NAWILIWILI, Kaua'i — Water safety officials, watching alarming drowning statistics, are sensing that they're finally starting to get some traction in warning tourists about dangerous ocean conditions.

But they are still fighting guidebooks, Web sites and word-of-mouth information that leads unknowing visitors into danger.

A key feature of any program to protect visitors is information, and for years, lifeguards have been fighting a difficult battle to educate people about ocean hazards. Many of them have launched their own individual efforts — often at their own expense — to warn visitors.

"One lifeguard started going to activity briefings," said Kaua'i Councilman Jay Furfaro, a former resort manager and also a former Makaha surfer and lifeguard.

Former firefighter Winston Welborn, who runs a marketing company called Wasabi Marketing Elements, launched the Web site www.kauaiexplorer.com, with daily updates from lifeguards around Kaua'i on beach conditions.

"He's up at 5 a.m. every morning taking calls from lifeguards. We don't have anyone willing to do that (on O'ahu)," said Ralph Goto, administrator of Honolulu's Ocean Safety and Lifeguard Services. There's a link to the site on a statewide beach safety site sponsored by the University of Hawai'i and Honolulu's city ocean safety office, he said.

Kaua'i officials are particularly concerned and involved in water safety education, in part because Kaua'i's drowning rate, as a percentage of population, is more than twice that of any other county.

Ocean safety personnel said they are thrilled Hawaiian Airlines is airing a brief water safety video on flights from the Mainland. But they are seeking other ways to get the word out.

At the Kaua'i Ocean Safety Awareness Conference at the Kaua'i Marriott Resort last week, emergency-room physician Monty Downs said water safety personnel have tried to find ways to get information to tourists at every possible contact point. He listed some: airlines, hotel concierges, guidebooks, car rental companies, travel wholesalers, baggage claim videos, visitor information Web sites, and, of course, lifeguards.

But the job isn't easy, and it's made even more difficult by information that leads visitors directly into danger.

Kaua'i Fire Chief Bob Westerman tells of sitting next to a couple on a plane, and being told they were headed for Queen's Bath on Kaua'i.

"They had a guidebook that showed it glassy calm on a summer day. I told them it wouldn't look like that in November."

In fact, Queen's Bath, a series of coastal pools on a rock shelf below the Princeville Resort, becomes extremely hazardous in even a small swell, as waves quickly suck bathers into deep, rough water.

Kaua'i ocean safety bureau supervisor Kalani Vierra said it is one of the island's key danger zones, and that's odd, because it's not easy to find. He said he went to Queen's Bath immediately after a recent drowning and found the area still filled with tourists. He polled them.

"Eight out of 10 said they learned about it from guidebooks," he said. "The others were word-of-mouth."

"We've got to decide how to approach things that may be misleading," said Sue Kanoho, head of the Kaua'i Visitors Bureau.

Welborn said one solution would be for every place where visitors stay — be it a big resort hotel or a tiny bed-and-breakfast — make available to their guests daily updates of ocean conditions. These would tell them which beaches were dangerous today, where they might likely find calm water for snorkeling, and where the guarded beaches are, as well as safety tips. His own site has a downloadable .pdf file that's updated daily.

"I welcome people to print it and slide it under every (guest's) door, even if they don't give me a cent," he said.

"Eighty-six percent of ocean drownings on Kaua'i are not residents over the five years from 2001 to 2005," said Dan Galanis, a state injury prevention epidemiologist.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.