emiller@westhawaiitoday.com BY ERIN MILLER | WEST HAWAII TODAY ADVERTISING A 67-year-old Keauhou man died Wednesday morning when the double hull canoe in which he was paddling overturned in Heeia Bay. Ten people were on board the canoe, West Hawaii Battalion
BY ERIN MILLER | WEST HAWAII TODAY
A 67-year-old Keauhou man died Wednesday morning when the double hull canoe in which he was paddling overturned in Heeia Bay.
Ten people were on board the canoe, West Hawaii Battalion Chief Ty Medeiros said. Fire Department personnel took two people, including the man who died, ashore in a commandeered boat. Three people swam to shore, Medeiros said. The remaining five were also taken to shore by Fire Department personnel, he added.
The canoe from Keauhou Canoe Club overturned at about 7 a.m. Police said all the paddlers were back ashore by 7:45 a.m.
Police said the man, whose identity was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at Kona Community Hospital at 7:58 a.m.
Holualoa resident Michele Baker, who was aboard the canoe, said the canoe rode one large wave, then was swamped by another not long after leaving the pier.
Some of the paddlers managed to grab the man who died, but they would lose their grasp on him when new waves would come, she said.
“From what happened in the beginning, when we got thrown out of the canoe and held underwater, hit by paddles and people, you can hardly catch your breath,” Baker said. “We were in really, really big trouble out there.”
Baker declined to release the dead man’s identity, but said he was a regular paddler with the club. Baker has been paddling for about a year, she said. Wednesday morning’s waves were the biggest she’d been on since she began paddling.
She questioned why the rescue workers didn’t toss life vests to the paddlers left clinging to the canoe while the apparently drowned paddler and another man, whom she described as panicky, were taken ashore.
A Fire Department official told her the rescue workers followed department protocol, rescuing the people in the most trouble first, she said.
Keauhou Canoe Club President Bill Armer arrived at the club after the canoe overturned. He said he heard varying reports about what happened and was still tracking down details.
emiller@westhawaiitoday.com
