LIHUE — When you bring many of the country’s finest lifesavers together under one roof, that’s an awful lot of head and heart about keeping people safe.
But on Kauai, even this elite group is still learning how to do more.
“Here, essentially the birth place of modern lifesaving, we get a chance to renew, look at what we do and go forward from there,” said Peter Davis, a lifeguard chief from Galveston, Texas. “Everywhere we go, we want to learn more.”
A three-day conference of the United States Lifeguard Association wrapped up Saturday at the Kauai Marriott Resort &Beach Club. It attracted about 65 men and women for talks, demonstrations and presentations on products, services and techniques, all related to trying to keep people safe in the water.
They heard stories, too, of life and death.
“All of us as lifeguards are one big family,” Davis said. “We get to visit each others’ houses and learn from each other and fight with each other and grow together.”
Dr. Monty Downs, president of the Kauai Lifeguard Association, said raising awareness of ocean dangers remains a focus. He said it’s a “critical issue, not only for Kauai, and Hawaii, but nationwide. It has a huge affect on people’s lives. We’re always trying to figure out ways to do that, increase awareness.”
Davis, president of USLA Gulf Coast region, said while lifesavers have similar problems across the country, they also face different challenges. He noted his area has vast, open beaches that stretch for miles, while Kauai is sectioned off into smaller, rougher beaches, many where there are no lifeguard towers. Decisions must be made on how to utilize limited resources.
“The way you cover it is different,” he said. “We learn a lot just by looking at those kinds of things.”
One advantage in the Gulf Coast region for lifesavers is that a penny of each dollar spent on hotel rooms is dedicated to ocean safety.
“As tourism grows, we grow,” Davis said.
“That helps them hugely to fund lifeguard positions,” Downs said. “That would be a total pipe dream for us.”
Gina Kaulukukui of Life’s Bridges gave a brief talk. The nonprofit responds to offer counseling and support to families of those who suffered the loss of a loved one in an accident on Kauai.
“It’s really heartwarming to know our ocean rescue and fire departments, and everybody involved, Wilcox hospital, is saving lives,” she said.
Kaulukukui praised lifeguards and all who respond when others are in trouble.
“Sometimes, as a community, we forget they put their lives in danger every single time they have to go out on that water,” she said. “It’s more than just going out and coming back and doing CPR.”
And, she praised their families.
“I couldn’t imagine knowing that my loved has to go out there and put their own life at risk to save someone else’s life, and we forget that small detail,” she said.
Life’s Bridges, she said, is about oneness. It’s one with the community, with emergency rooms, with the visitor’s industry, with police and with medical personnel.
Through that togetherness, they are able to “bridge the gap” and help those experiencing a sudden, unexpected loss.
They want to get there quickly, embrace them and “help them realize there is hope, there is help, and there’s always going to be healing.”
Life’s Bridges wants to be sure first responders are taken care of because they ask what more they could have done in each situation that might have saved a life. They don’t get a lot of time to decompress.
“When they come on shift, they go right back to keep people safe,” she said.
Kaulukukui said their work, and that of the lifesavers on the water, has a lasting impact and that drives them to do all they can.
She read a note from one person to Life’s Bridge after the death of a loved one on Kauai.
He wrote he was “profoundly in awe of your compassion and commitment. Thank you forever. I will always follow your amazing work with awe, respect, admiration and blessing. Continue your angelic work and your magical work.”
