Surfers may sue for wave access
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Staff Writer
An increase in the number of surf meets on the North Shore has recreational surfers threatening to take legal action against the city for not following its own rules regulating contests.
• Who: Let's Surf Coalition • When: 7 p.m. today • Where: Hale'iwa Surf Center • Topic: City's surf meet schedule
Despite rules that forbid tying up a surf beach for more than 15 days at a time, the city allowed meets to be scheduled for 40 days in a row at Pipeline last season, said Gil Riviere, president of the nonprofit Let's Surf Coalition, which was formed this year.
Public meeting
In violation of its own rules, the city also allowed the scheduling of more than four meets at one beach, simultaneous meets at separate beaches and ignored the 10-day no-contest period between meets, he said.
Hundreds of surfers were displaced by the meets, Riviere said.
Although the schedule for this year has not been released, Riviere said his coalition has hired an attorney and is ready to take the offensive if the city breaks the rules again this year.
"We're not trying to eliminate contests," said Riviere, but the coalition is ready to go to court if that's what it takes.
City officials did not respond to questions about the surfing issue. The schedule for this year's surf events has not been finalized because of conflicting requests.
In what has become a rite of winter, crowds flock to the North Shore every year to see the world-renowned waves and the people who ride them. But the big waves also bring surf meets, and that brings conflict to beaches from Sunset to Hale'iwa, with recreational surfers complaining that the contests deny them access to the waves on the best days of the season.
The group, which says it has 100 members but represents many more surfers, will hold a meeting tonight to discuss the issue.
The rules regarding surf meets cover six surf beaches: Mokule'ia, Hale'iwa, Waimea Bay, Pipeline (Ehukai), Sunset and Waiale'e. The rules are: • Only four contests at a beach per year, and each contest is limited to four days. • Contests have up to a 15-day holding period, where the organizer chooses the best four days of the 15 for the meet. Recreational surfers can surf the waves on the "off" days. • A beach then gets a "cooling-off" period, during which no contests can be held for 10 days after a meet ends. • No simultaneous contests may be scheduled at two different sites.
The city created rules in 1978 in response to surfers' complaints, Riviere said. The rules have since been amended and now the city is contemplating new rules, some say as a result of a lawsuit brought by a contest promoter who was denied a permit two years ago, he said.
The city's rules
The city prevailed in the suit, but last year it issued more permits, Riviere said. According to the coalition's Web site, last year the city scheduled six meets at Pipeline ('Ehukai), five at Hale'iwa, four at Sunset and one at Waimea, a total of 16.
Longtime surfer and coalition member Peter Cole said the city adhered to the rules until three years ago.
"Last year the rules were totally ignored," he said.
This year, the state Legislature passed a resolution asking the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to work with the city, surfers and event promoters to come up with state rules for surf contests. That process has not yet begun, but the coalition wants to be involved in any rule changes.
Randy Rarick, executive director for the Triple Crown of Surfing, said he agrees conceptually with the coalition, although he knows of other surf-meet promoters who want more contest dates.
Problems arose last season because promoters all wanted to schedule their contests during the peak of the season, which is from December to February, and the city tried to accommodate them, disregarding its own rules, Rarick said.
The result, he said, was the misconception that there were many more contests when in fact there were only a few more.
Rarick said the contests have positive economic return to the state and the community. His Triple Crown professional event generates about $5.3 million, he said. Amateur events do not generate the same kind of revenue, but their value is to the community and youths that participate in them, he said.
With 110,000 surfers in Hawai'i and at least 10,000 of them using the North Shore beaches, there's no doubt that the city needs to reserve time for recreational surfers, he said.
"As a promoter who has been doing events for 27 years, I think a 16-day maximum per site is adequate to meet the needs of the amateur and professional competitors, and there are plenty of other days for the recreational surfer," he said.
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
