Larsen's Beach
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Ka-ume ka-iwa (Hawiian name thanks to Jay Furfaro's research), a beautiful beach between Moloaa and Kilauea, derives its modern name "Larsen's Beach" from the manager of the Kilauea Sugar Plantation in the 1920's. It has claimed two lives in the last few weeks. One was a visitor from Bellingham Washington who left behind a 6 month pregnant wife; the other was one of our fine local young men. Tough to take, for the families obviously, and also for ocean safety advocates and professionals who are trying to make things better.
What can we do to take away Larsen's deadly grip? First, there are things that we can't do, such as take away the very strong rip current that lurks at the one part of the beach that appears inviting for swimming. The rest of the beach has coral reef right up to the shoreline. The one sandy spot, just a couple of dozen yards wide, is sandy precisely because it serves as the river-outflow for all the water that surges in over the reef all along the beach. Our Water Safety Task Force Co-Chair Geroge Simpson is a very strong swimmer, and he relates an experience when he was enjoying snorkeling the area and he had on power fins, and he was barely able to make progress against the current that wanted to take him out to sea. One of my doctor colleagues did get swept out to sea a few years ago. He accurately realized that he couldn't fight the current, and so after he was released from the current he worked his way back to shore further down the coast, stumbling in over the reef itself, arriving on the beach all cut up and with his feet full of vana spines -- and alive.
Another thing we can't take away is its allure, its classic Hawaiian beauty. Nor should we take away its access, an unpaved old cane road that is allowed to be used through private properties. The last thing we need is for even more of our beautiful Kauai spots to be taken away from us.
Still another thing we can't do is eliminate peoples' desire for adventure, for seeking out places that are off the beaten track. A writer named Michael Ghiglieri has written a best seller called Off the Wall, in which he describes various ways in which people have made fatal decisions in back-country locales on their visit to Yosemite. Some of the people he describes were drunk and stupid. The vast majority were sober and intelligent people like, presumably, you and me who wanted adventure and who didn't have good information about what they were heading into.
In the face of all of these obstacles I've listed I often feel like we're a sitting duck, with our next family catastrophe guaranteed and just waiting for its timing. And in a way this is true given our open-ocean surroundings, just as it's true on our roads where cars whiz by each other face to face, 3 feet apart and each going 50+ miles an hour. But this doesn't mean we just give up, and so we have seat belt laws and radar guns and breatholyzers and Lifeguards and warning signs.
Now that we've gone over several things we can't do about Larsen's, what are some things we can do? Well, we must take away, in the case of visitors and residents alike, the impression that you can safely get in the water at Larsen's, no matter how inviting it looks. The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook is Kauai Borders' perennial #1 seller, and highlighting Larsen's as "A Real Gem", here's what they say about it: "This place can be a snorkeler's paradise. Lots of coral and fish in shallow, crystal-clear water greet the eye. One thing that can be very cool -- if you're careful -- is to get in the water at the southeast end (where the trailhead is) and let the current take you toward (but not into!) the Pakala Channel."
Russian Roulettte anyone? This advice paraphrases into "float along with the current and enjoy the beautiful snorkeling sights, but make sure you get out before the current turns and takes you out to sea." Obviously, assuming Larsen's is to retain it's status as A Real Gem, the advice should be: "This is a beautiful beach for beachcombing and strolling and a picnic, but do not go in the water. There is a notorious and deadly rip current that is waiting to sweep you out to sea, and there are no Lifeguards anywhere nearby." Period. Other highlighted "Real Gems" in this book include Hideaways, Queens Bath, and Kipu Falls, all of which are unguarded, often dangerous and proven deadly.
To the book's credit they do have numerous passages, including in each one of these "Real Gem" sections, that talk about safety and warn about unpredictable conditions that can cause danger. Furthermore, I recognize that I work in a stilted setting (the ER), where I see the horrors and not the thousands of people that do have a great time at these locations. How many thousands of great times does it take to balance out a family catastrophy? I'm not wise enough to have that answer.
I'm very pleased to report that another very popular publication, 101 Things to Do on Kauai, does not mention Larsen's or Queen's Bath or Kipu Falls. I'm also pleased to report that on occasion I anonymously wander by concierge and activity desks and listen to their staffs' ocean safety advice as they talk with clients, and either they're recognizing me and putting on their best front, or else they're doing a really great job of educating. Thank you, each and every one of you. You don't get the reward of finding out who stayed out of trouble because of you, but I promise you that your good work is logged in the universe's big book.
Beyond avoiding giving out bad information, we can improve at spreading good information (e.g. "Swim near a Lifeguard"). We are fortunate to already have several tools in place for this -- first and foremost www.kauaiexplorer.com, and also our County Beach Safety Brochure (for the most part buried, unfortunately, in brochure racks), our car rental Drive Guide, our hotels' welcome packets (some better than others, and all should have the brochure), and most of all our people. Some might prefer the format of the state-sponsored ocean safety website, www.oceansafety.soest.hawaii.edu. We're always searching for more tools, and I'm currently working actively with the governor's office trying to figure out how to get incoming airlines to run a short ocean safety video. (Hawaiian Airlines does this already). Thanks to the aloha of our Lihue airport manager, we will soon have an ocean safety banner in each baggage claim area and we hope this will catch peoples' eye for just the moment that it takes for them to understand that there are safety issues they need to consider.
I believe that our biggest challenge now isn't so much creating new tools as getting the tools we already have in front of peoples' faces on a daily basis. In future columns I will be taking a more detailed look at how to meet this challenge. In the meantime, enjoy the beach at Larsen's . . . but don't swim or snorkel there!