A bodyboard and a garden hose — this invention on Oʻahu’s North Shore sparked a revolution in surfer safety half a century ago.
With the World Surf League’s Lexus Pipe Challenger competition in full swing, HPR wanted to dive into the history of the modern ocean rescue system that has become a feature of competitive surfing and lifeguarding around the world.
Mark Dombroski began lifeguarding on Oʻahu’s North Shore in 1975 and retired in 2016. The Aikau brothers, Eddie and Clyde, recruited Dombroski and mentored him for the first few years of his career, as they and others worked to develop a rescue system using jet skis…