Oahu lifeguards
put to test in spring

March and April's rescues
were almost quintuple those
of the first 2 months

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By Nelson Daranciang
Star-Bulletin

Because of spring break, the teachers and university faculty strikes and more tourists, lifeguards at Oahu's South Shore beaches were busy in March and April with far more rescues compared with previous months.

In January city lifeguards rescued 26 people at Hanauma Bay, Makapuu Beach and Sandy Beach. In February they rescued 36.

The number of people rescued jumped to 85 in March and nearly doubled to 160 in April. Most of the rescues were at Sandy Beach. City officials did not have comparable figures for previous years.

Also, nine people received injuries serious enough to need medical attention in March, 18 in April.

Lifeguard Robert Dorr attributes the higher number of rescues and injuries to the April 5 strikes, a northeast swell that lingered for about a month and a lot of visitors. He remembers five visitors needing rescue just as soon as they got into the water at Sandy Beach.

"They were from the mainland somewhere. We warned them five times before they went into the water. They didn't listen to us," Dorr said.

"We had a lot of local kids, too, because of school," lifeguard Noah Spencer said.

Most public school children had just returned from spring break at the beginning of April when the teachers strike put them out for another three weeks.

"Some days I remember attendance was a thousand for the day on this beach (Sandy Beach), which is a lot," said Ron Bregman, acting lifeguard lieutenant.

Many of them were visitors turned away from Hanauma Bay.

"For the tourists, this is the next beach after Hanauma, the next beach they see," Spencer said.

"They jump in with no fins on, no experience, and they just get sucked out," said Dorr.

"People come here, try to snorkel. They bring rafts and they got small kids," Bregman said.

In the first four months of the year, two people drowned at Oahu South Shore beaches, both at Hanauma Bay. Both victims drowned in what lifeguards call the cable channel, where a rip current can cause inexperienced swimmers to panic as they try to fight their way to shore.