() – It was a typical Wednesday afternoon for Noland Keaulana, who was fixing his truck at his grandparents’ house when he received an alert on his phone about a missing 17-year-old boy off the coast of Honolulu.
Keaulana, a lifeguard with the Honolulu Department of Ocean Safety for 16 years, was not on duty that night. Then, his wife called him to tell him that it was the son of one of his friends who had disappeared. For the next two hours, he paced impatiently, wondering whether he should join the search.
But ultimately, “I knew I couldn’t waste any more time,” Keaulana told .
The missing 17-year-old was Kahiau Kawai. And while Keaulana and other rescuers headed to the ocean, Kahiau had been fighting for hours against the currents that were dragging him further and further away.
Kahiau accidentally drifted away after his kayak capsized during his high school training that afternoon.
“The waves were very strong and I couldn’t fight the current. “When the sun started to set and I moved further away as it got darker, I started to get worried,” Kahiau told .
He had lost his paddle and had to swim on the side of his 20-foot surf ski kayak, alternating between lying in the kayak and swimming in the water. He screamed for help, but nearby boats were too far away to hear him, Kahiau said.
“At a certain point I knew I wasn’t going to be able to fight the current, so I tried to relax and stay calm,” he added. A plan was made: stay calm, keep swimming, and when the current subsided, try to swim slowly back to where he fell out of the kayak.
Kahiau had been paddling with his high school kayak team from Ala Wai Boat Harbor to Diamond Head. Upon returning, his companions realized he was missing and called 911 around 6:30 p.m., the Honolulu Fire Department said during a press conference.
Firefighters immediately began a search with multiple boats and aircraft in which more than 50 personnel participated, including the US Coast Guard. Authorities learned that the teen’s surf ski had overturned and that he was not wearing a life jacket, according to police. United States Coast Guard.
Keaulana was one of those rescuers, now desperately searching the ocean, and each passing hour brought him a growing sense of terror.
“I was starting to lose hope. I don’t know if he was still clinging to his kayak, if he had given up, he was thinking about the worst case scenario. “I was mad at myself, thinking I should have gone sooner,” Keaulana said.
Still floating in the dark, choppy waters, Kahiau could see the helicopters searching for him, he said.
“I saw them get to a certain point a few times, but they didn’t go that far to where I was and that scared me a little bit,” Kahiau said.
He was afraid of the depths, but he was too busy trying to keep swimming to think about his worst fears.
Around 4 a.m. Thursday, after more than eight hours of searching, a U.S. Coast Guard plane spotted the kayak and the teenager clinging to it.
They deployed a flare to mark the position, made radio contact with Keaulana, the nearest navigator, and indicated the location of Kahiau, they explained the coast guard.
“Boom, it appeared right before my sight. He was treading water and holding on to the middle of the kayak, and I saw his head above the water, and I was like, ‘Wait, he’s alive?'” Keaulana said. “Then I shouted: “Kahiau?!”, and when he said ‘Yes’, super calm, I burst into tears.”
By the time he was loaded onto the Keaulana boat, the 17-year-old had been in the ocean for almost 12 hours.
On the day the teen was stranded, ocean conditions were dangerous, with strong currents, strong winds and heavy surf, Keaulana said.
“I was very afraid that he had given up, because we have people who train for these things and it is still very difficult for us to be in the water in conditions like this. And this guy somehow survives the whole night,” Keaulana said.
Kahiau fell out of the kayak exactly where “all the currents that night were zigzagging back and forth,” Coast Guard Lt. Col. Zach Hunter told The Associated Press. Hawaii News Now.
“It was incredibly rewarding,” he said. “I’ll spare you the expletives when we confirmed he was on that ship.”
Keaulana, a Polynesian traveler who comes from a family of Native Hawaiians including many other first responders, has saved thousands of people, including Kahiau. Saving lives, he says, is his passion and his purpose.
“I treat everyone like they are members of my own family. “Almost that whole night I was looking for my own son,” he said. “Being able to find him was very emotional.”
The moment Kahiau’s family heard his voice again was an eruption of joy, his mother told .
“They sounded like hyenas and monkeys in our room as we jumped for joy,” Kelehua Kawai said. “It was the worst night of our lives, followed by the best morning of our lives.”
During the almost 12 hours he was out there alone, Kahiau’s family felt every missing second, trying to help in the searches and impatiently awaiting the few updates.
“We were silent, terrified, speechless. We were fighting thoughts of hope, thoughts of despair and worst-case scenarios as we tried to maintain our faith in God, our faith in our rescuers and our faith in the ocean, which is a huge part of our lives around here,” Kawai said.
He considered taking his own surfboard to help search for his son, but feared that the dangerous currents would end up leaving his other two children “without their brother and without their mother.”
During his time alone in the Pacific, Kahiau was just as worried about his mother.
One of the first things he said after being rescued was, “I’m worried that my mother is worried about me,” Keaulana said. When she called her family to let them know she was okay, Keaulana said, “I could hear the whole family in the background cheering. “It was a super emotional trip back to shore.”
Kahiau was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition and treated for injuries and hypothermia, according to police. US Coast Guard.
He was released from the hospital Saturday morning and joined his kayak teammates to cheer them on during their conference championships, Kamehameha Schools told in a statement.
“Today was a celebration of an incredible young man, whose resilient and unbreakable spirit lifted the hearts of an entire community rejoicing in a miraculous outcome,” the statement said.
“To ensure this does not happen again, we have initiated a thorough review of the incident and will take responsibility for taking all necessary action. “We can do better, and we will.”
Kahiau says he plans to continue kayaking, but will carry this experience with him for the rest of his life.
“I didn’t know I could handle something like that, of that magnitude, and this situation showed me that I can,” he said.
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