Film: Jet Ski Rescue (United States)

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00:00:00: SOUND UP; [MUSIC PLAYS]; JET SKI RESCUE; [SOUND OF WAVES]; VOICE OVER P.A. SYSTEM: Once again I want to remind beachgoers that we do have infrequent but dangerous waves coming through. If you do not have two body-surfing fins and experience at this beach, please stay on the shore. And the parents with little ones, as you can see, the water is very stormy along the shore, so please keep them up on dry sand, thank you.; [MUSIC PLAYS]; [SOUND OF WAVES]
00:01:20: [SOUND OF HELICOPTER]; CHARLIE: And how has the jet ski changed the role of the lifeguard in rescues?; ABE: From a lifeguarding perspective, you know, rescues that used to take a half an hour to go out and get one guy with a board and fins and tube, now you can do those in a few seconds, you know?; [MUSIC PLAYS]; ABE: There’s only one jet ski on this side of the island and there’s five guarded beaches, and you’ve got to try and spread the wealth, so to say, and be there for all of them.; CHARLIE: But tell me about the rescue you did at Pipeline that almost revolutionized the jet ski.; TERRY: It was a big day, it was like 15 feet, you know. And I dropped my partner off on the beach to clear the path, so I could run the jet ski up. And some photographers were running down the beach, yelling, waving and screaming and yelling at me like, Terry! Terry! Terry! and they’re pointing and telling me… And I’m getting ready to go up the beach, and I’m looking at all the commotion, people on the beach just waving and waving, pointing and pointing, and I started going, What’s going on, and I looked, couldn’t even really see, then I saw the board. I saw the board “tombstoning” — they call it tombstoning where it’s attached to his leash, the board was broken in half, and it was tombstoning, just going down the rip.
00:02:47: TERRY: I raced over there on the jet ski on the inside, at Aukai and all these massive waves are coming at me, and just rushed him in on the beach, and did CPR for about five, ten minutes, and we revived him. Whoo, there’s a wave out there, look at that!; CHARLIE: Look at that! Look at that. Is that beautiful or what?; TERRY:That’s a big one.
00:03:07: CHARLIE: You know what Terry was saying was the problem wasn’t more jet skis but not having enough qualified riders of jet skis.; KERRY: Our problem is with our training, and the certification, what it takes to be a ski operator. Jet ski in the wrong hands, can be quite disastrous. That piece of equipment is your lifeline, it gets you out into that giant surf.; [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:03:33: TERRY: It just comes natural. I mean, we’ve been doing it so long, so, you know? And the part is to is, me being the old dog on the things, me trying to pass my knowledge on to the younger generation. You know, because when I pass away, I want to make sure they get all this knowledge from me. I don’t want to take it with me, I want to give it to them. And then I want them to pass it on to their younger generation when it starts coming up, you know. So that’s what I try to do, I try to teach all the knowledge and stuff I gained from all the mistakes I made out there in the water, all the wipeouts I took, all the near-drowning that I had, I pass it on. I teach it to the younger guys, you know?; [MUSIC PLAYS]; END OF FILM

Jet Ski Rescue

At Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu, epic waves mean epic rescues. Charles Annenberg Weingarten hits the waves with the Terry Ahue, President of the Hawaiian Water Patrol, and learns firsthand how struggling surfers are brought to safety. When the waves are at their biggest, Hawaii's jet ski rescue teams are at their best.

: United States
Location:: Oahu, Hawaii
Date:: February 2008
Grants Awarded:: North Shore Lifeguard Association ($100,000) , Hawaiian Lifeguard Association ($250,000)