MAKAPU'U — It's become apparent that fun isn't limited to the ballpark in Hawaii Winter Baseball.

League chairman Duane Kurisu treated the managers, coaches, field staff and their families Saturday to an adventure at Sea Life Park, a marine mammal interactive park. They took part in different activities that allowed them to interact with the dolphins.

"Any time you have a chance to swim with the dolphins — which is not going to come around very often — it's amazing," said Waikiki BeachBoys pitching coach Jeff Ware, who is from the New York Yankees organization.

Ware was with a group that participated in what the park calls its Royal Dolphin Swim. Two dolphins allow the participant to grab their dorsal fins and ride with them for about 15 yards. In another maneuver, each dolphin pushed the participant by his or her feet across the same distance, lifting them so that their ankles are nearly at the surface.

"I came up almost to my ankles," Ware said. "It's amazing."

Sea Life Park is the only place in the United States that allows this type of riding with dolphins, said Ron Hee, director of sales and marketing for the park.

In another activity, called Dolphin Adventure, participants get to ride a single dolphin. The participants wait on one end of the holding tank and wait for the dolphin, which swims inverted so that the person grabs the two pectoral fins for the ride.

"The scary part is waiting for them to get to you," said Aaron Holbert, the North Shore Honu's hitting coach from the Cleveland Indians organization. "It's the anticipation of the whole ride starting."

This was Holbert's second time at Sea Life Park. He went a few weeks earlier with his wife, who had to return to the Mainland before Saturday's scheduled outing.

"I just wanted her to experience what I was experiencing, so we went ahead and came out early on," Holbert said.

Because young children also take part, there are varying degrees of activities. CaneFires hitting coach Chris Truby and his wife, Veronica, each carried one of their 3-year-old twin daughters in waist-deep water so the girls could touch the dolphin. The activity is called Dolphin Encounter.

"They didn't have (interactive events) before," said Truby, a 1992 Damien Memorial graduate, referring to when he visited Sea Life Park as a youngster.

This was the second field trip for the group this season. Earlier, Kurisu arranged a day-long trip to the Big Island. Among the places they visited was Kilauea, so at least they had an understanding of where the vog that covered O'ahu a couple weeks ago came from.

"The biggest part about it is getting together and the fellowship," said CaneFires pitching coach Blaine Beatty, of the Baltimore Orioles' organization. "That's what it's all about."

One person who really appreciated the outing at Sea Life Park was Honu manager Kevin Boles, of the Boston Red Sox organization. With the Pacific Ocean on one side and the cliffs of Makapu'u on the other, it looked like, well, paradise.

"I thought our job was good," he said, noticing his surroundings. "I can't imagine working here everyday."