LIHU‘E — At the suggestion of a Ha‘ena Beach Park county lifeguard, Dr. Monty Downs erected a new rescue-tube pole at a cove fronting Hanalei Colony Resort in Ha‘ena, Downs said. Shortly thereafter, the same Kaua‘i Fire Department Ocean Safety
LIHU‘E — At the suggestion of a Ha‘ena Beach Park county lifeguard, Dr. Monty Downs erected a new rescue-tube pole at a cove fronting Hanalei Colony Resort in Ha‘ena, Downs said.
Shortly thereafter, the same Kaua‘i Fire Department Ocean Safety Bureau lifeguard responded to a call about a swimmer in distress near Hanalei Colony Resort — an area known to have a rip current — and found two people in the water clinging to the tube.
The lifeguard pulled them to shore, and both were uninjured.
It was about a month ago when Downs was on the North Shore to install a few more tubes, and as he always does he asked lifeguards where they think the tubes should be placed.
The Ha‘ena Beach Park lifeguard “told me about a place I never would have thought of, namely a lagoon with a rip in front of the Hanalei Colony Resort,” Downs said in an e-mail. “So up it went.
“On Saturday (May 15) I was out there again, this time with a Hanalei Rotarian as my helper. Put up four more, filling in some soft spots,” said Downs.
“Zero vandalism. That same lifeguard reported that a week or so ago there was a 911 call for a swimmer in distress at the Hanalei Colony Resort. He got there and found that someone had grabbed the tube and both people were hanging onto it when he arrived and he pulled them to shore,” Downs said.
“The Rotarian, George Corrigan, was pretty impressed by all this, and today (May 17) he called to say that he’s successfully lined up $5,000 from a North Shore family’s trust,” Downs said. “That’s a lot of rescue tubes.
“George got talking about how this rescue-tube concept could really eventually spread (via Rotarians) across the United States, even in states with lakefronts or other public swimming holes,” Downs said.
