The Kalani High School Paddling Team had a bit of a scare Monday when an ocean wave inundated a double-hulled canoe with 12 of its members near Spitting Cave in East Oahu, prompting fire and Ocean Safety crews to help rescue them.
The swamping happened around 10:30 a.m. during practice with the double-hulled canoe and a separate single-hulled canoe, according to team members still huddled with parents and family at Maunalua Bay Beach Park. Nobody was hurt, but some members were sickened in the rough conditions, they said.
“It just like it swallowed us,” recounted Mika O’Shea, a 17-year-old Kalani senior.
“We could see people offshore and we were waving for help,” added Kanani Oyakawa, a 14-year-old freshman. “All the water flooded in, and we couldn’t get the water out.” A mix of boys and girls varsity and junior varsity paddlers were in the two canoes, the two girls said.
The single-hulled canoe with five paddlers was farther ahead, so it didn’t see the swamping and kept going, Oyakawa said, but nearby paddlers saw the team in trouble and called emergency officials for help.
The 12 stranded paddlers drifted for about 15 minutes back toward Hanauma Bay — “It kind of felt like a long time,” she said.
“The students went from Maunalua Bay to Sandy Beach and were on their way back when they got caught in a strong current,” Honolulu Emergency Services Department spokeswoman Shayne Enright said in an email. The surf there was small Monday, she added.
Ocean Safety officials responded on personal watercraft, and a family in a private boat nearby collected the paddlers and brought them back to Maunalua, Oyakawa said.
Her mother, Debbie Oyakawa, arrived at the beach park at 10:30 a.m. to pick up her daughter, who was supposed to finish practice by 11 a.m. The team didn’t arrive, however, and Honolulu Fire Department engines rolled into the parking lot around 11:15 a.m.
“I kind of freaked,” said Debbie Oyakawa, adding that she didn’t know what was going on. “I started praying.”
Her husband and Kanani’s father, John, said fire crews were informative of the situation.
HFD said it arrived there at 11:19 a.m. and found the canoes about 150 yards outside of Hanauma Bay, and that the private boat brought 11 of the paddlers back in. HFD also said it had accounted for all 17 paddlers.
Oyakawa said that after the rescue some paddlers switched places with team members in the single-hulled canoe, which could account for only 11 paddlers being brought to shore.
An HFD boat located the drifting double-hulled canoe and towed it to shore.
