HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY - ‘AU:  Swim
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY -
“Swim carefully in quiet waters, lest it splash into the eyes.”

September 29, 1961: The East Maui Irrigation Ditches, which currently bring as much as 160 million gallons of water a day from East Maui to the Central Valley, are shown to serve another purpose. Keo Makama, a physical education instructor on Maui, learns to swim in a Maui irrigation ditch. On this day, he becomes the first person to swim the Kaiwi Channel, the body of water between Molokai and Oahu. It took him 15 hours and 37 minutes.

Two Maui Girls Die Swimming Lowrie Ditch
Swimming, tubing or rafting  is no longer allowed in Maui’s ditches. Community pools are wider and safer.

Sadly, last Sunday two teenage girls drowned in Haiku while swimming and rafting Lowrie Ditch near “Tubes.” They were 13-year-old Lucy Smith of Wailuku and 14-year-old Cherie Hurd of Haiku. Lucy Smith was a freshman and Cherie Hurd was a sophomore at King Kekaulike High School in Pukalani. Lowrie Ditch is one of four in the East Maui Irrigation system, which collects surface water from the windward slopes of Haleakala and transports it to Upcountry and Central Maui for use by residents and farmers.
Read The Maui News story ….

SWIMMING SAFETY TIPS