• We all work toward water safety • Guidebooks and Queen’s Bath • Let there be light We all work toward water safety Mahalo, Lenora of Kaua‘i Underground Guidebook for your support and not promoting Queen’s Bath (“Guide does not
• We all work toward water safety
• Guidebooks and Queen’s Bath
• Let there be light
We all work toward water safety
Mahalo, Lenora of Kaua‘i Underground Guidebook for your support and not promoting Queen’s Bath (“Guide does not support Queen’s Bath,” Letters, Dec. 2).
The Kaua‘i Fire Department Ocean Safety Bureau and Water Safety Task Force have battled for years the good and bad of advertising Kaua‘i’s beauty. We have a long way to go with 10-plus guidebooks and 20-plus magazines. Some support the idea of promoting the beauty while addressing the hazards, while others choose only to advertise.
Our Second Annual Water Safety Conference is in February and one of the workshops is working with print media to help create a minimum standard for promoting water safety in all products and advertisements.
We encourage all guidebook writers, editors, sellers, advertisers, promoters and anyone else interested to attend and be part of the solution. We need to hear the voices of the extremes on the issues so we can arrive at the best possible solutions for all concerned.
Anyone interested in sponsoring, please call Ocean Safety at 241-4984, WSSO Kalani Vierra.
Also I want to thank Alan “King” Kimura for those wonderful words (“None but the brave,” Letters, Dec. 2) about the brave men and women who put their lives on the line every day, Kaua‘i’s firefighters and water safety officers. I have the privilege of being a part of this great team who wake up every day proud to serve this wonderful community. You called it “unselfishness and bravery.” I call it “polishing the badge.” They call it just “another day’s work.”
Aren’t they the best … I think so.
• Robert Westerman, fire chief, Lihu‘e
Guidebooks and Queen’s Bath
This is in regards to Lenore Horowitz’ Dec. 2 letter to the Forum (“Guide does not promote Queen’s Bath,” Letters, Dec. 2) in which she accurately points out that the Kauai Underground Guidebook does not recommend Queen’s Bath (Waimaumau) to visitors.
Thank you and bless you for this and for your real labor of love which includes, as you point out, pages of beach safety information as well as the donation of all your profits to Kaua‘i childrens charities. You and your co-author husband are special Kaua‘i people.
Sadly, it doesn’t always seem that labors of love win out. The current runaway No. 1 best seller for Kaua‘i guidebooks is the Ultimate Kauai Guidebook, and I must take this opportunity to expand the discussion to include it.
Starting on page 24, they whet your appetite with a gorgeous full-page color photo of the lava pool that is called Queen’s Bath, replete with a snorkeler in it. The caption reads “Even a beach with no sand can have something to offer. Queen’s Bath on the North Shore is an example.”
Next, on page 44, there is another very pretty 1/2 page color photo with a father and daughter frolicking in the lava pool and the caption specifies the photo as being of Queen’s Bath.
Page 50 then mentions, in an overall survey of the North Shore: “Another gem is Queen’s Bath. This is a natural pool located on a lava beach.” Hmmm … to call the dangerous walk along 150 yards of openly exposed rough, wet, and slippery lava rock a “lava beach” is quite a deception.
Finally the formal write-up comes on page 101. Highlighting the write-up is the logo of a sparkling gem, and it reads: “If the surf is too high you would never recognize this place as anything special. But at other times, Queen’s Bath is a marvelous pool to swim in.” This continues on for several sentences which do include, I’m pleased to say, some warning remarks. The piece concludes with a street-by-street detail of how to get there (and no visitor would ever get there were it not for this.)
I admit that on a calm day the Waimaumau area is stunning, and the so-called Queen’s Bath itself is a remarkable spot. But until we are foolproof at telling visitors when the conditions are guaranteed calm, we should never, ever mention it as a tourist destination. In fact, we need to go further than that (and many of our terrific concierges do). We need to say to visitors, “You know that area your guidebook advertises called Queen’s Bath? Do not go there, you might die.”
Our Task Force, working with the county, is aiming to establish a Safety Seal of Approval for Kauai Guidebooks (there are over a dozen) and other visitor-oriented publications. As of today, the Ultimate Kauai Guidebook need not apply.
• Monty Downs, George Simpson, Co-chairs, Kauai Water Safety Task Force
Let there be light
Salt Pond Beach Park parking lot needs lights. On a busy night when there are family parties or other celebrations where young children are present, they (the children) run around the park freely.
The parents are always watching their children on their (the children) whereabouts. However, even under watchful eyes the children tend to escape and run in these dark areas (parking lot).
There are a lot of young teenagers to adults who drive through the parking lot as if they were driving on the highway.
So, let’s light up the parking lot area before someone gets seriously hurt, raped or killed.
• Howard Tolbe, ‘Ele‘ele
