about 8 winter seasons ago, i went out to the north shore to hang out and shoot my nephews and niece. it was such a beautiful day. the waves were around 3′ and very inviting. Seth and the other kids were having a normal day in paradise.
such a perfect little barreling sandbar for the kids to enjoy. i shot from the water, then from the land.
then i see these tourists walking down the beach to the waters edge. this is log cabins so there are no lifeguards. i see them getting closer and closer to the waters edge so i had a feeling that something bad was going to happen. why? because i see this all the time.
sure enough, 2 of the guys get swept off their feet by a wave, and sucked out to sea with the current. they were yelling help and fighting for their lives. Seth, Josh Kerr, and Todd Mitsui went out to help them. we always teach the kids ever in hawaii to never help somebody drowning with your bare hands. if you grab them, they will grab you and you won’t let you go. it’s a natural thing to do when you’re fighting for you life. so i was stoked to see Seth throw one of the guys his surfboard, just like he was taught.
they give the 2 guys their boards and help them in.
the best way to get a guy into the beach is to push them into a wave and let the wave take them in. it’s kind of funny for us surfers to watch because normal people would freak and think you are trying to kill them. haha. look at Kelia laughing as the tourist is about to get pounded. haha.
one of the guys finally got to the beach and collapsed. a tourist thinking he almost died in paradise.
i was super proud of Seth being relaxed and smart at such a young age. as soon as those guys were in trouble, he just went straight to help them without hesitating. i’m sure he will be saving more and more lives as he spends most of his time in the ocean.
the tourists walked back up the beautiful beach back to their car. they don’t even know how lucky they were that the kids were surfing this day. if nobody was out, the 2 guys would have died for sure.
please be safe in the ocean surrounding hawaii. it looks so inviting, but things can and will change very fast. it happens all the time.
