At first glance, the City and County of Honolulu’s draft revised rules governing permits for surf meets on Oahu’s North Shore may not seem to concern those who don’t live or surf there. However, by controlling shoreline usage for this vast stretch of our island, with its limited natural resources, such rules impact us all.

Even if you go Country only once in a while to view the big winter waves, as soon as you hit the two-lane highway between Haleiwa and Sunset Beach you’ll experience the traffic, limited public access, crowds and the wear and tear on the heavily used parks, beaches and ocean ecosystem that are at issue here.

“Surfing in my eyes today is really not in touch with the ocean,” said bodyboarder and cultural practitioner Kahekili LaBatte after testifying in a July 3 public hearing on the proposed Amendment and Compilation of Title 19, Chapter 4, City and County of Honolulu Administrative Rules from the city Department of Parks and Recreation. “Back in the day, people from the mountain to the sea had to see the whole thing was working correctly,” he said, noting that, starting with the cutting of a tree in the mountains to make his surfboard, a surfer was responsible for making sure no part of that tree went to waste.

LaBatte contrasted this with the piles of trash, including single-use plastics, that he helps clean up after World Surf League professional competitions as a volunteer with the local nonprofit Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii.

While the July 11 deadline for public comment has passed, that doesn’t mean our window of opportunity to be heard has closed; we’ll likely have more chances after the comments have been read and discussed.

“We need to determine what changes will potentially be made to the proposed rules,” said Nathan Serota, city public information officer, in an email. “That will dictate whether another public hearing is necessary.”

In March, following WSL’s cancellation of its 2019 Pipe Masters event when their date switch request was denied, Mayor Kirk Caldwell initiated a dialogue about how to fairly share these public resources. There are listeners at Honolulu Hale (although they’d hear more if they didn’t limit speakers to two minutes, as happened July 3), and they’ll hopefully consider the broader issues of environmental, cultural and community welfare that LaBatte and other testifiers raised.

Perhaps the city could impose a fee for commercial uses that would be applied to environmental restoration and preservation. Beyond cleaning up after themselves, event organizers, who currently only pay the city a refundable deposit instead of a permit fee, could provide some public benefit in exchange for tying up public beaches and waters.

WHILE THE city controls access through its beach parks, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation, which issues permits for the water portion of events, has also been making changes. On Monday, Gov. David Ige signed into law HB 2259, which establishes a permit fee and allows granting a permit up to a year in advance rather than the current 90 days, said the boating division’s Oahu District Manager Meghan Statts, adding that she issues about 400 marine event permits a year.

In response to public complaints about surf meets tying up breaks, Statts brings people together. For the past decade, she’s met annually with the nonprofit organization Friends of Kewalos and event sponsors to limit contests at Kewalos to eight per year. “It’s such a great mix with the community working together,” she said.

Communities evolve. “We all surf, we all live on the North Shore,” said Jodi Wilmott, WSL vice president for Asia-Pacific events, who filed written testimony but attended the July 3 hearing with colleagues “to listen and understand where different promoters and other community members’ mindsets are coming from.”

Taking a tip from the Mr. Rogers rulebook, we can talk with our neighbors.

“In the Lineup” features Hawaii’s oceangoers and their regular hangouts, from the beach to the deep blue sea. Reach Mindy Pennybacker at mpennybacker@staradvertiser.com or call 529-4772.