Protecting Safe Ocean Access
Water sports Instructors:
A small but key part of the watersports community are the watersports instructors (and guides). The job of the instructor is to keep people safe during a lesson, and to teach them how to participate safely and responsibly. Instructors provide a vital service within the wider watersports community. The instructor’s job is to provide risk management for both the student and the surrounding public.
Maui is home to many outdoor activities and ocean sports:
Maui is home to many outdoor sports and ocean related activities. Our environment has produced many outstanding ocean athletes and a home-grown water sports community that has also created a world renowned watersports industry. With hand-shaped surfboards, custom canoes, surf gear, standup boards, sail makers, windsurf brands, and some of the best world’s kite manufacturers all born here and based here on Maui. Our State is most famous for the sports of surfing and outrigger canoeing, but Maui is also a Mecca for scuba, kayaking, standup paddling, windsurfing, and kiteboarding.
Continue reading “Maui’s Ocean Sports”Ocean Education and Accident Prevention:
Maui needs a lot more ocean education and preventative action up front. We sorely need more lifeguards, more warning signs, and more trained experts providing ocean safety education. Right now one of the obvious and most accessible avenues for ocean safety education is the County’s own Cora program. The Cora program plays an integral role in providing immediate hands-on safe recreational experiences, while also providing safety training and education.
Lifeguards overworked and underfunded:
Maui lifeguards do a terrific job, but they are overworked, underfunded, and spread very thin. The vast majority of Maui’s beaches are unprotected by lifeguards. The public has been asking for more lifeguards, especially at black spots (like Blackrock) for years, but it still hasn’t happened. Sadly, Lifeguards cannot guarantee public safety, because people still have accidents and fatalities in lifeguarded areas. Currently there are also many of Maui County’s mandated swim zones which are unpatrolled and unattended because of lack of manpower.
Continue reading “We need more Lifeguards”The ocean can be a deathtrap for the unwary:
When you have a high-risk ocean environment, mixed with inexperienced people, you have a recipe for disaster. There are many examples of people getting hurt, permanently injured or killed in our ocean waters.
Continue reading “The ocean can be a deathtrap”Ocean Recreation is Maui’s legacy to the world:
The Hawaiian affinity with the ocean has always driven water sports forward. Hawaiians were perhaps the original inventors of ocean recreation, fishing, swimming, canoe racing, canoe surfing, surfing contests, were just a few examples of historical ocean recreation activities. In more modern times, the Hawaiian rebirth of surfing, the invention of the surfing catamaran, the windsurfing revolution, strapped surfing, tow-in surfing, kiteboarding, Standup paddleboarding, and now foil-surfing, are all coming out of Hawaii, and much of this innovation and creativity comes out of Maui. Maui is to water sports what Silicone valley is to computers. Ocean Recreation is Maui’s legacy to the world, and Maui has changed the way the world plays in the ocean.
Our Island:
Maui is an island with 120 miles of coastline, there are approximately 30 miles of beaches. Maui County has about 85 beaches and only a very few of them are lifeguarded. Every beach is different and the weather and ocean conditions can change from one day to another. One of Maui’s biggest assets is its ocean and beaches, but it is also its biggest liability in terms of public risk. The ocean can be deceptively calm one day and could become deadly the next. Experienced watermen and waterwomen know how to spot the difference but many people do not.
Continue reading “Our Island”Beware of fake Surf schools, There are a lot of scammers out there. You have to watch out for them and don’t be fooled even by a slick webpage. They may have no insurance, be unsafe, unpermitted, and have to sneak around. Also be very careful of giving away your credit card and personal info too, fake instructors and schools can easily rip you off without even meeting you. Sadly fake surf schools and related scams are on the rise. Continue reading “Beware of Fake Surf Schools”
One day a few years back, San Diego lifeguard Chad Cox was surfing a knee-high day in La Jolla’s clear waters. Zipping along an inside section, he could easily see the sandy bottom. But when the wave jacked up and closed out over a section of sandbar, Cox was flipped off headfirst so fast that he didn’t even have time to get his hands up. Cox instantly realized that the clarity of the water had made the water look deeper than it actually was. His head hit the bottom first.
“I felt my whole body go numb,” he says.
Surfing injuries can be a pain to deal with. Especially when they keep you out of the waves for that once a year swell.
