We’ll complete our series on “Ocean Safety and the Private Sector: Lodgings” with a short review and a few additional comments. We’ve discussed resort hotels, particularly ones with beach frontage, and we have recommended that they arrange a consultation with
We’ll complete our series on “Ocean Safety and the Private Sector: Lodgings” with a short review and a few additional comments. We’ve discussed resort hotels, particularly ones with beach frontage, and we have recommended that they arrange a consultation with Keith Cabral, head of Lifeguard Services at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. Also that they purchase and distribute beach safety brochures to all their guests; slip the Daily Ocean Conditions report (from kauaiexplorer.com) under everyone’s door each morning (or otherwise distribute the report); and sign up for Pat Durkin’s WAVE project. We’ve discussed the concierges and the activities desks staff that are in the lobbies and what they can do (and in many cases have been doing, a la Pleasant Holidays’ desks) to help our visitors avoid catastrophy.
However, less than half of our visitors stay in resort hotels. Many stay in condos/time-shares, others stay overnight on the ship before they venture out onto our highways and beaches, others stay in Vacation Rentals, and still others stay in Bed and Breakfasts or in their own families’ or friends’ homes. Although a number of the time-share properties do have activities desks in theircheck-in area, our non-resort visitors may have very little contact with concierges or activity desk staff — so how can we reach them with our “Hey, have a great time and please exercise some caution” message?
Well, my thinking is that this is where our citizens’ “heightened awareness of the ocean safety issue” factor comes in. This is where we come in. By each of us keeping it on our priority list of important things to do, we can help give our visitors a chance to not make un-informed and potentially catastrophic decisions as they prepare to enjoy their beach days. A great example of having this priority is the proprietor of a vacation rental called Hokulele Hale. This couple has linked www.kauaiexplorer.com onto all their communications not only with their own clients, but also with other vacation rental propietors with whom they interact at business meetings or in e-mailings. Hokulele Hale, you get an A+ for aloha. In order to highlight what effect this link can have, I submit this quote from a recent viewer of KX (this was e-mailed to the KX forum): “Our family will be visiting Kaua‘i for the first time and your Web site really settled our nerves and revved us up about our upcoming visit. The laptop will definitely come with us now, as your beach information is incredible. We are also very impressed by your staff’s interactive feedback in the forums. Thanks for all you do,” The Harris Family, Calgary.
Ocean safety Web site addresses magnetized onto the fridge; a county ocean-safety brochure on the coffee table; I’m sure our propietors can come up with nice ideas like this and can share them around.
It’s challenging to maintain this heightened awareness. Even speaking for myself, if a period of time goes by and it seems that no preventable ocean catastrophe has occured for a while and the Lifeguards are in place and doing their job well and our local surfers are exercising their invaluable vigilance at our unguarded beaches, I sometimes let down my guard and figure we’re finally getting a handle on our challenge. Inevitably, however, a catastrophe occurs that again appalls us and wakes us up and makes us remember that as hosts, and in fact as beckoners to Kaua‘i, we have to try and help our visitors have a clue about what our mid-ocean swells and currents can inflict if you don’t exercise caution. True, some people won’t accept any advice no matter what, but that doesn’t exempt us from being proactive on this issue.
So … the holiday season is here and visitors are joyfully escaping from their harsh winter climates on the Mainland — and the famous Hawaiian north swell season is here. This nice picture, however, can all come together as a “perfect storm” set-up for a family-shattering catastrophy, and as we enjoy our holidays I ask that we all keep up our vigilance in whatever manner or medium or arena we have available to us, and that we find moments and opportunities to make a potentially life-saving difference for a family. These moments don’t have to be dramatic, they can be as simple as a quiet and friendly word or two. We probably won’t ever be given the reward of knowing just who that family was that didn’t suffer disaster because of such a moment, but I believe that their guardian angel knows, and that he/she thanks us in his/her own way.
• Monty Downs is an emergency room doctor at Wilcox Memorial Hospital. His column appears every other Wednesday.
