A U.S. Coast Guard air crew records the moment early Thursday morning when a Hawaii teen’s uncle rescued him from the Pacific Ocean after the teen spent 11 hours lost at sea with his kayak. Photo courtesy U.S. Coast Guard
Oct. 19 (UPI) — A Hawaiian teenager who became separated from his high school paddling team after his kayak capsized this week was rescued after spending 11 hours lost at sea, officials say.
Kahiau Kawai, 17, was practicing rolling his kayak on Wednesday but lost his paddle when it floated away around 6:30 p.m. local time while he was about a half-mile south of the Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort in Honolulu, the Coast Guard Station Honolulu confirmed Thursday.
Honolulu Fire Department personnel notified the Coast Guard that a 17-year-old was missing and a search was launched.
Crews at Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point used an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter and an HC-130 Hercules airplane to conduct an aerial search while crews also launched a 45-foot response boat to search in the water.
The airplane crew spotted Kawai holding onto his kayak at 4:03 a.m. Thursday and used a flare to mark the location off the War Memorial Natatorium.
The crew helped guide an off-duty lifeguard from the Honolulu Ocean Safety Department, who rescued Kawaii from the water at 5:25 a.m.
The lifeguard, Noland Keaulana, is Kawai’s uncle and joined the search for his nephew upon learning he was missing at sea when his wife sent a text message alerting him of their nephew’s predicament.
“I was very shocked because that hadn’t happened to me before and especially in the waves,” the teen told KHON-TV in Honolulu. “It kind of just swept the paddle away and I knew I had to go to my boat because it was more stable.”
He said he shouted for help, but other boats were too far away to hear or see him.
The current carried his kayak about 5 miles out to sea, and Kawai said he had to focus on surviving.
“He’s a great waterman, and he really knows how the ocean works,” Kawai said of his uncle. “I think that’s what saved me.”
Keaulana said he used one of the safety department’s boats to conduct a 100-mile search for his nephew.
“I saw the kayak [and] I saw his head above water,” Keaulana told reporters. “I was so stoked to see that he was alive.”
He said he threw all of the blankets and towels in the boat over Kawai and drove him to shore.
He was hospitalized in serious but stable condition with hypothermia and reunited with his mother.