Konawaena graduate, 18, dies in Captain Cook freediving incident

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – An 18-year-old Kailua-Kona man died Tuesday after disappearing while freediving off Captain Cook.

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Joven Young was diving with a friend off Pebble Beach at the bottom of Kaohe Road when the friend lost sight of him, Hawaii police said.

The friend waved down a nearby boat, which radioed the U.S. Coast Guard. Kona patrol officers responded around 1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, launching a multi-agency search.

Hawaii Fire Department search-and-rescue personnel found Young underwater at about 3:46 p.m. He was taken to Kona Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m.

Police have opened a coroner’s inquest investigation and ordered an autopsy. Foul play is not suspected.

Young moved from Oahu to Kona in ninth grade and graduated from Konawaena High School, where he played basketball all four years, Keri Blas, the mother of Young’s girlfriend, told Hawaii News Now in a statement.

Blas said Young enjoyed diving, fishing, surfing and “exploring secret waterfalls.” His senior year, she said, “he dedicated his life to Jesus and was planning on leaving to the Coast Guard in January.”

Young leaves behind parents Tracy and Jason Young, sister Makenna and brother Jordy, along with girlfriend Kalei Blas, whom he had dated since freshman year.

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“They both lived a Christ-like life and planned on spending their lives together after Kalei finishes nursing school and he with the Coast Guard,” Blas said in the statement. “He will be missed by so many.”

Friend and former teammate Matthew Clark told Hawaii News Now in a text message that Young was one of his first friends after moving to Hawaii Island.

“He had a funny way of showing it, but he genuinely had a big love for me and our other friends on the basketball team on and off the court,” Clark wrote.

Clark said Young was the team’s best three-point shooter, “well known around the island for that,” and that he loved “God, his family, his girlfriend, and his teammates.”

“He passed doing the things he truly loved,” Clark wrote.

Former coach Donald Awa, who coached Young for four years, said the team won a BIIF championship last year.

“He was just a good kid, didn’t deserve this, but just a terrible accident,” Awa said.

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A GoFundMe has been set up to support Young’s family.