Kona-area paddling coach Nathan Grocholski Lopez experienced one of every paddler’s worst fears — a leash failure that left him stranded in the open ocean at night for more than four hours last Thursday near Pine Trees Beach.
Less than a week later, Grocholski Lopez is back on the water — coaching youth paddlers for Big Island Jr. Va‘a — and also returned to his job, running his company, West Hawaii Window Washing.
He spoke to the Tribune-Herald on Monday as he was picking up students to head back out to the ocean.
“I was just really tired and dehydrated when they found me, but as soon as (doctors) gave me an IV, I felt OK,” Grocholski Lopez said.
Grocholski Lopez was recovered following a valiant rescue effort spearheaded by his friend Liam Powers, owner of tour company Sea Quest Hawaii.
While awaiting his rescue, hundreds of community members gathered along the shoreline — some shining lights from their trucks.
That community support has continued past his rescue.
“I have had tremendous support,” Grocholski Lopez said, “people looking for me that night, the people that found me — it was incredible. It was crazy, just how great this community is. I’m still getting people checking in on me.
“I think everyone is more worried about me than I was. I was comfortably swimming back to shore. It was unfortunate, but I was just pacing myself swimming back to shore.”
Grocholski Lopez is a highly experienced paddler and swimmer. He paddles competitively for Keauhou Canoe Club — and also credits his former swimming coach, Steve Borowski, for making him such a strong swimmer.
He also had prior experience being stranded in the ocean by an equipment failure.
“I had a long way to swim (Thursday night), but it wasn’t something I hadn’t done before,” Grocholski Lopez said.
Roughly 10 years ago, his canoe came apart on the open ocean, and he spent some time in the water before being rescued by a fishing boat.
“I was actually floating on my canoe before, a broken canoe,” he said. “I was floating, and I just waved down a fishing boat, and they got me.”
Last Thursday was much different. He was without even a piece of a canoe to float on, and was veiled in darkness.
Grocholski Lopez was leading a crew of youth paddlers from Mahaiula Beach Park to Honokohau Harbor to train in high winds. His students were in a separate canoe some distance behind him.
Grocholski Lopez’s ama (the arm-like component of an outrigger canoe which keeps it balanced on the water) was knocked off balance, flipping his vessel over.
“At one section of the paddle, the wind was blowing offshore, that means it was hitting my ama,” Grocholski Lopez said. ”It hit my ama pretty good, and that’s what flipped me — or huli’d me.”
However, said Grocholski Lopez, that was not the biggest problem. The real problem was a leash failure, which separated him from his canoe.
“I don’t know if (the leash) broke or my knot slipped loose,” Grocholski Lopez said. “My canoe blew out to sea, it slipped away faster than I could swim.
“I coach the kids that if your canoe is getting away from you faster than you can swim, and you kinda think you can’t get it, save your energy to swim to shore.”
Alone in the water under a rapidly setting sun, Grocholski Lopez was frightened, but not out of his element, and remained determined to make it to shore.
“I knew everyone was worried about me, because it had just gotten dark,” he said. “I was pretty comfortable swimming, I was tired, but I was comfortable.”
Powers — along with captains Mike Poerstel and Skyler Marciel — found Grocholski Lopez by calculating currents and creating a grid to search within. They eventually found him floating more than two miles from the shore, suffering from cramps and his eyes burning from the saltwater.
“(Powers, Poerstel and Marciel) did not hesitate to get in their boat in that crazy rough water,” Grocholski Lopez said. “Man, I can’t thank those guys enough. I don’t even know what to say.”
Grocholski Lopez spent the weekend resting, per doctor’s orders. He had plans to cross Kaiwi Channel between Molokai and Oahu, but had to sit it out. His son and one of his friends went in his place.
Grocholski Lopez told the Star-Advertiser that from now on, he and his paddlers will approach downwind paddles with added safety measures, like double-checking their canoe leashes and using tracking devices.