LIHUE — Standing in front of lifeguards, firemen and other first responders, Hawaii News Now anchorman Keahi Tucker told a story about saving a woman’s life at Shipwrecks Beach in Poipu.
He was bodysurfing near the elderly woman, who was using a body board in the waves and suddenly disappeared. People started looking for her and it was Tucker who spotted her, deep underwater.
“It’s amazing how so much of what you learned in your childhood sticks with you,” he remembered. “All the sudden I was doing a textbook rescue.”
When they finally got to the beach, she was surrounded by several generations of family.
“She looked rough,” he said. “She ended up hurting her spine and was paralyzed in what I believe was a long-term injury.”
He said that experience has stuck with him and pointed out that’s what lifeguards do daily — they are at the beaches and in the water, saving sometimes multiple people in a shift.
Tucker said memories of those experiences are hard to shake.
“Being a lifeguard is a profession that requires mental toughness. You’re there for people’s worst moments,” he said. “Mental health is real and important and can’t be ignored.”
Tucker was the keynote speaker on day two of the 2018 Ocean Safety and Drowning Prevention Conference during Hawaii’s statewide Beach Safety Week.
Discussions on research and factors that cause snorkeling drownings, the physiology of drowning, and snorkeling safety suggestions closed out the conference, with an ocean safety clinic throughout the afternoon hosted by Duane Desoto.
The theme of the conference was “Kou Kuleana — My Responsibility” and speakers emphasized personal safety, teaching keiki about the ocean, and encouraging lifeguards.
Tucker was born and raised on Kauai and graduated from Waimea High School before moving on to University of Hawaii at Manoa.
A surfer since he was a child, he says he’s lucky to be able to “surf during the day and do the news at night,” even if he sometimes is only in the water for 20 minutes.
During all of that accumulated time in the water, he said he’s had help from lifeguards a few times, though his pride maintains he may have survived without it.
Two of those rescues happened at Jacko’s beach on Oahu. In one instance, Tucker broke his leash and in the other instance, a fellow surfer broke his leash and Tucker stayed with him until help arrived.
“I want to publicly thank you because I’ve been saved three times,” he said. “Yours is a noble profession and it’s a service to others.”
He encouraged the state’s lifeguards to stay strong as a unit, to lobby government agencies for the protections and opportunities they need to keep doing their jobs, and to keep their heads up.
“It comes down to going to work with the right attitude to help people,” Tucker said. “Keep your patience and sense of humor.”
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Jessica Else, environment reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 and at jelse@thegardenisland.com.
