Weather service
revamps surf-
height reports

Hazard-prone Hawaii joins other
ocean locales with a new math
for wave heights

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By Helen Altonn
Helen Altonn

Hawaii's beautiful oceans can turn into "killing fields" for residents and tourists unaware of the dangers of surf, says Jim Weyman, Hawaii area manager, National Weather Service.

From 1993-1997, he said, the state had 306 drownings, mostly associated with swimming, according to a review of death certificates by state Epidemiologist Daniel J. Galanis. More than three-fourths, 238, occurred in the ocean or other saltwater environments.

In the same period, a study by the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine shows 473 people were hospitalized for cervical spine injuries. Of those, 77 were wave-related, including 62 where the wave forced the head or neck to crash into the ocean bottom.

Weyman and Tom Heffner, National Weather Service warning coordination meteorologist, discussed the hazards of surf yesterday in announcing changes in the way wave heights are reported.

Starting April 9, they said, Weather Service high-surf advisories will report the actual (full face) height of waves, from the trough to the peak, which is done in other parts of the United States and around the world.

The advisories will contain this paragraph: "The above surf heights are surf face heights which may be up to twice the wave heights that have traditionally been reported."

Hawaii lifeguards and surfers traditionally have measured waves from the back, or from the front, then taking half, Weyman said. Heights also are reported lower in some cases to keep people from crowding the beach, he said.

Heffner has been working with the Oahu Civil Defense Agency, city Ocean Safety Division, Oahu safety training officer Mark Cunningham, lifeguards and University of Hawaii oceanographers Rick Grigg and Pat Caldwell to standardize surf measurements.

"There are times you see realistic measurement and times you don't," Heffner said. "We haven't had a standard everybody is using." He said more training will be done, "so we're all looking at the surf from the same size and standard."

The agencies also are working with the hotel association to get information out to visitors about risks at various beaches, he said.

But it is not just a matter of presenting realistic wave heights for visitors, Heffner said. Of 101 ocean drownings on Oahu in the study period, 17 who died were surfers or body boarders, and seven of them were residents.

Lifeguards suggested inexperience, a powerful shorebreak, alcohol and drug use were the major risk factors involved with water sports-related cervical spine injuries.

Beaches are graded in four categories, from nonbreaking, low-energy waves in Grade 1 to high-energy waves with plunging characteristics in Grade 4. At Oahu's Grade 4 Sandy Beach, once every 33 days, lifeguards respond to a neck injury, the study said. About twice a year, a serious cervical spine injury occurs there requiring hospitalization.

Grigg, a surfer, said it is unrealistic to measure waves from the back because surfers cannot see the back and the shape changes.

He noted lifeguards reported the wave height at Sunset Beach yesterday at 2 to 3 feet when it was actually 6 feet.

Although all lifeguards have not adopted the "full face" standard of measurement, acceptance is growing, Heffner said.

Grigg pointed to a "huge issue of liability embedded in the problem" because the state and counties are required by law to adequately warn the public of risks at beach parks. Hotels also have a duty to warn guests if they know of dangerous conditions, he said.

Settlements have ranged as high as $3 million to $8 million in lawsuits against the state and counties for ocean-related injuries, he said.