the distance - it was a constant threat during the week.

This is a view of the shore looking south.  Do you see the vertical spray of water?  That is the 'blowhole' that we didn't see in full force on our initial driving tour of the island.  This week the conditions were perfect and a tremendous burst of water shot through the rock every 5 minutes.

The walk down the beach is really nice a varied, with a diversity of plant life, coral, and volcanic rock outcoppings.  Most of these photos were taken right before sunset on our visits to the beach.

There were some spots appropriate for surfing - the waves breaking far off shore.  You just can't ride them in too far because their are rocks at the coast.