Several of Hawai'i's top watermen on a busman's holiday to Japan found out this week that there's no such thing as a day off at the beach.

They were relaxing on Shonan Beach after a surf contest Sunday in Fujisawa when they heard just one word in English they could understand coming over the loudspeakers: "Rescue!"

After that, their training and instincts simply kicked in.

"I just grabbed a board and went," said Jason Patterson. "If it had happened on my day off in Hawai'i, I would have done the same thing."

Patterson, who works on a city and county rescue squad in Leeward O'ahu, was part of a contingent of Hawai'i surfers and rescue workers taking part in the annual Real B Voice Surf competition in Japan.

As the competition concluded and four hula halau were performing for the spectators, three Japanese youngsters got into trouble in the stormy 3- to 4-foot surf about 100 yards offshore.

"We were watching the entertainment and waiting for the results, when I heard someone say 'rescue,' and out of the corner of my eye I could see people running toward the surf," Patterson said.

While Japanese lifeguards were struggling to take some jet-powered rescue crafts off their trailers, Patterson and Jimmy Keaulana simply picked up the nearest 12-foot paddleboards and headed into the water where they had been surfing earlier in the day.

Patterson said he paused only long enough to remove a hat he had bought the day before but left on his sunglasses and T-shirt.

Meanwhile, Brian Keaulana, a well-known retired O'ahu lifeguard and now water-safety consultant, provided directions from shore.

"It was ugly-looking surf, a beach break with strong rips," said Brian Keaulana, who a day earlier had taught a risk-management class to a group of lifeguards from across Japan.

"The Japanese guys all ran for the water when the rescue began, but Jason and my brother thought first and went to get the big boards," Brian Keaulana said. "That's the kind of thing you learn with years of experience."

Patterson said he and Jimmy Keaulana quickly paddled through a crowd in the shore break and found two teenage girls clinging to a surfer's board in the deeper offshore water. "The surfer looked like he was in almost as much trouble as they were," he said.

The rescue was over in a few minutes.

Patterson brought a 14-year-old girl to shore on his board; Jimmy Keaulana brought her 13-year-old sister in; and a Japanese lifeguard on the jet-powered watercraft found their 11-year-old brother. All were shook up but uninjured.

Brian Keaulana and a Japanese lifeguard used one of the water craft to systematically search for a fourth youngster who was reported missing. He was eventually found safe on shore.

"After it was all done, the parents and the whole family came up to thank us," Patterson said.

Meanwhile, the Japanese lifeguards who had been learning in classrooms a day earlier got a real-life lesson in how to handle a life-and-death emergency.

"We are proud of Hawaiians, they go out to sea to save Japanese. We should share cultures," said Mitsuo Osawa, of the Shonan Outrigger Canoe Club Enoshima.

All in a day's work at the beach.