KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (4 May 2003) -- Kona's Rescue 7 fire crew pulled two scuba divers to safety Friday morning from heavy wave surge off Old Kona Airport Park's north end. "Every time we tried to get in to shore, the surge kept pulling us back," said Steve Skamnes, 34, after reaching land. "We wouldn't have made it without the rescue guys." Skamnes and his wife, Debra, 32, recognized the trouble after Steve's father, Bob, successfully reached shore a few seconds earlier. "This is the third or fourth time we've had a rescue exactly like this one, exactly in the same place the last two or three years," said rescue - boat helmsman Bimo Akiona afterward. "We wanted to get there fast, before they started to panic. I'm glad they didn't panic," Akiona said. He said they reached the site from Kailua Pier within three or four minutes of hitting the water. The couple had been treading water for 10 minutes. Firefighter Justin Yamamoto headed straight into the water from the shore with fins and a rescue float harness. The outward rip was "maybe three knots," Skamnes said later. "It pulled us out to sea faster than we could swim with our fins." | | Onshore, Bob Skamnes, 57, watched. "They were going up (on a wave) and I was yelling at them "Ride it in! Ride it in!" but they didn't." A passerby phoned 911. At that time, Steve Skamnes had less than three minutes of air left in his tank. "I kept swimming out," Skamnes said. "I kept telling Debra to swim out. She wanted to try again to get in." They did not know that help was on the way until Yamamoto began swimming toward them. "When we went out this morning, there was no rip, no surge," Bob Skamnes said. Before Yamamoto reached the stranded divers, Akiona and firefighter Neil Loyola pulled Debra and Steve Skamnes into the boat along with Yamamoto and headed back to the pier. The Skamnes families had arrived in Kona from their Sacramento homes the day before. Skamnes said they would have not entered the water if there had been some "caution signs letting people know about this. As a cautious and experienced diver who didn't want to get rescued, I would have paid attention. SOURCE - West Hawaii Today |
