KAPAHI — Tourists flocked to Ho‘opi‘i Falls Friday afternoon to enjoy the warm sunshine dancing across cool river water cascading over rocks blanketed in deep-green moss under a canopy of ancient trees. Only the flies seemed to notice two crimson puddles on the rocks downstream.
John Daniel St. John, a 52-year-old visitor from Georgia, died after jumping off the rocks near the waterfall Thursday afternoon.
St. John had jumped into the water twice before diving into the water a third time, according to a county spokesperson, who said eyewitnesses reported the man did not surface immediately after the third jump, and friends that were with St. John pulled him from the water and began CPR.
The Kauai Police Department news release said firefighters and medics were dispatched to the scene about 2:10 p.m., where they found St. John about 100 feet downstream from the falls with apparent injuries to his head. The first responders took over CPR efforts from St. John’s friends, but he could not be revived.
St. John was airlifted out of the area and brought to Lihue Airport, where he was transported to Wilcox Medical Center and pronounced dead, police said.
An autopsy is pending, and police said the investigation is ongoing. Foul play is not suspected.
“That’s Hawaii for you,” said Alex Krausz, a tourist from Colorado who visited Ho‘opi‘i Falls on Friday. “There’s so many places that are beautiful, but you have to be careful.”
Krausz and Dianne Fromme came to the island together and said they were excited to check out the waterfall, having read about it in “The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook,” a publication that has become a favorite among island visitors over the past 25 years.
Fromme, also a Colorado resident, said hearing the news about a death at the waterfall “makes us more cautious.”
Rental cars lined the road near the trailhead, with families, friends and couples piling in and out, as they returned from or prepared for the mile-long hike down to the falls. Few were aware someone had died 24 hours before, and expressed varying degrees of empathy and concern.
“Bummer! Not a bad way to go, though,” said Sean Comstock, a Southern California resident. “Loving life — he died happy.”
John Grettenberger, from San Diego, said he hadn’t intended to jump off the rocks even before hearing about the death.
“I’m not a jumper anymore,” he said. “We’re just going for the sights.”
A Florida couple who had heard about the accident said the news didn’t stop them from visiting Ho‘opi‘i Falls, but they had no plans to jump.
“I don’t think so,” Chris Anderson said. His wife gave a more definite answer.
“There is no way,” Debbie Anderson said. “We know that you shouldn’t jump into things like that unless you know the waters.”
Down at the falls, groups of tourists came and went, resting in the shade or peering over rocks at the edge of a 20-foot drop surrounding the mouth of the waterfall, where deep water churned up foam.
A young woman from Canada who came to Kauai to escape the freezing winter weather — she guessed it was about 40 degrees below zero in her hometown — was shocked to hear someone had died the day before.
“Right over there?” she said with wide eyes, pointing over her shoulder. She stood above the falls on a flat, round stone worn smooth by the river. She shook her head and walked away to join friends calling from the trail.
A woman from Santa Fe walked along the perimeter of the basin, quietly looking into the water. She had heard about the death and thought it was a shame but offered little sympathy.
“I feel bad for the family,” the woman said, but insisted she would never jump into water like that without the supervision and advice of the locals.
A man she was with agreed and walked around looking at the spot St. John would have probably jumped from. Having found it, he looked directly across the river and spotted something on the rocks below.
“Is that blood?” he asked.
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Caleb Loehrer, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0441 orcloehrer@thegardenisland.com.
Nice writing Caleb!
The typical self serving story expressing underlying mockery, hostility and general disdain for “tourists,” without any regards to the surviving family members in grief. Written by a “local.”
Who moved to the island from somewhere else, just like everyone else. And now looks down upon the dead from their throne of judgment, arrogance and narcissism.
B, thank you for voicing what I could not put into words. Unfortunately it seems that the writer of this article would prefer to up his career by writing this like a bad horror story instead of a tragic accident and have no empathy for the family and friends of the gentleman that died. Instead of treating the man with respect and dignity, he pokes fun at the way he passed away and adds gasoline to the pain of family and friends. Instead of learning about the gentlemen, he paints him as a idiot who basically had it coming. Tourist or not, he didn’t deserve to die that way although he did pass away doing something he loved. In the future I hope the writer of this article can find compassion for the family and friends of a person killed and not degrade them as a person. They are after all human.
Great article. I enjoyed the pictures you’ve painted in my mind with your writing. Funny enough , I was there last week and jumped in a couple times. At one point someone else dived in head first. That’s a Darwin Award for sure
“Well, that is the difference between actually being there and not,” I remarked to my friend after I read your article. Caleb, I read your article looking for the name of the man who lost his life the same day that I visited the falls. I would like to say that I find this article to be insensitive. It robs the human being who lost his life that day of the dignity he deserves by both sensationalizing what happened for the sake of this article and it minimizes the effect that this day had on the ones who loved this individual and who lost a friend that day. There is no mention in your article about the fact that this man’s life could have been spared had it been clearly posted that the land where this man died is private property, sadly information learned after the fact. There is no mention of the fact that the medical staff risked their lives trying to save this man. It enrages me that you were even able to conduct the interviews that you used for this article. You really want to write a story, write about this: Why were you or anyone else able to get back to the falls the very next day? Why are tourists, especially families with small children, STILL able to go to these falls? The memory of this day will be with me forever. And unfortunately, so will the memory of this article. Please don’t forget your own humanity when you write your stories, Caleb. It will make you an even better writer. Thank you for including his name, John Daniel St. John from Georgia.