Honolulu lifeguard Brian Higa is described by some as a low-key guy who deflects talk about himself but takes his job seriously, sometimes jumping off a cliff at Yokohama Bay as rescue practice.

Higa, a lifeguard for about 18 years, reacted quickly in a daring rescue Tuesday of a 19-year-old Canadian man sucked off a cliff by a 10-foot wave.

Lifeguard Acting Lt. Hall Danon said he’s been a lifeguard for 23 years and has seen stunning rescues during winter swells at Waimea Bay, but believes Higa’s rescue ranks near the top of those he’s witnessed under human strength alone.

Part of the success was Higa’s rapid reaction, which Danon attributes to a Higa’s sixth sense about beachgoers in danger.

"That’s what saved that kid’s life," Danon said. "When he gets down to saving people, he’s a 200 percent man."

Higa, 54, said he was on a routine patrol in a lifeguard pickup truck about noon Tuesday when he saw four people looking over the edge "oblivious to the waves," despite the warning signs posted along the beach. They were past the road’s end at Yokohama Bay near an underground cave, called moi hole, that sends water spraying up onto the ground at its mouth.

He was about to warn the gawkers to move back, but was still about 200 yards away when a wave about 10 feet high crashed against the cave, spraying water over the edge, and sent the sightseers scampering in the other direction.

"I saw the wave, and all I saw was people running up," he said. "I drove in quickly."

The group was waving for help when he arrived, and Higa saw the man in the water, struggling to stay afloat. "Waves were just washing him like a piece of debris," he said.

Sharp rocks threatened the man, and Higa was in a rush to get him away from the moi hole.

"People get stuck in there, and they die," he said. "When it’s that rough it’s kind of like a no-man’s zone."

Higa radioed to his partner that he was going after the man, put on his fins and helmet, and jumped off the 25-foot cliff "running man-style" with a rescue tube in hand, timing his leap to land in a swell.

He reached his target, who was still conscious, placed him inside the tube and began a quarter-mile swim along the coast to a hole in the cliff, known as the keyhole.

Higa’s partner Kekua Flood, who was on the rocks, signaled that it was OK to make a break for the slot, which Higa saw as a one-time shot: if he missed, he would have to swim another half-mile down the coast. While a lifeguard on a Jet Ski was on the way, Higa didn’t want to risk getting caught against the rocks in a large set.

Danon said Higa had just swam against the current about 300 yards and was across the cliff opening with about 100 yards to go when he was became stuck in a vortex of currents coming from the moi hole and around the point.

"He was just windmilling," he said. "He was swimming like trying to win the Olympics."

Because of Higa’s knowledge of the surf, and how often the sets come in, and he went for the hole to the disbelief of others who thought they should wait for the Jet Ski, Danon said. 

"I saw the sets stacking up," he said. "He starts going. He just went for it hard."

Higa reached shore about 10 minutes since jumping in and was met by firefighters at the scene. Paramedics took the victim to the hospital in stable condition, an Emergency Medical Services spokesman said. Lifeguards said he had scrapes and possibly a broken pinkie.

Once the men were back on land, a large set came in, crashing against the rocks as the lifeguard on a Jet Ski arrived, Danon said.

"If (Higa) had waited any further, the victim and the rescuer would have just been like splatter against aa lava," Danon said. "It just went crazy. (Had they been there) it was death."