surf beach 36

DIVERSITY AND ABUNDANCE OF ACTIVITIES LURE TRAVELERS
TO SURFING’S BIRTHPLACE
HONOLULU (April 2007) – “Surf’s Upscale as Sport Reverses Beach Bum
Image,” The New York Times heralded in its recent February 11 edition in a feature on
surfing’s growing popularity. And that’s certainly good news for Waikïkï, for there is
no better place to learn and practice the sport of Hawaiian royalty than on the swells
where it all started.
“People have been surfing in Waikïkï since 1200 A.D.; it’s an unbroken tradition,”
says Peter Apo, director of the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association. “Everyday
there’s been someone on the water with a surfboard.”
This history, combined with a variety of surf spots and myriad instructors, make
Waikïkï the world’s surfing capital. The fact that everyone from Hollywood glitterati to
Wall Street executives have ridden the swells at Waikïkï Beach is testament to the
beginner-friendly waves and the quality of the instructors.
Novelist Jane Porter is a case in point. The single mother of two from Seattle
came to Waikïkï a few years ago with no intention of learning to surf. But under the
guidance of instructor Ty Gurney, of Ty Gurney Surf School, Porter learned to catch
the waves – an experience that inspired her novel Flirting With Forty, which she recently
sold to Sony Pictures. Porter now has a second home near Diamond Head (Lë‘ahi) –
and a local surf-instructor boyfriend.
Gurney is hardly Waikïkï’s only instructor. There is also the Hans Hedemann
Surf School, as well as the beach boy concessions on the beach, where generations of
visitors have learned to surf. Check out the Waikïkï surfing museum at Malibu Shirts
in the Outrigger Waikiki Beach WalkTM, and you will see pictures of Hollywood stars
like Ginger Rogers dancing atop the waves way back when.
And for people not up to board surfing, there are outrigger canoe rides and
body boarding at the wall at Kühiö Beach.
“If you go down to the wall, you will see the greatest mix of tourists and local
kids enjoying the waves with smiles a mile wide,” Apo says.
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