Public hearings will be held across the state tonight and Thursday on a series of proposed rule changes that would allow the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to end its licensing program for water activity operators in Waikiki and Kaanapali.

"It’s time to update our rules so they are fair and equally applied to commercial operators operating everywhere in state waters," said William J. Aila, DLNR chairman. "Since the use of our waters is changing, these rules allow us greater flexibility to adapt to those changes."

The proposed rules would repeal a state licensing program for water activities in Waikiki and Kaanapali that has been in place since the mid-1990s, said Ed Underwood, Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation administrator.

"It doesn’t serve any purpose," Underwood said. "We are pumping out permits as fast as people apply. We give them a 10-question, open-book test and watch them catch two waves, and that’s their certification that they should be a bona fide surf instructor. Businesses should regulate the people that they hire."

Safety concerns about the changes could yield a large hearing turnout, said Louie Ferreira, a former pro surfer who works for Hawaiian Oceans, a Waikiki water activities company.

"I was a pro surfer on the North Shore," Ferreria said. "I’m licensed, and I can catch waves as big as these trees. There should be rigorous requirements that separate the real watermen from the nonwatermen."

Tom Copp of the Pale­kaiko Beachboys Club said lessening requirements would impair visitor safety and also could affect the jobs of water experts.

"Private enterprises could come in and hire teenagers for $10 an hour," he said.

The suggested changes can be reviewed online at dlnr.hawaii.gov/dobor/draft-rules or at any small-boat harbor from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.