The Drowning Capital of the USA

Now that our visit is nearly over I feel comfortable writing about the biggest Hawaiian hazard. No, it’s not the high price of groceries. And it’s not shark attack. That happens, but rarely.
However, a lot of people drown over here. Hawaii is the undisputed drowning capital of the USA. Every time we are here, someone drowns. Last winter a British tourist was swept off the North Shore rocks by a rogue wave. They never found the body. A few days later six GI’s from Schofield Barracks came out to Waimea Bay at midnight to experience the big surf. Experience it they did. Another big wave pulled all of them from the beach. Five made it back, but a female soldier was never found. We watched the helicopters search. Last December a Deputy Sheriff from California drowned at Sunset Beach. His family is suing. They allege the lifeguards had not posted warnings.
This may explain why almost every winter day there are warning signs everywhere. They even put up yellow police line tape when the surf is extremely high.
Two days ago a very experienced underwater photographer, Jon Mozo,  drowned at the Pipeline. It wasn’t even a day of big surf. You’ll note if you read this article that some big wave surfers (even small wave surfers are wearing helmets to keep their heads from being banged off the reef). There are an average of sixty drownings a year in Hawaii. When you consider the exposure, the millions of times tourists and locals enter the water, it’s probably not that high a figure, except to the sixty who make up the statistic.