Limits on beach business sought
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
LAHAINA, Maui — When Nancy Emerson started to teach surfing in the 1970s, her school was the only one on Maui.
Timothy Hurley • The Honolulu Advertiser
Today, it's a much different story. In just the past few years, the surfing-school business has exploded, with instructors jockeying for beach space and students vying for the limited wave action.
Surfers vie for position off Cove Park in Kihei, Maui. County officials say the growing numbers of surf schools and other ocean-activity businesses on Maui beaches are dangerous and squeezeout the general public.
"It's crazy out there,'' said Emerson, a former surfing champion who learned the sport at age 9 from the beachboys at Waikiki. "It's dangerous. People are going to the hospital all the time. Somebody's going to die.''
Emerson has been complaining about the problem over the past several years, and Maui County officials apparently are starting to listen.
Saying conditions are hazardous and the general public is sometimes being squeezed out from using county beach parks, officials are moving to limit the number of ocean-activity businesses that can use the facilities.
The county Parks and Recreation Department has begun recommending that no new "ocean recreation activity business permits" be issued and that renewals of the one-year permits be denied while officials figure out how to make the law more restrictive.
Parks and Recreation Director Floyd Miyazono said the department will try to estimate the "carrying capacity'' for each beach park over the next few months and then propose changes to the County Code limiting the number of permittees.
"It is pretty hazardous," Miyazono said of the situation in the water. He noted there have been injuries and even fights.
Miyazono said the department has received many complaints, including some from residents who say there isn't enough room for both recreational users and the ocean-activity companies, especially on weekends.
The current ordinance does not limit the number of permits or restrict activity to certain beaches. New permittees can apply to run their businesses in as many beach parks as they want, as long as they pay a fee of $50 a year, have a
$1 million insurance policy and have a place of business where transactions can take place away from the park.
No applicants have been rejected since the permit was established in 1996. Forty permits have been issued.
"When this was first initiated, it was OK. There was a lot of room,'' Miyazono said.
But now, he said, 15 or 16 surfing schools operate out of Lahaina alone, many of them at the Lahaina Breakwall at Kamehameha Iki Park, which has a relatively small beach with limited surfing space. Many more operate illegally, he said, and enforcement is difficult.
Cove Park in Kihei is another county park with easy waves and an excess of surfing instruction.
"When it's 'surf's up' and it's tourist season, it seems like all the guys are trying to teach,'' said Parks Department official Roxanne Teshima. "A lot of them aren't certified. Any person can get some surfboards together and teach."
The problem isn't restricted to surfing-school businesses. Makena Landing is awash with kayak and scuba companies, and windsurfing schools are proliferating at Kanaha Beach Park.
Officials said the regulation effort may lead to a concessionaire system with formal bidding for the permits. That is likely to make acquiring a permit much more costly and bring in a lot more revenue to the county.
In Honolulu, the city takes in hundreds of thousands of dollars from concessions at places such as Hanauma Bay, Blaisdell Center and Honolulu Zoo. How much Maui County could reap is uncertain.
Whatever happens, a move to restrict businesses at Maui beach parks isn't going to please everyone.
"There is no guarantee all the businesses can use the same place they are using now,'' Teshima said. "Somebody is going to get mad. You can't please everybody and please the community. The surf breaks are limited, and only so many people can use them.''
Tim Sherer, owner of the Goofy-Foot surfing school in Lahaina, said conditions are crowded and some sort of regulation is needed. He said the county should proceed with caution and rely on the advice of reputable ocean-activity businesses.
"They need to work with the people actually in the water to get it right,'' Sherer said.
Emerson, who spends a good part of the year running her business in Australia, agrees, saying a committee of people knowledgeable of surfing and water safety should help draft regulations to govern the surf-school industry.
In addition to setting a restriction on how many schools may operate in any one area and how many students may be taken into the water at one time, there needs to be some minimum qualification standards for surf instructors, she said.
"I personally feel safety should be the No. 1 priority,'' she said.
