First of all, can you land a plane with one engine?? We want to know if you would be a hero...(-;

I used to love swimming right there at Waikiki beach. I of course love going out and playing in the waves, but as I recall they have a cement pond(remember Jethro) right on the beach with salt water in it for lap swimming. As for lessons, that kind of depends on where you are starting at, ground 0 or sub 2;00 100 guy...

I'm not sure there's a better place to do OWS than Ala Moana Beach Park. It's basically like a giant pool.

If you're just looking to hammer out 2k+ without having to sight much then yeah. If you actually want to be able to see more than 4 feet below you, then no. For Hawaii standards, Ala Moana is a toilet bowl.

Well, the Waikiki Roughwater Swim course is right there. Part of tri history right there.
Get in a good 2.4 mile swim and a jog.

Ironic, I was in Waikiki last week. I swam laps in the "enclosed" Waikiki beach area as well as in the non-protected area (off the beach in front of Dukes).
Both were great areas to swim in open water. Much more work than the lake swimming I'm used to.
As an aside, it was awesome swimming in the open ocean, especially when I looked down and saw a huge sea turtle swimming under me!!!!

I do the same thing. I often have a long (4-5hour) layover in HNL on my way back from Asia on Friday mornings. I jump in a cab to the Hilton Village and swim at Kahanamoku Beach Park. I jump in the Hilton pool afterwards as a nice treat. The only issue in my case is that I have luggage, etc with me so what I try to do is line up a hair cut with my trips. If I schedule a hair cut with the Hilton Village Spa (not supercuts cheap but not too bad as this is not a 5 star spa) then I get a nicely needed trim as well as full use of their spa facilities (which honestly are a joke... so don't expect to be impressed) which gives me a locker, shower, place to shave and clean up before heading back to the airport for my flight to the mainland. I usually just leave my carry on luggage with the people at the front desk of the spa and they are always super helpful. With the cab/uber + hair cut it isn't he cheapest swim in the world but it is better than sitting around the airport and an hour+ swim with some amazing wildlife below you is a nice treat after a long week in Asia.

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Team Zoot