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ANTHONY SOMMER / TSOMMER@STARBULLETIN.COM
The only one sunbathing yesterday at Brennecke's Beach, where Kauai surfer Hoku Aki lost a foot in a shark attack Monday, was this Hawaiian monk seal. The state Department of Natural Resources reopened the popular Poipu beach today. See story below.




Colorado nurse
recalls helping
shark victim

The attack on Kauai came on
her family's last day of vacation

Beaches reopen


By Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.com

Though thousands of miles apart, a Colorado registered nurse who helped save 17-year-old Hoku Aki after he was attacked by a shark said she cannot help but think about his well-being.

"He's been in my thoughts all day," Nancy Roberts said yesterday in a telephone interview from her home in Littleton, Colo.

"It was just a big nightmare ... It happened so quickly. It was almost surreal," Roberts said.

Aki commended Roberts for saving his life after he lost his lower left leg from a shark attack at Brennecke Beach on Monday, the last day of the Roberts' 9-day vacation on Kauai.

Initially, Roberts' husband, David, thought he spotted a dolphin in the water. Within seconds, he realized it was a shark.

Aki, who the Roberts family saw bodyboarding at Brennecke Beach on Sunday, was in the water for less than five minutes when he was attacked by the shark, David said. Aki wrestled with the shark and yelled for help, he added.

David encouraged Aki to grab onto his boogie board and swim back to shore.

He said he yelled, "You're almost here, keep coming, keep coming, you're doing great."

David and his friend, Brian Hanson, pulled Aki out of the water as he paddled closer to the shoreline.

Nancy grabbed a towel and used it as a tourniquet on Aki's leg. "I told him I'm here for you. I'm not going to leave your side," she said.

David told his 13-year-old son, Spencer, to call a lifeguard.

"He was telling my wife, 'I don't want to die. I don't want to die like this,'" David said.

Nancy said Aki was having difficulty breathing and asked him questions to keep him alert. She asked Aki for his name and phone number. Hanson wrote the information in the sand to contact Aki's immediate family members.

David said Aki did not realize he lost his lower left leg until he was in the ambulance.

Though Aki commended Roberts for saving his life, David said Aki is the true hero.

"He performed the most amazing human feat I ever witnessed," said David, who described how Aki was able to grab onto his boogie board and swim back to shore.

"He will get over this. I know he will rally," he said.


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Kauai beaches open
amid shark warnings


By Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.com

POIPU, Kauai >> Lifeguards reopened south shore beaches near Brennecke's Beach, where a shark bit off the left foot of bodyboarder Hoku Aki on Monday.

But yellow tape remained strung across the sand, and signs reading "Shark Sighted" and "No Swimming" were posted yesterday afternoon and this morning at Brennecke's.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources said Brennecke's was open, but a shark sign remained posted to let people know there was a recent attack, and the "No Swimming" sign was put up because a monk seal came ashore.

Aki, 17, a Kauai High School senior, was listed in fair condition at Queen's Medical Center late yesterday.

Sue Kanoho, head of the Kauai Visitors Bureau, expressed confidence that most tourists realize how rare shark attacks are. But she conceded that she was not at all unhappy that CNN, in its reports, placed the attack in Hawaii generally rather than Kauai specifically.

Larry and Liz Adamski, visitors from Almont, Mich., sat on a picnic table watching the seals. "We had just flown in Monday; we were having lunch at Keoki's before checking in when we heard the sirens go by," Liz Adamski said.

Larry Adamski went for a swim yesterday "in very shallow water" at nearby Poipu County Beach Park yesterday, but Liz Adamski said she was too afraid to go into the water.

At the county park a quarter of a mile west of Brennecke's Beach, swimmers were allowed back in the water at mid-day yesterday.

Lifeguard Randy Ortiz said there was a rush of people to the water at noon, but no one went in much deeper than knee-high.

"We told them to stay close to shore and not to venture out in the surf," Ortiz said. "No one has gone out very far."

"The water feels great," said Myra Van Ornum, a special education teacher on spring break from Koloa Elementary School. But she added she had not used her snorkel gear. "I usually snorkel out on the point, but I'm not going out there for quite a while."

Ortiz and Kauai Fire Battalion Chief Bob Kaden were not happy about opening Poipu County Beach Park, but the county's rule is that a beach park will be opened if no sharks have been sighted for 24 hours. "If it were up to me, I wouldn't let anyone in the water until it clears up," Ortiz said.

Waters all around Kauai remained murky following three days of heavy rain that began Sunday. Sharks frequently come close to shore to sca-venge when there is heavy flow from the rivers and streams.

"Personally, I think anyone who goes in the water now is nuts," said Kaden, who noted that surfing by students on spring break has not slowed at all since Aki was attacked.

"Surfers won't stop for anything," said Kaden, who also heads the department's water safety program. "They figure the odds are on their side."

Proving Kaden's point, several local surfers were riding waves in front of the Waiohai Resort just west of the county beach park, and about a half mile from where Aki was attacked.

In the parking lot, two men pulled their longboards out of the back of a pickup truck.

"Is there anyone out there?" one asked on his way to the beach.

"And are they whole?" asked his partner.



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