Teenager dives into action to save boaters off Waikane
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer
WAIKANE — When Parker Paredes spotted a boat capsized 180 feet off shore of Waikane Valley on Saturday afternoon, he wondered what was up. But when he saw two women in the ocean waving their arms in an effort to call for help, he knew he had to act.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Without a word to his brother and friends playing video games in another room, 16-year-old Paredes bolted from his auntie's beachside home, ran down a 60-yard wooden pier and dived into the water.
Parker Paredes, a 16-year-old sophomore at Kamehameha Schools, looks at the end of the pier where he helped save two women last weekend. One of the women was being battered as waves trapped her between the pier and her boat, and Paredes jumped into the water to free her.
By this time, the women — Kathy Ciulla, 40, and Kyoko Higuchi, 32 — had been clinging to their capsized 14-foot catamaran for an hour as it drifted in strong winds and choppy seas from the vicinity of Kualoa Beach Park, about a mile away. The ordeal had sapped their strength, and now the craft had pinned Ciulla against the pier piling and was pounding her with every wave.
"What a nightmare," Ciulla said yesterday, adding that she or her friend could have drowned. "I was crying. I have never been so scared."
The two women had sailed out earlier from a beach house across from Kualoa Ranch to a place called Secret Island off Kualoa Beach Park for a picnic. Small-craft warnings were posted for the island on Saturday, but Ciulla said she thought she could handle the boat as long as she didn't go too fast.
Ciulla said she has sailed for about 10 years but goes out only about five times a year. In all those years she had never flipped her boat.
She was able to get to the island for the picnic but ran into trouble when trying to return home, which required tacking, a series of zig-zag turns while sailing into the wind. When she tried another maneuver to turn the boat toward home, strong winds caught the sail and tipped the boat over, sending Ciulla and Higuchi into the water.
They were able to right the boat, but only for a matter of seconds before it flipped again. The women ran out of energy and couldn't right the boat again, she said. They had failed to put on their lifejackets before leaving the island, so all they could do was hang on to the hull.
Fortunately the wind was blowing the two and the boat straight to the long pier, which is kept in good condition because the owners use it to launch fishing boats and as a setting for movies. The pier appeared in "Godzilla" and "50 First Dates," Paredes said.
The pier was the closest the women had come to land since the boat overturned, but safety still seemed out of reach.
The next thing they knew, there was Paredes in the water.
Ciulla was trying to protect her boat and keep it away from the concrete piling while Higuchi hung on.
Paredes said once in the water he tried to pry the boat off Ciulla, but the waves and strong winds made it difficult.
"I knew I had to help either way I could, but for a while I wasn't sure I could get her free," said Paredes, a Kamehameha Schools student. The boat wouldn't budge and Ciulla showed signs of fatigue, grunting with pain every time a wave hit the boat, slamming it into her stomach, he said.
PAREDES
Finally, with his feet against the boat and his back against the pier, Paredes concentrated all his energy and freed Ciulla, who grabbed on to the hull along with her friend. The effort left Paredes with cuts on his feet and scrapes on his back.
The three tried to right the boat but couldn't.
Minutes later, learning about the situation from his auntie, Paredes' 14-year-old brother, Corey, and 15-year-old friend, Shane Galapia, both Castle High School students, jumped into the water to help.
Together, the three boys managed to move the boat to shallow water and flip it over.
Corey Paredes said his brother is a hero and the type of guy who would help someone in need.
"He's always there for me," Corey Paredes said.
But the women's struggles didn't end there.
Once the boat was upright and the women had a chance to rest, they decided to sail the vessel home. They had called a friend for help, but canceled that request and set sail again, Ciulla said, admitting it was a mistake.
"I got back out in the bay and I still couldn't turn the boat, so I ended by the Hygienic Store and beached it," she said.
Crying and wet, she walked across the road to the store in Kahalu'u to use the phone but couldn't reach the friend she had called.
The friend, Trey Eichelberger, never got the message not to come, so he had showed up at the Waikane pier. He and Steve Pawley, a friend of the boys, had watched Ciulla's progress with binoculars and knew she was in trouble again because she hadn't turned toward Kualoa. The men followed in a car to the Kahalu'u store and took the women home.
This week, Ciulla thanked everyone for their help, giving gifts to all involved, with movie tickets and food coupons for Paredes and the other two boys.
"They were heroes, the way they jumped right in," Ciulla said.
As for her sailing, Ciulla said she learned an important lesson.
"Never again," Ciulla said, adding that she has added some safety equipment to her boat. "I learned a lot. I'll never go out in a small-craft advisory again."
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
