State officials are working on proposed rules that would require permits on certain beaches for a variety of commercial activities, including surf schools, kayak rentals and weddings, officials said. The regulation comes years after commercial tour boating out of Hanalei
State officials are working on proposed rules that would require permits on certain beaches for a variety of commercial activities, including surf schools, kayak rentals and weddings, officials said.
The regulation comes years after commercial tour boating out of Hanalei Bay came under state regulation, with the issue of using state-controlled beaches a key one in the controversy that went on for years.
“We’re going down the pathway of establishing rules for the beach area,” said Dede Mamiya, administrator for the land division of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
She said beachgoers and businesses that operate on beaches are “competing for limited space.”
“People from the public, even other businesses, are looking to us to give them answers as to dealing with those conflicts,” Mamiya said.
Proposed rules for permitting are not final and discussions between the state and the wedding industry are ongoing.
The new rules may also begin to regulate surfing schools.
Surfing schools, a for-pay beach activity where a local surfer teachers visitors the basics of riding a surfboard at beaches used by local surfers and swimmers, are now found across Kaua‘i.
Former women’s world-champion surfer Margo Oberg has given surfing instruction at Po‘ipu Beach for years.
Now surf schools are flourishing on the East Side at Wailua, on the North Shore at Hanalei and at other locations.
Most of the schools are mobile, run out of a pickup truck full of surfboards.
Having a visitor actually stand up and ride a wave are a major attraction, and some schools give a money-back guarantee if they the visitor doesn’t stand.
Beach weddings on Kaua‘i are often performed by a local minister licensed to perform marriages. The cost and complexity of the beach weddings is usually fairly simple, though they can be part of a package sale that includes photos and a video, a wedding meal off the beach, limo rides and other features. and can be quite simple.
Beach wedding locations are used at no charge, are sometimes held at sundown and are a key ingrediant in an industry that brings in millions of dollars to Hawai‘i each year.
About three dozen “wedding consultants” are listed in the Kaua‘i Yellow Pages, and more can be found by doing an Internet word search.
Operators range from small sole propreitorships to elaborate services provided by major results.
Diana George, president of the Maui Wedding Association, said she worries a permitting process would cause Hawai‘i to lose its standing as a top wedding destination. If permits are required, “I don’t even know how we could function like that,” said Karen Carson Russ, a pastor who officiates weddings.
One of the biggest problems wedding planners have with the proposal for permits is that applicants would need to apply at least three weeks but not more than two months before the wedding. That doesn’t work with the way people usually plan their weddings, they say.
Usually, couples either plan their weddings a year in advance and need to know where they will be able to hold their wedding, or tourists decide to get married on the spur of the moment while here on vacation.
“To say it has to be three weeks — this industry doesn’t work like that. We don’t have three weeks,” Russ said. Weddings and vow renewals are often “very spontaneous things.”
State tourism liaison Marsha Wienert said the beach use issue is one “where you try and balance the commercial activities with the public’s right to access.”
Land and Natural Resources Director Peter Young said new rules could include creating a space on the beach where weddings are permitted, “where it doesn’t negatively impact the beach experience for every other user.”
Other possibilities are creating a concession or prohibiting weddings on certain beaches.
On the Net: www.hawaii. gov/dlnr/
