In the first lawsuits of their kind, two Oahu men allege that the state’s efforts in 2012 to resupply Waikiki Beach with sand raised the seafloor and left them with permanent and debilitating injuries.
Marc Tablit, a 26-year-old welder from Ewa Beach, was left "profoundly paralyzed" on Jan. 23, 2013, after he dived into waters off Waikiki from a "booze cruise" catamaran that he had safely dived from the year before, according to Tablit’s attorney, Gary Galiher.
From the neck down, Tablit has only slight movement in his right hand, Galiher said.
A year before, teacher, singer and movie and television actor Esmond Chung, 67, of Kaneohe was left with "catastrophic and permanent injuries to his neck and back" when he fell off a surfboard and planted his head into the sandy bottom about 200 feet from the Honolulu Police Department’s Waikiki substation, according to Chung’s lawsuit.
Chung grew up surfing in the same spot, where he also taught his son to surf. Before the Waikiki sand replenishment project began, Chung — who is 5 feet 10 1⁄2 inches tall — said the area where he hit the sand normally would have been 1 1⁄2 to 2 feet over his head.
Instead, on Dec. 2, 2012, Chung’s head went "boom" directly into the sand, he said.
Chung found himself face down in the water, paralyzed, saying to God, "‘If this it, thank you for this life.’"
Instead, two unidentified military members flipped over the surfer,and Chung recognized Waikiki lifeguards as he was taken to the Queen’s Medical Center where he was diagnosed as an "incomplete quadriplegic."
At a news conference Monday, Chung — a former Kamehameha Schools quarterback who also ran track — walked with difficulty and repeatedly had to hold onto chairs, a table and a lectern for support. Chung’s wife, Vivian, a surgical nurse at Castle Medical Center, had to help him put on his T-shirt Monday morning.
"Waikiki is supposed to be the safest surf spot on the island," Galiher said Monday after he filed separate lawsuits on behalf of Chung and Tablit. "This is no Pipeline. This is no Rocky Point."
The lawsuits seek unspecified damages and allege that the state Department of Land and Natural Resources had been warned that adding 24,000 cubic tons of sand to the beach would alter both the depth and clarity of the water.
The state attorney general’s office, which represents DLNR, said it had not been served with either lawsuit and had no comment Monday.
Tablit’s lawsuit also names Islands Beach Activities, which operates the Manu Kai Catamaran cruise off of Wakiki Beach — which Galiher called "the booziest of the booze cruises" because it has no alcohol limit.
Representatives for Islands Beach Activities did not respond to requests for comment.
Waikiki’s tourism industry had taken an international publicity hit when tourists openly complained about the dwindling shoreline, which prompted the state to again pump sand taken from offshore across a 1,700-foot-long stretch of beach between the Royal Hawaiian Hotel concrete groin and the Kuhio Beach crib wall at a cost of about $2.5 million.
Government officials cheered the completion of the project, and tourists loved the restored beach.
But Galiher said government officials also had a "duty" to warn returning tourists and local residents about "unnatural conditions," such as murky water and a shallower seabed that he said they created by restoring Waikiki Beach.
Galiher and his co-counsel, Dennis Potts, said they are having difficulty getting lifeguard and emergency responder data about similar accidents off of Waikiki since the beach was rebuilt.
So far, they said, only Chung and Tablit have been identified as suffering serious injuries related to a shallower seafloor.
Chung was an athlete at Kamehameha Schools (class of 1965) and sang and played guitar in Waikiki with his brother. In college he played football at Pacific University in Oregon before serving as an Army officer in Vietnam.
He was a familiar face playing various Honolulu police officers on the old "Hawaii Five-0" and "Magnum, P.I." television series and also appeared as a police officer in the movie "50 First Dates," among other TV and movie roles.
Chung has since returned to his substitute teaching job at King Intermediate School and also appeared as a neurosurgeon in an upcoming episode of the "Hawaii Five-0" reboot that is scheduled to air in January.
In addition, he has a role in a locally produced movie, "The Fishing Club."
Galiher has known Chung since boyhood and openly celebrated Chung’s rehabilitation. But Galiher said it’s unlikely that Chung will ever regain the strength and coordination to surf again.
"It’s hard sometimes," Chung said. "But I’m alive."
