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KAUA`I SPORTS
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Autumn in Hawaii
In New England, where I went to high school and college and medical school, autumn meant back to school, just as it does here. Also football, for those of us who care about that. A big difference in autumn between here and New England is the weather. Here in Hawaii there’s really not too much of autumn weather that stands out, except that we’re now officially in hurricane season and our fingers are always crossed that we won’t get hit. (Be prepared). Whereas in New England, autumn weather quite quickly starts to be different from summer. Days get shorter, leaves start turning colors and falling. I recall a lot of grey and drizzly days. And then there are 8-12 sparkling days with a briskness in the air that makes you feel very happy to be alive. If I knew just when those days were going to be, and if I had a StarTrek Spock Transporter, I would drop in for those days for sure. As I already mentioned, the big common denominator is back to school. That sounds simple enough but as we painfully learned last year, actually going to school is
By Monty Downs, MD Wilcox Hospital ER Doctor
going to be a huge step forward from last year. It certainly is looking like this is what’s going to happen as we emerge from the pandemic. My father was a great virologist and epidemiologist from a prior era and I am therefore most definitely a “vaxxer” and I thank all of you/ us who got vaccinated against coronavirus (along with other recommended vaccinations) and who are making our return to a prepandemic state more and more likely. From what I can gather from children, grandchildren, students and teachers, the year of Virtual learning pretty much sucked. Having never before heard the word “Zoom Meeting”, we can say that some things were learned and gained from the experience. And yes, some students figured out how to thrive academically. But the loss of socializing and high school sports and clubs was nothing short of damaging. Getting back to that in-person life will be savored, even though going to school has a hard and grinding aspect to it no matter how we slice it. “Summer Fun” is the name of a happy song
in Grease. And “back to school’ is traditionally a clunker, summer fun is over. But this year it’s a clunker with a happy twist. Well, what about water safety, which is what I’m supposed to be writing about? A step forward this summer is that we again had a Junior Lifeguard program. It ran at 50% of pre-pandemic volume and when the announced internet sign up time struck at 8AM on May 1st, the spots were filled by 8:05. We’re sad and concerned about the youth who didn’t get to participate in the program. As I write we’re trying to figure out how to do better. Ideal would be year-round activity. Covid took a terrible toll in many areas, and one was with Hawaii Aquatics Academy’s 2nd grade introduction to water safety program. Although its leader is a man from Oahu, Kauai was its most successful venue, with students from a number of our elementary schools participating. It was rolling full speed ahead in its 2nd year of operation when covid knocked out both its in-class sessions and inthe-pool sessions. A huge amount of work had gone into getting it rolling and hopefully the program can rise from the pandemic ashes. On the very positive and exciting side, as I write this an Oahu woman named Jessamy Hornor has started a non-profit that is advocating for the creation of a curriculum and
LIFEGUARDED BEACHES
Haena Beach ............. Northshore, Haena Hanalei Pavillion ......... Northshore, Hanalei Hanalei Bay Pine Trees .... Northshore, Hanalei Kee Beach ............... Northshore, Haena Anahola Beach ............ Eastside, Anahola Kealia Beach ................Eastside, Kapa`a Lydgate Beach ...............Eastside, Wailua Poipu Beach .............. Southshore, Poipu Salt Pond Beach ......... Westside, Hanapepe Kekaha Beach ............. Westside, Kekaha
classroom water safety education of our children. Jessamy herself lost her husband and one of her daughters about 5 years ago in an ocean tragedy on Oahu and she has somehow gathered herself and made it her life’s Mission to help our children understand water safety principles. The name of the non-profit is Ocean Safety Ohana and you can check out the website. The Ohana’s Mission states: “In representing the unique perspective of those who have lost loved ones to the ocean, Ocean Safety Ohana seeks to prevent other losses while nurturing a deeper relationship with our ocean and beaches.” I know first hand that Mrs. Hornor is determined to have a life-saving impact on our youth. The program won’t mature overnight but I believe it will become part of our Hawaii education via the new HOPE Initiative, a digital platform that is being developed for teachers and students Statewide. You can learn more about this by googling and navigating Hawaii Online Portal for Education (hence the abbreviation to HOPE Initiative). This Initiative has funding from covid CARES money, the goal being to address the new era of on-line learning. The Initiative is to be “an open-source collection of on-line lesson plans and teaching materials that will be free and accessible to students, teachers, and parents by 2020.” As for our waters themselves: Summer and early autumn are traditionally the calmer time of year, the time when we aren’t getting “bombed” by the great winter swells that are spawned by massive storms up in the Aleutians. (And of course big wave surfers dream about these swells). But . . . . Ocean accidents can and do certainly occur in the summer months and it by no means takes a 25 foot wave to cause trouble and disaster. In fact the case can be made that summer and early autumn are actually more dangerous than winter because more people venture into our oceans and onto our beaches and ledges, often not quite realizing that a 5 foot wave can carry great power and can cause strong rip currents.
