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1 May 2004
Hawaii is a dangerous place
Vacation at
your peril
By Terry Riley
When we arrived at the airport in Kauai, there was a nice greeting
from the flight attendant welcoming us to the island. That marked the end
of our relaxing vacation. For the week that was to follow we were not only
on vacation, we were on edge.
After retrieving our luggage at the Lihue Airport, we hopped a shuttle
to the rental car agency. With a nice smile and pleasant disposition the
agent instructed us about how we were responsible
for any damage to the vehicle and were liable for all kinds of bad stuff that might happen
to us or to others. I signed the contract in two places and initialed it
in a half-dozen more, promising, I suppose (who ever reads those things?)
that I'll return their car in good shape and won't mow down anybody in the
meantime.
Our next stop was our rented condo in Poipu.
Again we were greeted by a friendly woman at the Aston ResortQuest office
who gave us a couple of beach towels and keys to a variety of door locks,
padlocks, and safes. Then she handed us a card with the following message:
BEACH WARNING!!!
IMPORTANT: While our beaches are
lovely, potential danger exists due to ever-changing water conditions. The
beach can appear deceptively calm and yet be capable of inflicting severe
injury or even death. When you arrive at a beach, look for warning signs
and flags. Speak with lifeguards to familiarize yourself with the beach's
conditions (which will differ from season to season).
Beware: Not all
beaches have warning signs, flags or lifeguards. Never turn your back on
the waves or allow children to play in the water unattended. Ask about
special conditions at this hotel. PLEASE TAKE THE EXTRA COPY OF THIS
MESSAGE TO YOUR ROOM AND SHARE IT WITH ALL ROOM OCCUPANTS SO ALL CAN BE
INFORMED OF THIS IMPORTANT WARNING!
[Evidently, the lawyers for Aston had arrived ahead of us.]
Undaunted, we mustered up our nerve the following morning and found our way to Kee Beach, a
nice stretch of fine sand at the end of the road that loops most of the way
around the island. Again we were
greeted. This time, however, the greeting was not
from a pleasant native
but from a
slew of signs indicating that the warning we got from the Aston rep was no
fluke and
that if we expect to return at all from our trip, we had better darn well
stay away from the ocean.
"It's okay," I said. "Why would we want to go in the water anyway?
It's just Hawaii. It's not like we can't go swimming in the ocean back
home in Santa Cruz." (I omitted the part about how the ocean water temperature
in Santa Cruz rarely rises to
60 degrees.) "Lets hit the
trails instead. How dangerous can that be?" Off we went.
 About
two miles into the hike along the Kalalau trail,
we were met with a subset of signs indicating more hazardous conditions.
(One has to wonder how the heck the Polynesians were able to land on these
islands, much less colonize them, with all these
treacherous circumstances.)
"Well," we figured, "too much danger here. Better head back to the condo."
On our way back to Poipu, we spotted a flyer from
Kauai Backcountry Adventures advertising a tubing
journey down an irrigation
ditch. Now how dangerous could that be?
We signed up for the following morning's trip and showed up at 8:00 am
sharp. We signed in and were handed a "Release
of Liability" form to complete which included a page full of warnings from which
I've drawn only a portion here:
I acknowledge that hiking, kayaking and tubing entails known and
unknown risks, which could result in physical or emotional injury,
paralysis, death, or damage to myself, to property, or to third
parties.... The known and unknown risks include, among other things:
slipping and falling; falling objects and rocks; water hazards; accidental
drowning; exhaustion; extreme temperature exposure which could lead to
hypothermia, sunstroke, sunburn, and heat exhaustion; dehydration;
possible encounters with wild animals, insects, and hazardous plants.
Well we survived the ditches, tunnels, and flumes without suffering
any apparent "physical or emotional injury." What a relief. Then it
was back to the safety of the condo and its double locks, where we spent the
remaining days of our vacation out of harms way watching
C-SPAN, ESPN, and Jerry Springer.
We will return to Kauai, but the next time we visit, we are bringing
armored beach chairs for the fine sand and an attorney for the fine
print.
© 2004 Applied Psychology
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