(CNN) — It was a typical Wednesday evening for Noland Keaulana, who was fixing his truck at his grandparents’ house when he received an alert on his phone about a 17-year-old missing off the Honolulu coast.
Keaulana, who has been a lifeguard with the Honolulu Ocean Safety Department for 16 years, was off duty that night. Then, his wife called to tell him it was their friend’s son who was missing. For the next two hours, he paced impatiently, contemplating if he should join the search.
But finally, “I knew I couldn’t waste any more time,” Keaulana told CNN.
The missing 17-year-old was Kahiau Kawai. And as Keaulana and other rescuers made their way to the ocean, Kahiau was already hours into a struggle against the currents dragging him farther and farther out.
Kahiau had accidentally drifted away after his kayak capsized during his high school practice that evening.
“It was pretty rough out there, the waves were super strong and I just couldn’t fight the current. When the sun started setting and I was going further out as it got darker, that’s when I started to worry,” Kahiau told CNN.