Woman Rescued Offshore at Kū‘au During SUP Downwind Run

A Pāʻia woman is safe after being rescued in waters off of Kūʻau during a Maliko Bay to Kahului Harbor downwind run aboard a standup paddle board on Sunday, June 4, 2017.

The woman had departed from Maliko with her husband, but became separated from him when she fell off her board and was unable to catch up to it as it drifted away.

The woman’s husband called 9-1-1 at around 1:03 p.m. after he lost sight of her outside the 2nd reef break as they were passing Kūʻau Point.

At 1:12 p.m., Pāʻia firefighters met up with the caller at Pāʻia Bay, near the Pāʻia Youth Center.  The man indicated that he had stopped outside of Pāʻia Bay to wait for his wife to catch up, but she did not show. He told rescuers that he began looking for his wife, and found her board adrift, but she was nowhere to be seen. That’s when he paddled to shore and called for help.

A lifeguard from Baldwin Beach Park on a rescue watercraft found the woman’s paddle board about a half-mile offshore of the Pāʻia area and began searching upwind of the board. The lifeguard eventually spotted the 42-year-old woman waving her paddle about 100 yards from shore near Tavares Bay. She was swimming in with the assistance of divers that were spearfishing in the area.

At around 1:20 p.m. lifeguards brought her safely to shore at a parking area that surfers use when accessing Tavares Bay.  Authorities say the woman was not injured. The lifeguard went back out and found the woman’s paddle board and took it back to Baldwin Beach Park where the couple could retrieve it.

The couple was experienced in paddle boarding, however Maui Fire Services Chief Edward Taomoto said the woman was embarrassed to say that she forgot to attach her leash to her ankle when the incident unexpectedly occurred.