Before Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell closed city and beach parks on Wednesday afternoon, incoming ripples generated by the COVID-19 pandemic had been presaging a wave of change for Hawaii’s oceangoers.

Last week, the Kai Oni Canoe & Athletic Club announced the cancellation of Saturday’s “Race for Stew,” a preseason kickoff event for Hawaii’s canoe-paddling clubs. Also, the Kailua Canoe Club announced all practice start dates would be postponed due to the coronavirus. Other canoe clubs followed suit, and on Tuesday, the Oahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association announced it would be canceling all its events through at least April 5.

There is no word yet on whether the city’s Waikiki beach concessions will be closed.

“The city hasn’t made a decision on these yet,” Nate Serota, public information officer for the Department of Parks and Recreation, said Wednesday night.

In the Waikiki beachboy trade of providing outrigger canoe and catamaran rides and surf lessons, cancellations and worries were mounting for Ted Bush, owner of the Waikiki Beach Service concession at the Royal Hawaiian Resort & Spa. “It’s kind of like a perfect storm right now with the poor weather, the economy and the coronavirus,” Bush said Tuesday as rain poured from a graphite sky.

“My biggest fear is for my employees, because we are in charge of distributing the towels and amenities to guests, and at the end of the day we have to collect all the towels and chairs,” he said. “I just don’t want anybody getting exposed at the beach and taking it home to their families.”

Meanwhile, City and County Ocean Safety & Lifeguard Services officers had put new safety protocols in place, said Honolulu Emergency Services spokeswoman Shayne Enright.

“Ocean Safety personnel around the island have been instructed to establish a 6-foot buffer as best they can near and around their towers when interacting with the public — and with each other, wherever and whenever possible,” she wrote in an email Wednesday.

“They are adapting to the complexities of saving a life in the water, while at the same time, minimizing their chance at exposure,” Enright said.

Wednesday morning, the sun came out and the sands of Waikiki were so packed it was nearly impossible to achieve the prescribed social distance of at least 6 feet away from other people.

At Kuhio Beach Park, business had lately been slower than usual “but you don’t know if it’s bad weather or the coronavirus,” said Keith Munson of Dive Oahu, a city beach concession, as he showed visiting Californian Samantha Summer, 12, how to lie, paddle and pop up on a board on land.

A polished outrigger canoe stretched on the sand by the other city concession, Pacific Island Beach Boys, where Captain Clayton Gohier said he’d taken out two parties for canoe rides before noon.

“The first day of sun after three, four days of rain, the beach is always inundated, especially when (other tourist attractions) are closed,” said concession owner David Carvalho. “But I think (crowds) will slowly diminish (as) the news about the virus grows.”

Two days before, Carvalho said, he had closed his other business, Big Wave Dave, in the Embassy Suites hotel, for the safety of employees and the guests.

As for his beach concession, Carvalho said he had just told a city representative “if you shut this down, there’s no place for everybody to go.” He paused. “And maybe that’s the right thing. These are strange times.”

Bush said his employees were informing tourists about the virus risk before they got onto a surfboard, catamaran or canoe, and some were deciding not to go.

“It’s such a highly contagious infectious disease, we can’t take it lightly,” he said, noting that, in a full six-person canoe, everyone sits less than half a foot apart, and that surf instructors had to keep close to their students to keep them safe as well as push them on waves.

Despite his warnings, “sometimes you get surprised,” Bush said. “The other day an old-time guest gave me a big hug, and immediately I went in and washed my hands.”