An 18-year-old Kailua-Kona man died Tuesday after a dive at Pebble Beach in Captain Cook, a remote South Kona cove accessed only by a steep descent off Highway 11. The U.S. Coast Guard relayed a report that Joven Young was missing before a Hawaii Fire Department search and rescue team found him in the water and rushed him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead that evening.
According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, police responded to Pebble Beach at the bottom of Kaʻohe Road around 1 p.m. Tuesday after the U.S. Coast Guard relayed a report of a missing diver. Young's diving partner told authorities he had lost sight of him in the water. The fire department's search and rescue team located Young at about 3:45 p.m. and transported him to Kona Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m.
The Hawaiʻi Police Department is asking anyone with information to contact Detective Bradley Llanes of the Area II Criminal Investigation Section at (808) 326-4646, according to the Hawaiʻi Police Department. Investigators have initiated a coroner's inquest and ordered an autopsy to determine Young's exact cause of death, the department said, adding that foul play is not suspected at this time.
A Remote, Hazardous Shoreline
Pebble Beach sits at the bottom of a steep paved road that drops nearly 1,100 feet over about 1.1 miles in the Kona Paradise subdivision, starting off Highway 11 between mile markers 96 and 97, per HawaiiBeaches.com. The shoreline there is rocky basalt rather than sand, and the same guidebook notes the cove is known for strong center-cove currents and heavy wave action — hazardous enough that residents have installed orange safety flotation rings at beach entry points for water emergencies.
From that remote stretch of coastline, rescue crews faced a lengthy transport before reaching care. Kona Community Hospital in Kealakekua, where Young was taken, serves as the primary acute-care emergency facility for West Hawaii and sits roughly 20 to 25 minutes north of the Kona Paradise coastline, according to the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation.
Part of a Troubling Pattern on the Big Island
Young's death adds to a grim tally for Hawaii County, which has the highest drowning mortality rate of any county in the state at 18.72 deaths per 100,000 residents, compared with 11.78 per 100,000 in Honolulu County, per the Hawaii Department of Health. Statewide, 84% of fatal drownings occur in ocean waters, and free diving is listed among the top activity-related causes of those ocean fatalities, the department's data shows.
The case also echoes another recent loss in West Hawaii. In April, 26-year-old Mathen Jackson of Kailua-Kona died in a possible drowning after becoming distressed in the ocean at Lekeleke Bay in Keauhou, a case Hoodline covered in its report on the Kailua-Kona cliff-jump drowning; police opened a coroner's inquest in that incident as well. Hoodline has also reported on the island's broader lifeguard shortage amid its elevated resident drowning rate.
Why Inquests Follow Ocean Deaths
Under Hawaii legal procedure, police routinely open a coroner's inquest and order an autopsy for sudden, unattended, or ocean deaths so medical examiners can determine whether drowning or an underlying medical emergency caused the fatality, according to records from the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. That process is now underway for Young, with the autopsy expected to clarify what happened in the water.
Nearly half of ocean drowning victims over a decade were Hawaii residents, according to SFGATE. Pebble Beach, with no lifeguard presence and a difficult shoreline, fits that pattern. Lawmakers have taken some steps to address the state's drowning toll — Governor Josh Green signed Senate Bill 2841 into law in May 2024, designating May 15 as Hawaii Water Safety Day, according to Civil Beat.
