All I can say is WOW!! What an experience and what a blessed ending!

Denny talked about this the other day and indeed it was a scary situation and the father was very brave. There are signs that say be careful swimming aren't there?

Not sure if I'm ready to nominate the dad for "Father of the Year", but very fortunate he pulled off a great save!

parents have huge responsibility for the safety of their families.

A couple of things should have been evident, one is the obvious dangerous conditions that our OP witnessed, and took heed of.

Second, is the Hanakapiai sign that has the score of the win/ lost record, with the loss of life at thirty something for Hanakapiai , is very impactive

There may be other signs.

The guide book " Hankapiai is a beautiful but trecherous beach ". And that the sand beach will be gone in the winter time.

I actually witnessed ( and tho very disturbing to family safety, was not even close as to what the OP experienced).

September: We began our walk along the beach, very near the Hanalei Colony Resort.

We were only a short distance along the beach, and the Longshore Current was racing parrallel to the beach like rapids of a river. This is highly visible, and quite apparent. Very rapidly moving water.

A family passed us, this is mom, dad, and a beautiful little...maybe three or four year old little girl. She was all excited, and happy following in the foot prints of daddy. All decked out in her beach attire....cuter than cute.

Daddy heads toward the water, and says " Come on honey, let's go in and check the water temperature ". I came to a dead stop, and looked at them.

That dad did not pause to look at ocean conditions, not for a nanno second.

A while later almost to Ke'e Beach, that long shore current was still churning and quickly moving past. A couple of visitors were walking along with their snorkel gear.

I said " hi", and politely asked if they were going snorkeling ? Answer was yes, of course. I was telling the hubby and pointing out the long shore current........the wife just snorted some kind of huffing sound, and headed into the water.

I smiled all friendly and said " Be careful ! " and continued on up the beach to relax for a bit, and take some photos from up on land of the beautiful cliffs, and coastline.

Aqua, thank you so much for the eye witness account. superb writing and recall. Excellent.

After reading the web page story in the GIN, before going to work, I talked with a friend at the gym, who works for the DLNR, as a

law enforcement officer.. I asked if he was the person who had allerted the rescue personnel as was stated in the paper. As I was currious due to the lack of cell phone coverage up there.

He said , no, but they did have some crews up in the area that were working on the trails. Perhaps they used radio, or were up high enough that they could get cell reception.

_________________________________________________________

International Distress Signal. Light years back, when I was teaching sailing , navigation, and powerboating , one of the signals , that is internatiional in scope is:

Stand erect.......do not wave.....because another passing vessel will just wave back thinking you are just waving hello. Yep, it is a totally natural reflex, and that is exactly what occurs. They just wave back, and keep on going.

Anyway, this could come in handy sometime, you just never know.

Stand erect, and move your arms, from along your sides, raise the arms up , and touch your hands together , with arms extend over your head, then bring them back down. Continue a constant movement - do not stop.

( Maybe thnk " snow angels motion with just the arms, or jumping jacks with the just the arms......for a more visual idea ). The rest of the body is totally still. It is a deliberate and methodical move.

The SOS in the sand is also a great idea, and piling up rocks, darker than than the sand is also super. Good thinking .

The OP, and the other people there did a great job to help with a very serious situation.

Sorry about the lesson in safety that some do not want to hear, but you never know, when there could be a situation, land or sea, that a glimmer in the ol brain box, will jump out and spark a timely " I am in distress signal ".

Sometimes in works in restauranta to hail down some service. No real distress, but it can get their attention, when eye contact, and subtler signals fail.

Again, thank you so much for your very , very excellent eye witness report.

Suberb !

Mahalo,

Denny

Hanakapi-die, Luma-die have these nicknames for a reason. These places are out and out scary in winter and dangerous all the time.

People just don't give the ocean enough respect.

Thanks for the story AquaBliss--the web is great for sharing these first-hand stories and hopefully getting the word out strongly to more visitors.

Denny, the Hanakapi'ai "death toll" sign (it doesn't list successful rescues) shows 82 dead (though I don't know over how many years--still a lot):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94447321@N00/1803280678/

I was always taught that the international distress symbol is 3 of anything: 3 fires, 3 crossed skis, 3 flashes, 3 dots 3 dashes 3 dots (SOS), etc. Writing SOS in the sand (with rocks if possible) is however, probably the clearest communication with helos from a beach.

I wonder if anyone followed the children and father by hiking further on the trail towards Kalalau: once you get out of the valley and back on the cliff, you have a good view of the shoreline in places. In this case, it seems they landed in view of the trail in the direction of Ke'e beach, so not really necessary, but following the people swept out to sea from the cliff would've been my first reaction.

Good heavens what a story! The dad and kids must have been in very good physical shape. Lucky they had that rescue device on the beach. Without it rescuing someone in deep water is pretty much impossible.

Don't be too quick to judge. From the GIN article it doesn't sound like there was any intention to swim.

Also an interesting link to drowning stats in that article:

http://teok.com/

hey, thanks for sharing your eyewitness account of this frightening event. I'm thankful it ended well.

From what the paper says, if it is accurate, and the one boy just went near the water, the lesson would seem to be not only don't swim but stay well back from the water. Not to beat up on the dad, as I'm sure he's doing that to himself, but parents shouldn't turn their backs on the kids at beaches like this. Kids can't be relied on to understand the potential dangers.

Denny, I understand your frustration that people arrive on your island not understanding that there is no guaranteed safe swimming and snorkeling. Sadly, the islands are marketed as a paradise always ready to welcome you into the idyllic waters, and people forget to LOOK and notice that this is mother ocean who is not necessarily gentle.

We were at Hanakapi'ai one time in November. We sat up on the rocks for quite a while just watching the ocean and looking at people checking out the caves to the left. After a while we decided to take a look at the caves as well. There hadn't been any waves coming up onto the beach area the whole time we were watching. My dh walked a bit ahead of me and I walked behind still uncertain of the waves and continuously watching the water. As I was watching I grabbed my husband's arm and pulled him back just as we were getting nearer to the caves. We ran back right ahead of a wave that washed over right where we were. We felt incredibly foolish. I'll bet the father didn't even realize how far up the waves could come up. I'm so glad they are all okay.