The annual statewide ocean safety conference will be held on O‘ahu tomorrow at the Queens Hospital conference center. This conference rotates being hosted by each of the counties — and when it’s Kaua‘i’s turn every few years, there’s quite a
The annual statewide ocean safety conference will be held on O‘ahu tomorrow at the Queens Hospital conference center. This conference rotates being hosted by each of the counties — and when it’s Kaua‘i’s turn every few years, there’s quite a lot of work involved, trust me. This year most of our Kaua‘i representatives can breathe relatively easily and only have to show up. We are, however, gearing up to host this year’s national United States Lifeguard Association conference — more on that in the future.
Two of our contingent do have some work to do since they have a central role in this year’s state conference. Kalani Vierra will be delivering Kaua‘i’s annual State of the County report, including the good and the bad (as do all the islands’ supervisors), and Fire Chief Robert Westerman will be on a four-person panel which will discuss and describe how things go when a county’s Ocean Safety Division is assimilated by the Fire Department. (A quick version: serious personnel and logistics growing pains but overall very, very positive in certain settings, including Kaua‘i.)
O‘ahu’s ocean safety supervisor, Ralph Goto, conceived of this conference some 19 years ago, and he has kept it going ever since. I believe we’ve only omitted one over the years. This is one of the many accomplishments which has led to his being widely acknowledged as a world leader in ocean safety. The conferences are first of all always inspirational, as the 100 or so participants get to mingle with the ocean safety professionals and advocates from all four counties and we get to touch bases and to hear about each others’ struggles and successes.
Second, they offer a great opportunity for each county to learn and assimilate techniques and advancements that have taken place in other counties. The biggest example for us is when the O‘ahu North Shore lifeguards brought their JetSki/rescue-sled set-up over to Kaua‘i when we hosted the conference back in 1993. Because of that we have had our own JetSki rescue program and more than a few very grateful people (and families) are alive today because of it. There are many other examples. Kaua‘i, in turn, has contributed a lot by demonstrating our determination to improve. For years we’ve been faced with having the highest county per-capita drowning rate in the state, and probably in the United States, and our attempt to tackle this — via many people’s oustanding efforts in both the public and private sectors — has been an inspiration and a lesson to the other counties. Specifically, our kauaiexplorer.com Web site, our Kauai Visitors’ Bureau’s progressive attitude, our county government’s committment to program development, our WAVE project and our Bridges of Hawai‘i crisis support team are guiding beacons for other counties, states and even countries.
Third, they introduce us to ocean safety people and ideas from other parts of the world. Our keynote speaker this year will be the head of ocean safety in San Diego. Other speakers have come from many parts of the United States and also from Australia (whose largely-volunteer lifeguard program sets a standard that no one has been able to touch). In addition, Ralph Goto has opportunities to speak abroad at international conferences — one of those tough parts of his job — and he comes back with mind-boggling reports. In Bangladesh, for example, drownings are counted by the hundreds of thousands per year. And did you know that the worldwide No. 1 cause for loss of life in natural disasters is drowning? This adds a certain perspective to our 10-12 drownings per year, but it doesn’t diminish the suffering that each one entails and that drives our task force’s efforts.
Being inspired by the conference will be the easy part. The hard part is keeping the coals glowing for another year and for years thereafter — first and foremost our lifeguards with their binoculars and training on our beaches, and then ourselves and our visitor industry workers in our hotel lobbies and at our activities desks, day in and day out. I always find that I come back to you and count on you to be the grunt workers, the people who are on the alert for a moment in which to spread the “Enjoy our beautiful island and … exercise caution” message, Kaua‘i’s own special life-saving message of aloha.
• Monty Downs is an emergency room doctor at Wilcox Memorial Hospital. His column appears every other Wednesday.
