LIHU‘E — When Kilauea resident Dr. Michael Ancharski was at the end of his fitness run one afternoon last month, little did he know that a little ocean exercise cross-training was in his immediate future. Ancharski was at the Ka‘aka‘aniu
LIHU‘E — When Kilauea resident Dr. Michael Ancharski was at the end of his fitness run one afternoon last month, little did he know that a little ocean exercise cross-training was in his immediate future.
Ancharski was at the Ka‘aka‘aniu (Larsen’s Beach) overlook when he saw and heard a young boy running on the beach and screaming for help, according to details relayed via e-mail to The Garden Island by Dr. Monty Downs of the Kaua‘i Ocean Safety Task Force.
Ancharski, a naturopathic physician with offices in Kilauea and Lihu‘e, ran down to the beach to investigate.
“The boy’s mother, father and sister had been grabbed and swept out by the infamous Larsen’s rip, and were in dire straits,” Downs said in his e-mail.
Ka‘aka‘aniu does not have a lifeguard, but it does have a community-donated rescue tube with instructions on how to use it.
That tube would come in mighty handy, as Ancharski would use it to retrieve all three family members in a dramatic, multi-faceted rescue.
In a telephone interview Wednesday, Ancharski said he borrowed fins from the boy, scolded himself for not carrying his cell phone with him (so he couldn’t call for help), grabbed the rescue tube, and went for it.
“Mike grabbed the rescue tube that has been stationed on the beach, and he headed out into the rip,” Downs said in his e-mail.
“He yelled to the father to relax and allow the current to take him out, then he gained control of the mother and daughter, who were being banged against the reef.
“He got them to grab onto the rescue tube and he pulled them to a safe zone on the reef,” Downs said. “The son on the beach was then able to get the two safely to shore.
“Mike then headed out to the father with the rescue tube, allowing himself to be shot out by the rip. By the time he got to the father they were both tired, and they hung onto the tube for a while, regaining their strength,” said Downs, a Wilcox Memorial Hospital emergency-room physician.
“They then swam themselves parallel to shore until they found a way to get back over the reef and into shore.”
Ancharski said in the telephone interview that both men held onto the tube, kicked into shore, and both had fins.
He said he has used the donated rescue tubes to make saves before, including one a year ago, and another at Larsen’s around two years ago where he wasn’t able to save a husband on his honeymoon, but was able to rescue the woman who was pregnant at the time.
Ancharski said his wife gets mad at him for risking his own safety to help others. He said he typically runs in the area, and swims at Larsen’s, as part of his fitness regimen.
Ancharski said that, while many of the guide books warn of a rip current at one end of the beach, there is a smaller, more subtle one near the middle of the beach, and from the lookout above it’s easy for him to see sand getting sucked seaward by that rip.
He said visitors snorkeling in the calm inside waters have no idea how dangerous a place Larsen’s can become once the waves kick up a little bit.
He said he has also made rescues at Secret Beach (Kauapea at Kilauea), a place he has suggested to Downs is in need of one of the rescue tubes.
“Our professional county lifeguards save person after person, but we also depend on some ‘lay’ programs and people in order to keep our drowning numbers under some degree of control,” Downs said in his e-mail.
“Talking with Mike, it’s clear that the rescue tube was key to this triple rescue,” Downs said.
“These tubes, in a project spearheaded by Ocean Safety Task Force member John Tyler and supported by private donors including the Hanalei Rotary Club (and other Rotary clubs), have been set up at a couple dozen dangerous and non-guarded beaches around Kaua‘i,” Downs said.
“A couple of beachfront resorts have joined in this effort and have arranged to have tubes set up on their beaches,” Downs said in his e-mail.
“Laminated instructions as to how to use the tube are also placed at each locale. More tube placements are planned,” said Downs.
“I believe that Mike and John deserve thanks and recognition for their very remarkable contribution to this blest family of four and to Kaua‘i,” Downs added.
Tyler said in a telephone interview Wednesday that 26 of the tubes are at unguarded beaches from Kalalau to the Westside, and donations are always accepted in efforts to place more of the rescue tubes and instructions.
Including plastic pipe to hang the tubes on, and the laminated instructions, each one costs around $80. A Mainland man, George Bail, donated $1,500 to the cause after reading about the program over a year ago in The Garden Island, Tyler said.
The tubes have helped to save at least seven lives, including the three last month at Larsen’s, Tyler said. He said he is available to offer free instruction on how to use the tubes.
Tyler had been a lifeguard instructor in Los Angeles before moving to Anahola, and can be reached at 635-7062.
Ka‘aka‘aniu, literally “rolling coconut,” commonly referred to as Larsen’s Beach, known in some visitor publications and online as a nude beach, was once also known for its limu kohu edible seaweed, according to the book “Place Names of Hawai‘i” by Mary Kawena Pukui, Samuel H. Ebert and Esther T. Mo‘okini.
• Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com
