Focus on surf culture could revitalize maritime center

It remains a mystery to many people why our Honolulu Harbor waterfront isn’t more robust from a commercial point of view. The Aloha Tower Marketplace is a notorious example.

And right next to it are two decaying examples of shuttered enterprises — the Falls of Clyde sailing ship and the Hawai‘i Maritime Center. A well-known marketing person said it best: "Not enough warm bodies."

Yet across Ala Moana Boulevard are an estimated 50,000 daily workers. So the resident bodies are there. This same marketing guru added, "In my opinion, they aren’t there because there’s not enough of a ‘hook’ to get them there. Residents or visitors."

In the 1980s, the Falls of Clyde got enormous aid in the form of $2.5 million raised with the help of Bobby Pfeiffer, head of Matson; Henry Walker, head of then-Amfac; and Tommy Holmes, legendary waterman. It seemed to thrive for a while with the constant publicity push provided by The Honolulu Advertiser’s Bob Krauss. But those leading citizens have now passed on and when their passion died, the Falls of Clyde seemed to die, too. We all can see that today it is an embarrassing rusty hulk stripped of all its picturesque rigging.

The SHIP was to have a symbiotic relationship with its near neighbor, the Hawai‘i Maritime Center. And for a while it did. But the numbers of people going through the center’s turnstile were dismal from the beginning.

Philip White, the architect who designed the maritime center, explained its mission this way: For a long time the community felt a need to put together a continuum of the significant pivots in Hawaii’s vital relationship with the ocean and water. Prominent people wanted to put on display a continuum of the skilled Polynesian voyagers, the early navigators and explorers, the whalers, the fabled passenger ships, the tremendous cross-currents of the two world wars, and more.

In spite of museum-quality displays, a handsome building right on the waterfront, a neat little shop and a restaurant overlooking the water, it didn’t work. The museum was closed in 2009.

Why? Let’s list the ways. Not enough parking. Aloha Tower Marketplace never was enough of a draw to aid the museum. Residents and visitors apparently didn’t see the significance of Hawaii’s maritime past. And then there’s that elusive "hook" the marketers know must be there to successfully sell a product.

We believe there is a hook that will overcome all of the above. And that is to turn the museum into a world-class surfing and maritime center. Compared to all exhibits presently there, let’s face it, surfing is Hawaii. Surfing is action. Surfing has legendary figures. Surfing intrigues even the nonsurfer. It is colorful.

And surfing sells. Consider the Duke’s Waikiki restaurant, which leans on the legends of surfing with old photos and some boards and does a reported $20 million a year.

Or Haleiwa Joe’s on the North Shore, which is considered the Super Bowl of surfing.

Thriving surfing brands are sold in more than 60 retail stores in Honolulu. There are 16 surfing instruction outfits listed in the phone book.

Here is our wish list for reopening — and thus preserving — the center at Pier 7.

» First, the Bishop Museum would create a world-class surf exhibit using the historic boards and other memorabilia it already has in its storage areas.

» Encourage one of the Honolulu surf chains to take over the museum store and sell tickets to the surfing museum in its multiple outlets around town.

» Have Duke’s or another vendor take possession of the restaurant and sell tickets at its Waikiki location.

» Use the "surf" word in the rebranding but make the museum the center of popular water sports Hawaii is known for: paddling, windsurfing, kitesurfing, kayaking, swimming. People will catch on quickly.

» More than just exhibits, build the resident business by offering free meeting space for legitimate groups for all those water sports.

There are more, but this is enough to get started.

The Falls of Clyde should be preserved and located along the dock as a major focus of the historic importance of Honolulu as a shipping port.

We support the Friends of the Falls of Clyde in its quest to restore this wonderful historic sailing ship.

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Keep Hawaii Hawaii is a monthly column on island architecture and urban planning. Robert M. Fox, president of Fox Hawaii Inc., studied architecture in California and Japan. He was one of the founders of the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation in 1974. David Cheever, owner of David Cheever Marketing, has served on the boards of the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation and the Hawaii Architectural Foundation. Comments can be sent to keep-hawaiihawaii@staradvertiser.com.