Waikīkī Beach

Waikīkī is about three kilometres of shore on the south side of Oʻahu, between the Ala Wai harbour and Diamond Head. What reads as one beach is really eight or nine named sections — Kūhiō, Fort DeRussy, Queen's, Kaimana among them — separated by groynes and seawalls, and the differences between them are considerable.

It matters historically for one thing above all. The reef here produces a long, slow, forgiving wave, and it was on this water that Duke Kahanamoku and the beachboys taught surfing to visitors in the early twentieth century, from which the sport spread worldwide. Before that Waikīkī was a wetland of fishponds and taro; the Ala Wai canal was cut in the 1920s to drain it, and the resort district was built on the reclaimed ground.

The beach itself is largely a construction. Natural sand here is thin, and the shore has been nourished repeatedly since the 1920s with sand brought from elsewhere on the island and, at various times, from further afield. Seawalls and groynes hold it in place. The water inside the reef is shallow, warm and almost waveless at the shore, with the surf breaking several hundred metres out — which is exactly why beginners learn here.

Development is total and vertical: hotels stand directly behind the sand along most of the length, with Kalākaua Avenue behind them. The beach remains public everywhere, as all Hawaii beaches are, and a continuous walk is possible at most tide states. Kaimana at the Diamond Head end is quieter and used mainly by residents.

Waikīkī is a resort district that happens to be historically important, and the second half of that sentence is the better reason to go. Beginners learning on the reef break are doing what has been done here for a century; the surfers who took the sport to California and Australia learned on this water. Anyone wanting space or a natural shoreline is on the wrong island, and the outer islands are a short flight and an entirely different proposition.