A one-of-a-kind bar will open at Turtle Bay Resort Nov. 12 following renovation of the hotel’s Bay Club space.

Surfer (The Bar) reflects the first known pairing of a magazine (Surfer) and a permanent food-and-beverage venue in Hawaii.

Disney extends its brand with properties that are not theme parks; celebrities and even cable sports networks have branded food-and-beverage joints, so why shouldn’t the king of surf publications have its name on an apres-surf hang in the birthplace of the sport?

It is "really unique" to have a publication tied to a bar, said Mark Taylor, who oversees events and special programs at Turtle Bay.

Not just any publication, but a "global brand that will help us to showcase" the North Shore as a destination, Taylor said.

Surfer (The Bar) will be a content-rich sports bar with all that the magazine brings to the party in the form of video and surf-themed decor, supplemented by marketing opportunities for companies that have had long-term relationships with the magazine, the hotel and Hawaii as a whole.

"Vans, Volcom, Reef, Da Hui and Quiksilver" will be well represented in the bar as they’ll outfit the employees and provide merchandise for sale, said Tony Perez, California-based publisher of Surfer and sister publications Surfing and SUP (stand-up paddling) magazines. The magazines are published by GrindMedia, a unit of Florida-based Source Interlink Cos. Inc.

The owners are hoping the bar’s appeal will be broad.

"Surfing is no longer a fringe (activity)," said the magazine’s Hawaii editor, Jeff Mull. The idea of fashioning a surf bar at a resort is akin to similar venues at ski resorts.

Because of its hard-wired, camera-infused infrastructure, Surfer (The Bar) also will be a media hub for news conferences and live online streaming or even subsequent webcasting of interviews and talk-story sessions with legendary or currently hot surfers, musical performances and any number of events.

Taylor’s background is in sports and event marketing, so the room, while "really focused on bringing in content from around the world," also will enable the North Shore to "go live around the world," extending its reach from just the 200 or so people "in the bar that night to thousands around the world. Tens of thousands," he said.

Surfer magazine began publication in 1960 and launched its Surfer Poll in 1964. It is a reader poll established to determine the most popular male and female surfers each year. The Surfer Poll gala at which winners are crowned moved back to Hawaii from California last year, to the Turtle Bay Resort.

Turtle Bay Resort opened in the early 1970s as Del Webb’s Kuilima Resort Hotel and Country Club. Webb was a well-known casino developer who thought he could extend that reputation to Hawaii. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Still, the resort did gain national attention in the mid-1970s as the setting for "The Diamond Head Game," Hawaii’s only nationally televised game show. Hosted by Bob Eubanks, it featured a "money volcano" (similar to the First Hawaiian Bank money chamber seen at the annual Made in Hawaii Festival).

Having learned that Turtle Bay was planning to renovate two of its bars, people with the soon-to-begin Vans Triple Crown of Surfing connected hotel leadership with officials at the magazine.

"Really, over a round of golf we brainstormed it and it came together," said Taylor.

Transformation of the Bay Club into Surfer (The Bar) and renovation of the hotel’s lobby bar is a $1.5 million undertaking. "People are going to see significant change," he said.

The work is part of the resort’s overall re-branding that includes a new website geared toward the experience travelers seek while on the North Shore, versus the traditional hotel website focused on rooms and rates with details about amenities.

"The last thing" surfers think about when North Shore-bound for vacation, is what the room is going to be like, said Taylor. They are far more focused on the experience they’ll have, and that is the focus of the new website.

The new ownership of the hotel is working to "reinvent the Turtle Bay brand" to "more connect with the community and the spirit of the North Shore of Oahu," and Surfer the magazine and the bar, with its high-tech trappings, will enable the hotel to "extend our brand massively."

Reach Erika Engle at erika@staradvertiser.com.