LIHU‘E — The Rescue Tube Foundation was founded in 2010 on Kaua‘i, with the mission to reduce the number of drowning deaths by providing Public Access Rescue Tube stations in recreational water areas.
Rescue tubes were installed on Kaua‘i more than a decade ago, and the project has swiftly been adopted by other groups.
Currently, there are 600 tubes installed throughout Hawai‘i, the U.S. Mainland, and Canada.
Executive Director of the Rescue Tube Foundation Branch Lotspeich said the concept differs from the purpose.
“The concept of the Rescue Tube is that it is meant to rescue someone out in distress in the ocean,” Lotspeich said. “But the purpose of the rescue tube is to protect the person seeking to rescue someone. These are standard rescue tubes like the ones that lifeguards use, a lifeguard will not go into the water without a flotation device and so a rescuer should not have to go into the water without one.”
As the Rescue Tube Program is expanding, Rescue Tube Stations are currently being installed on all 65 of beach access areas in the Town of Oak Island, North Carolina.
At the end of last month, the Town of Oak Island received a letter from the Jack Helbig Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit based in Brunswick County, which proposed a partnership to increase beach safety and prevent drownings.
JHMF proposed combining $10,000 from its foundation to $6,500 from the Town of Oak Island to go toward funding Water Safety Stations in beach access areas.
Water Safety Stations are to include a numbered post at all access locations and a rescue tube from the Rescue Tube Foundation. There will also be a new beach safety information sign with a QRcode and graphics with instructions on how to use the rescue tube. The QRcode links to information about the most recent warning flag conditions. Rescue tubes and beach safety signs have been ordered and are expected to arrive at the end of August and are expected to be installed by Labor Day.
Rescue tubes are designed so that a rescuer can swim and bring the tube to a distressed person in the water.
The tube is somewhat flexible and can be used as a flotation device by the person in distress, who then can be pulled into shore.
Rescue tubes can provide buoyancy for up to three adults at a time. Instructions on usage of the device can be viewed through a video on the Rescue Tube Foundation website at https://www.rescuetubefoundation.org.
All life-guarded beaches on Kaua‘i have rescue tubes available for use.
There have been more than 200 uses of rescue tubes and an unknown number of lives have been saved, with an estimated over 30 drownings may have been prevented by their use.
The Rescue Tube Foundation developed following efforts by the Rotary Club of Hanalei Bay to prevent drownings on Kaua‘i. The first uses of the rescue devices on Kaua‘i began at Larsen’s Beach.
In 2008, Dr. Monty Downs, Kaua‘i Hospice medical director and Kaua‘i Lifeguard Association (KLA) member, spoke to Rotarians promoting the use of rescue tubes to assist rescuers and save lives.
“We standardized the rescue tubes, developed the graphics, made them yellow, so they are easier to find and developed a mounting system which is a simple system,” Lotspeich said. “One person can install a rescue tube station in twenty minutes. The materials are also very inexpensive.”
Lotspeich said the nonprofit’s work is life changing.
“It’s the single most rewarding and satisfying thing I have ever done in my life. I am just awestruck that this foam rubber device that doesn’t cost much money can be used to save lives.”
Currently, rescue tubes have been installed on beaches including those in North Carolina, Florida, California, at Dunham Lake in Michigan, Vancouver, and at Custer Lake in South Dakota. There are also Rescue Tubes installed in military bases at Kaua‘i’s Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Barking Sands and at Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i, Kaneohe.
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Monique Kemper is a lifelong North Shore resident who lives in Princeville and writes periodically for The Garden Island.
