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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, November 9, 2003

North Shore feeling crush of popularity

By Will Hoover
Advertiser North Shore Writer

The XCEL Surf Meet kicks off the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing contests at Sunset Beach, which wrap up the World Championship tour of professional surfing.

Photos by Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Terry Gerber monitors the surf season on O'ahu's North Shore with three-gallon tubs of ice cream.

"In September — the slowest month of the year — I might make four tubs, three times a week," said Gerber, who operates the Flavormania Exotic Gourmet Ice Cream Palace in the Hale'iwa Shopping Plaza.

Gerber hand-prepared twice that amount of ice cream the first week of November, traditionally the kickoff month for the North Shore's big-wave surf season — and he expects to reach 30 tubs a week in December.

And so it begins. From Hale'iwa to Sunset Beach to Turtle Bay, folks along the North Shore are gearing up for the tidal wave of humanity that will swell the area's population of 18,000 to 40,000 or more during the winter months.

The main attraction, Van's Triple Crown of Surfing, begins Nov. 12 and lasts six weeks. It is the culmination of the World Championship tour for the Association of Surfing Professionals. With it comes the multitude.

They come to mingle with the surf world elite, catch the contest action at Pipeline, Sunset Beach and Waimea, and be part of the hoopla and carnival atmosphere associated with the premiere surf destination.

"No where else in the world can you drive up to a surf spot with a Starbucks in hand, go out and surf for an hour in quality, world-class waves and then go to a restaurant and have dinner," said Randy Rarick, executive producer of the Triple Crown. "But Hale'iwa is not a sleepy little remote community anymore. That's just a fact you have to deal with."

A surfer prepares to paddle out at Sunset Beach as the big-wave season begins.


213

Rescue rate

October: 54 November: 194
December : 213

Reaction to that comes in a thousand variations, and depends on who's talking.

"How do I get ready for the surf season? Buy a universal joint for my windsurf," said Mike Hemperly, an artist who operates the Aloha Island Art kiosk at the Hale'iwa Market Place with his wife, Ilona. "I've had it up to here with surfers — and I'm a surfer."

Hemperly, who tools around Hale'iwa in a 1937 right-hand drive Ford Woody, recalls with fondness the remote, simple seaside community he found when he arrived more than three decades ago.

The North Shore's greatest asset today, according to Hemperly, is the genuine aloha spirit that those who live there bestow on those who visit. But he's not convinced that spirit is enhanced much by big-time surf contests.

"I feel like I've joined the circus, and the circus never left town," he said. "I call it the circus. Some people call it the Triple Crown."

According to a recent survey conducted by economic consultant Mike Markrich, the contests, pro surfers and such films as "Blue Crush," filmed on the North Shore, attract between $7 million and $8 million to the area during the big-wave season.

Joe Green, owner of Surf N Sea, one of the North Shore's largest surf gear establishments, says the numbers are only getting bigger.

"Used to be we were hitting under $200,000 in sales in October," Green said. "Now we're doing around $360,000" — more than he used to make in November. This month could top $400,000, and in December Green expects to gross more than half a million, he said.

"I'm seeing more traveling surfers from the Mainland this year than I've ever seen before."

Joe Green, who owns Surf N Sea surf shop in Hale'iwa, says winter sales continue to grow, and the season kicks off now in October.


$500K

Sales

October: Under $200,000
November: $360,000
December: $500,000 (est.)

Ice cream maker Gerber agrees that things appear to be looking up financially on the North Shore. He says he's coming off the biggest October in his 12 years in business, and has never seen so many new businesses coming all at once.

Even as he spoke, a new building was going up across the street, next to the new Malama Market, which opened Oct. 15.

Gerber said some international high rollers wash in with the Triple Crown, but their presence doesn't mean much to small merchants such as him, who aren't directly involved in ocean sports.

"The majority of the surfers who come in from all over the world double and triple up in a home and don't spend a lot of money," Gerber said.

That description fits Danny Bolton of Manchester, England, who along with eight of his mates from the Queens Royal Lancers of the British army were sharing a spartan three-bedroom apartment at the Backpackers Vacation Inns in Pupukea.

"It costs us about $20 each a night — it's a bargain, really," said Bolton, who, like his friends, had never surfed the North Shore but definitely planned to return. "We've been cooking all our meals here in the kitchen."

Joe Willis, desk clerk at Backpackers, said the inns have had more visitors than usual this year, which he believes is typical of North Shore rentals.

"I'd say we're 90 percent booked right now," said Willis. "By December, we'll be booked solid."

The incoming swarm presents a dilemma for those tasked with maintaining safety.

Crime doesn't increase significantly during the surf season, contrary to what people may believe, said Sgt. Fay Tamura of the Honolulu Police Department's Wahiawa station.

Danny Bolton, 20, and Jack Ellison, 18, British army troopers, have rented a place with seven fellow soldiers to practice surfing.


$20

Surfer lodgings

Nine surfers in a three-bedroom apartment @ $20 each a night

"Traffic is our biggest issue," Tamura said. "Every year that's our real big headache — to get to and from Kamehameha Highway, our major thoroughfare, where we have people parked all over the place."

The biggest traffic snarl is on the narrow road leading down to Waimea Bay, she added.

"People are seeing the North Shore in the movies and TV, so more and more beginner and intermediate surfers have been inspired to come and test their abilities — and ours at the same time," said Ocean Safety Capt. Bodo Van Der Leeden, sitting on the lifeguard tower at Waimea Beach.

"There are more people, and with those numbers there's not necessarily a proportional amount of experience."

To get an idea of the challenge the lifeguards face, one need only contrast rescue rates at Waimea Beach before and during the surf season.

Based on Ocean Safety figures from 1997 through 2002, the average October rescue rate at the beach is 54. That soars to 194 rescues in November and 213 in December. Rescues at Pipeline, Sunset and Ali'i/Hale'iwa follow a similar pattern.

Van Der Leeden probably speaks for many, though, when he emphasizes keeping things in perspective. After 25 years in the same spot, he's proud to be part of what is arguably the most experienced life-saving apparatus in the surf world. He qualifies to retire in two years.

"I don't plan on it," Van Der Leeden said. "I'm not going anywhere in a hurry. I'm really enjoying this. It's the North Shore."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.