At a popular spot known as China Wall on Oahu’s east shore, a yellow rescue tube is mounted on a pole high up in the bushes.

The tube, a flotation device, can and has been used to help save lives when people get in trouble in the ocean, according to Eric Kvick, treasurer of the Hawaii Kai Lions Club. Though not officially sanctioned by the city or state, it is one of several installed around Oahu due to a grass-roots, citizen-led effort by Kvick in partnership with the Rescue Tube Foundation on Kauai.

Kvick gave away 100 rescue tubes at Maunalua Bay in April, and is now in the midst of a fundraising campaign to give away another 1,000 to be purchased Jan. 31. The tubes cost about $80 each, shipping and hardware included.

In the first round, he gave away the rescue tubes to first responders, including paramedics, firefighters, residents who live on the water and a few homeowner associations.

“I’m pushing for 1,000 tubes and to make it happen sooner rather than later instead of waiting for someone drowned here,” said Kvick, a painting and carpentry contractor. “Let’s get the tubes there before it’s in memory of someone.”

The tubes are stationed, so far, at Spitting Cave, China Wall and on a private property in Kailua.

He says the rescue tubes have been used to save a life at least twice since July — once at Spitting Cave in August and once at China Wall in September.

Both are dangerous East Oahu spots without lifeguards where numerous people have gotten into trouble and drowned.

Branch Lotspeich, executive director of the Rescue Tube Foundation, has made it his mission to lower the number of drowning deaths not only in Hawaii, but around the world by making the tubes available.

“The reason we’re putting these rescue tubes out on the beach for family members, friends or good Samaritans to use is in fact to protect the rescuer,” he said. “By providing the rescuer with this flotation device, they’ll be able to go out and rescue someone. That’s happened time and time again.”

The program, in its ninth year, started as an outgrowth of the Rotary Club of Hanalei Bay’s efforts, according to Lotspeich. A citizen placed the first tube on a shrub at the remote Larsen’s Beach on Kauai’s North Shore in 2008, and within the first few weeks, someone used it to rescue a friend, according to Lotspeich.

Now there are more than 200 rescue tubes around Kauai shorelines, including the treacherous Queen’s Bath in Princeville, as well as some on the Big Island, Maui, Oahu and the mainland. The ones on Kauai have been used in at least 150 documented cases, he said.

Once, someone threw a rescue tube into the rip current after a couple got swept off the rocks at Queen’s Bath. It kept them afloat, he said, until lifeguards could get to them on a watercraft.

“No rescuer using one of these tubes, to date, has ever been injured that we’re aware of,” said Lotspeich.

The rescue tubes, about 4 feet long, are the same as the ones used by lifeguards except without metal clips on the end. Five-step instructions are printed on each one and featured in online videos.

Individuals are warned not to use them if they are not competent swimmers. They are also instructed to call 911 before going out.

Users put the strap over their shoulders, swim to the victim and pass the rescue tube to them. Then both hang onto the tube and wait to be rescued by lifeguards or swim to shore together.

While the grass-roots effort was saving lives, it wasn’t until 2013 that the Kauai Lifeguard Association and state Board of Land and Natural Resources, which owns beaches up to the high water mark, legitimized the program by signing documents allowing the rescue tube stations to be installed on Garden isle shorelines, with liability insurance in place. The association maintains the rescue tube stations.

Bridget Velasco, state drowning and spinal cord injury prevention coordinator, conducted a survey on the rescue tubes on Kauai.

While some concerns included whether the tubes would be misused or put a rescuer at risk, she received mostly positive feedback from both beachgoers and first responders.

Velasco recently presented her findings at the World Conference on Drowning Prevention in Vancouver, British Columbia. She continues to collect data from other islands, including Oahu.

She concluded that the rescue tubes are a “promising adjunct” to ocean safety, particularly when on-site first responders are limited or lacking.

For Kvick the rescue tubes could be a lifesaver.

“It’s just a matter of the rescue tube has to be at the right place at the right time,” he said. “They’re like fire extinguishers. They should be everywhere.”