Kuon Phou tried twice Tuesday to save his friends who'd become trapped in a rip current before hitting his head on rocks and drowning, Hawaii newspapers reported.
Phou, 29, of Wilsonville, was in Maui with his fiancee, Alexandra Ness, and their families for the couple's wedding Saturday. Go here to see photos of the couple.
According to The Honolulu Advertiser, Phou, his brother, Michael, and friends were at the Polo Beach in Wailea on Tuesday when the friends became trapped in a rip current. Phou tried to rescue his friends but became tired so he came out of the surf. He then went back in with another beachgoer. While the beachgoer advised that the swimmers let the currents carry them around a rocky point, Phou swam toward them.
"Mr. Phou tried to swim directly into the rocks and that's when he got into trouble," Anthony Manoukian, the coroner's physician on Maui, told The Advertiser.
Maui Police Sgt. Jamie J. Becraft told the newspaper that the brothers were with four friends and that signs were posted on the beach warning of rip currents.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported that the area where Phou and his friends got into trouble is notorious for rip currents.
"It was really windy and choppy, and they were trying to swim against the rip and had already panicked," Allen Reynolds told the Star-Bulletin.
"It's hard to really picture just how messy this water gets and how choppy -- like a washing machine -- when the wind is really howling," said Polo Beach Club employee Andy Clark.
Clark says Reynolds has assisted with three rescues in two years at the rock outcroppings just south of Polo Beach, the most recent last year when a father and son were brought to shore.
"Those rocks look just nice and tame, like you just can pop out and hop on them, but you can't," said Clark. "It's undoable."
One of the men followed Reynolds' advice and made it to shore, but the other "suddenly turned towards the rocks where people were standing about 15 feet away," Reynolds recalled.
"I guess he just panicked. And it looked like he was trying to head for the people. ... Next thing, a wave passed him, and all I see is him face down in the water."
Jennifer Dale, a friend of the couple, remembered Kuon Phou fondly on Thursday in this email.