We all know about guys and their competitive streaks, wanting to know who can spit farther, whose lawn is more manicured, who's got the bigger, er, car.

So what happens when, down on one knee with ring in hand, the testosterone running through their systems suddenly goes all gooey? If the Style Network's summertime series, "I Propose," is any indicator, they try to out-propose each other.

What's being termed a trend toward creative proposals is taking hold in the Islands, too.

"Guys are really getting creative, unique," said Tanna Dang, owner of Wedding Cafe at Manoa Marketplace, who hears many "how he proposed to me" stories.

"It's because of those shows, like ('I Propose,') 'Whose Wedding' and 'Platinum Weddings,' " she said. "Guys are starting to raise the bar. ... I think they're realizing how important that day is."

Adds Reneé Simon, executive director/current programming at Style Network, "I Propose" is hitting a nerve with younger viewers, who are jumping in to tales of grooms-to-be arranging proposals during hot-air balloon and skydiving dates.

"Maybe there's a whole new industry in this," said Simon. "Instead of a wedding industry, there's a proposal industry. Instead of having a wedding planner, you have a proposal planner."

Celebrity grooms get into the act, too: Backstreet Boys' Howie Dorough, 34, told People magazine that he'd proposed to his real-estate broker fiancee on New Year's Eve at a party in front of 40 loved ones, and was quoted as saying, "I was more nervous about (that) than about performing in front of 40,000 people."

In the justice of the peace system, proposals are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups: the fellows who make the offers of marriage and the women who receive them. These are their stories:

SURPRISE WITNESS

"I was a ball of nerves the whole time," recalls Remington Scott, a filmmaker now based in Los Angeles who proposed to Karin Last after wrapping up work on "Final Fantasy." Knowing he'd be leaving Hawai'i to shoot "Lord of the Rings" in New Zealand, he wanted her to know he was committed.

"Time was ticking," he said.

But the weather wasn't cooperating.

Scott, who purchased the ring "way in advance," wanted to take her for a swim to their favorite spot at Hanauma Bay to pop the question, but the April skies kept dumping rain.

FINALLY, THE CLOUDS PARTED ...

... On a day the bay was closed.

"I was desperate," he said. "I was leaving. That was the only day it was a nice day."

So he talked her into a visit to Ala Moana Beach Park. They swam out to the reef, then he told her he had a surprise.

"I dived down, got the ring out of my surfing shorts pocket and as I asked her the question, a honu popped up," Scott said.

"I swear, as if it was bearing witness. It was awesome."

He's glad he has that original story to share with the kiddies and, perhaps someday, grandkiddies.

"Getting on a knee in a restaurant is good, but you want something memorable," Scott said.

And, Scott notes, it's the one part of the proceedings where a guy has some control.

"You think you're gonna have control of the wedding, but you don't."

BANNER YEAR

For 'Aiea resident Richard Camilon, 2000 was a banner year. That's when he asked his wife, Armi, to marry him — with a banner.

Now, we're not saying that Camilon did this. HPD, if you're reading this, Camilon had a friend who did this:

His friend had a banner professionally made, proclaiming "Armi will you marry me?" which was hung on the skywalk over the freeway. He then drove to Waipahu to pick up Armi and brought her back to town, pulling over to the side of the highway at just the right spot.

Then he went on bended knee, asked her to look upwards and — once she agreed to the request — he ran up to yank down the sign.

"My mom was scared that I was going to get in trouble," said Camilon. "(I told her,) 'Too late, I already bought the banner.' "

Guys definitely are getting more elaborate in their proposals, Camilon said.

"I wanted to top everything else I heard of," he said. "It's human nature, bigger is better. I don't want to say women expect it, but when they're asked, 'How did he propose?' — they want a story. That's part of the engagement process now."

SONG SUNG TRUE

Gerhard "Kala" Borabora, who's in training for the National Guard in Kentucky, wrote in with his story of proposing to "my lovely fiancee, Lokalia Gorai," two years ago at his high school graduation party.

"My entire family is there, her mom is there as well my friends," he wrote.

He and his singing group, The Next Step, took to the stage to entertain.

"It was the last song we were going to sing. Mind you, she doesn't know what's going on," Borabora wrote. "So I ask her to please come up to the front and have a seat and she did, thinking I was going to sing for her."

The song? "Honey Baby," by Three Plus. As the crucial part of the song began, he dropped to his knee and sang the lyrics:

"Girl I just told you how I feel for you / And every word I said, yes you know it's true / Before I go there's just one more thing, my darlin' / I give you total commitment girl with this wedding ring."

They're engaged to be married on April 26.

WHY IS THIS CHINESE DUDE FOLLOWING US?

Kristoffer Pascual didn't leave his heart in San Francisco, but it is where he asked his future wife, Christy Navarrete, to marry him in 2006.

On the Golden Gate Bridge, no less.

They were planning to meet friends for what he'd told her was to be a visit to Marine World. They got a bit lost on the way to the bridge, all the time Pascual panicking because he'd hired a photographer to meet them there.

"I arranged it through e-mail, and he told me to look for the Asian guy with the camera!" he wrote. "I nodded my head to Ken (the photographer) and he nods at me back, so I assume this is the guy.

"I could tell Christy was getting irritated as we had been to the park numerous times already. Then she started to wonder why this Chinese dude was following us with his camera with his shutter going crazy."

He tried to distract her, then walked over to a rock wall overlooking the bridge.

"I pulled the blue box out, and dropped to one knee. I was lost for words — literally," Pascual said. "I didn't really have a speech ready. I just said 'Marry me!' She probably didn't even realize I was talking as she stared at her newfound diamond ring on her finger."

As you can see, the photographer did his job.

MAUI WOWIE

Vince Roberts wanted his proposal to Trina, his wife of now 15 years, to be special.

They had taken a trip to Maui, and spent the morning shopping in Lahaina. He said he'd considered distracting Trina and sneaking the engagement ring into the bowl of coral rings she was looking at in one store, "but that was too cheesy, kind of like the Cracker Jack box."

The stress was building, he wrote: "I had planned an engagement party at my parents' home in Kailua. I was a confident guy."

The last stop before flying home was Haleakala Crater.

"We drove to the top and walked up some steps to a lookout. As we walked up the steps, I was gasping for air as I knew the moment was arriving. She asked me what was wrong and I said it was the thin air, but it was really my nerves.

"I told her to close her eyes and make believe we were getting engaged right this moment. Clueless to my plan, she stuck out her left hand, closed her eyes with a big smile and said OK. I slipped the engagement ring on her finger and when she opened her eyes, her mouth hung open in surprise. I dropped to one knee and proposed."

After she accepted, he writes, he finally could breathe normally again.

"We flew home to a house full of people waiting for us."

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Cedric Yogi did it big when he asked Lei Rebibes for her hand on July 1.

"Lei is from Waialua, so her sister, Grace, suggested to do it at the monthly concert at the Waialua Bandstand," Yogi wrote.

Grace knew the director of the Naval Pacific Fleet Big Band, which would be playing, and called in a favor.

"Luckily (Lei) invited her close friends to come and join us," Yogi wrote. "My family came, but had to hide out until the proposal."

He enlisted the help of her little niece and two nephews. During a break in the music, the little ones took to the stage and unveiled three posters:

"Lei" read one ...

"Will You" read the next ...

"Marry Me" read the last.

"I asked her to stand up," he wrote. "I got down on one knee, then asked her to marry me."

It must have worked. The two plan to marry in November.

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