We watch weather here the way people watch traffic in Los Angeles.
Titchen, 47, chief of Honolulu Ocean Safety for almost four years: Here’s how he and a handful of the island’s 272 lifeguards handled the chaos that long weekend, as told to Outside. In fact, according to Titchen, the bulk of rescues made were surfers needing an assist. Everyone wanted to see the swell-which a Department of Land and Natural Resources official estimated to be 25 feet off Diamond Head on Sunday, a height not seen on the south shore since 1995-and most wanted to surf it. Thrill seekers came out en masse the two main towers of Waikiki reported 20,000 beach-goers that Saturday-twice its normal daily average. For perspective, the entire island has tallied an average of 2,400 rescues annually for the past two years.
But it was still a massive effort.īetween Friday, July 15, and Monday, July 18, Oahu lifeguards made 2,105 rescues on the southern, windward (east), and leeward (west) coasts, including 800 on Sunday alone. Titchen made arrangements accordingly-Ocean Safety more than doubled the number of lifeguards on duty on the south shore, from 25 to 65, signed off on longer shifts, and sent four extra jet-ski teams to patrol the waters. But the south shore by comparison, especially the tourist beach hub of Waikiki, tends to fall at the other end of the spectrum, where occasional swells might hit five to ten feet, and swimmers and surfers in the water aren’t always proficient. On Oahu, hype over wave size is largely limited to the North Shore, famous for its monster surf and the pros willing to take it on. It looked to be impressive and rare but not unprecedented. They’d treat the event as they would an incoming hurricane or tsunami. He’d watched video footage from Tahiti, where the swell typically rolls through before moving thousands of miles north to Hawaii. Tourist numbers were up, kids were out of school, locals were stoked. News of it was a hot topic among lifeguards, residents, and visitors alike, and as John Titchen, chief of Honolulu’s Ocean Safety Division, traded texts and emails with other local emergency-response-system staffs in preparation, he noted the anticipation and considered the consequences. During the second week of July on the island of Oahu, no one could stop talking about the huge incoming south swell.
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