Honolulu’s new Ocean Safety Chief Kurt Lager was sworn into office last month. Originally from San Diego, he has spent the last 20 years rising through the ranks as a lifeguard.
First hired under Ocean Safety Administrator Ralph Goto, Lager learned from his time at Makapuʻu beach. Ocean Safety became its own department in 2024 under Mayor Rick Blangiardi, and Lager had been the temporary director since then.
Lager stopped by The Conversation to talk about what’s ahead for the new department.
Interview highlights
On the Ocean Safety Department
KURT LAGER: We have 291 lifeguards who work for the department. And so our main objective is to prevent aquatic injuries and drownings. The plan going forward is to make sure that we achieve that goal as best as we can. And so we've become our own department as of May of last year. And so going into 2026, I was able to become the chief of Ocean Safety. And so I think we're just looking at taking the next steps to really achieve that goal of reducing drownings, especially among keiki. Keiki, ages 1 through 15, the number one cause of death is drowning. We want to really try to be preventive in our messaging and our actions and what we do, and expand our operations to prevent and then respond to any emergencies.
On the demand for lifeguard coverage
LAGER: We fully recognize that there is a demand outside what we call our regular business hours. Right now, we went to four 10-hour shifts, so we're working 10-hour days on the beach right now, which is 8 a.m. till 6:30 p.m., and just by doing that, looking at the statistics, we have seen island- and statewide, as the other counties have gone on these 10-hour shifts, a reduction in drowning. So I think it's showing that coverage helps. And so now what we got to figure out as a department is, specifically, I think, the summer months, between April through October, how we're going to expand those hours, those early morning hours, and then into the late-towards sunset time.
LAGER: You're seeing more parking spots because we're also trying to make sure there's adequate staffing at all our towers around the island. So we've seen increases in the number of guards at each location so that we can fully meet the demands that are asked of us.
On rescue units
LAGER: We have nine rescue units around the island that can respond to mobile cases where we don't have lifeguard towers. So when someone calls 911 we have lifeguards sitting in the joint Traffic Management Center. If you call 911 and ask for a lifeguard because something's happening in the water, you'll speak to a trained lifeguard who can get our response and get help to you as quickly as possible. So we have nine rescue units now, and that supplements the 12 other mobile responders who are our lieutenant supervisors out on the island. But we're looking at expanding, potentially adding more vehicles and jet skis out there as well.
On modernizing the department
LAGER: The underlying message is just, we're going to grow. We're going to grow because I think we're in a space where we need to modernize a little bit. … I think there's a lot more to be done, and we can look at different technologies. We're talking about expansion of hours. I think you're just going to see more increase in our services, and our services will be better and enhanced by the different technologies and things that we're putting in. Possibly drones, AI cameras. We're still using pen and paper in every single lifeguard tower to collect all our data and do our incident reporting, which then someone has to collect it, and then we have thousands of pieces of paper that have to be input into a computer and then filed away. So something simple, like putting an iPad in a lifeguard tower, and then we can get real-time data, real-time reporting, and information sharing with all the lifeguards around the island.
This story aired on The Conversation on Jan. 6, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this interview for the web.
