HONOLULU — A leading surfer group is speaking out against a state plan to replace a Waikiki beach wall with a new wall about 10 times larger, saying the larger wall would hurt wave quality.
The plan to replace the 90-year-old Royal Hawaiian wall known as a “groin” with a new 180-foot structure is the preferred alternative in an environmental assessment released by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
Keone Downing, son of big-wave surfing pioneer George Downing, said the Save Our Surf group opposes the plan because it would create an unsightly structure, change Waikiki Beach’s wave quality and lead to an influx of predatory eels.
“The ocean user includes a big group of surfers,” said Downing, who is also a member of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources. “If need be, all will come out to support the cause. I think if my dad asks for numbers, numbers will appear.”
Other options under consideration include adapting the existing groin and using it as the core of a new 160-foot-long wall.
The department will hold a public hearing on proposals today.
The preferred alternative for the wall between the Waikiki Sheraton and the Royal Hawaiian hotels is supported by the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association and Waikiki Beach Special Improvement District Association. The association has agreed to fund half the project — up to $750,000 if the design moves forward.
Rick Egged, who heads the beach improvement association, said the project is urgently needed and “may possibly provide a slight beach enhancement to the west side of the structure.”
Sea Engineering Inc., the lead design firm on the Royal Hawaiian groin project, has said the proposed sloping rock rubble mound would provide good wave energy dissipation and minimal wave reflection back to the shore breaks.
Downing disagrees and questions why the groin’s design dating back to the late 1920s cannot be repaired or replicated.
“I don’t believe that there has been a study about why the groin that is there has held for so long,” Downing said. “They should take out the broken parts and repair the existing wall or replicate it.”