Public opening nears for Ewa Beach lagoon, surfing wave pool

A 52-acre recreational lagoon and shoreside commercial development featuring a surfing wave pool and restaurants in Ewa Beach is slated to open for initial public use early next year.

The Wai Kai lagoon and commercial complex are scheduled to open Feb. 10, activating a long-planned and shifting centerpiece of Hoakalei Resort and Ocean Pointe communities produced by Haseko Development Inc.

Haseko announced the schedule Tuesday and offered media a construction tour of the roughly $100 million commercial complex to include two restaurants, a coffee shop and bar, two event lawns, a retail boutique, a boardwalk, sandy areas, a dock, lagoon equipment rentals and the artificial wave attraction along part of the lagoon’s inland shoreline.

Lagoon tours in a 12-passenger electric boat also are planned.

“It’s just going to be an incredible gathering place where people can come and just have a good time even if you don’t want to surf,” said Larry Caster, Haseko’s director of retail development. “This is going to be an amazing hangout spot.”

Caster expects that the complex, to employ about 200 people, will attract more local residents than visitors, at least initially.

One lagoon-front restaurant with boardwalk seating, Kitchen Door, will be operated by Michelin star recipient chef Todd Humphries and partners in Kitchen Door Napa in California.

The wave attraction is similar to a river wave where fast-moving water rushes over a subsurface slope to produce a stationary, continuous wave. It is one of 14 similar wave pools around the world produced by Germany-based firm citywave, though Haseko said Wai Kai Wave is the widest at 100 feet.

The breaking, but not barreling, wave can be adjusted from 2 to 6 feet in height, and the pool is deep enough to allow use by regular surfboards instead of only boards with no fins. Bodyboarding and bodysurfing also will be possible, and Haseko can partition the pool into three sections to offer wave variety and higher-volume use.

Haseko anticipates offering surf lessons and hosting surf contests at the facility.

Caster said the cost for rides will include many options, but generally one-time use by local residents will be around $45 for 45 minutes of time shared by 10 to 12 other customers using a 33-foot section.

Using the lagoon also will cost money. Haseko plans to prohibit swimming, outside of organized events, and will require lagoon users to rent kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, canoes or other equipment at its rental facility or pay a fee to bring their own equipment.

Earlier this year, the Legislature passed a bill that became law to allow swimming in the lagoon after the state Department of Health categorized the lagoon as a pool that did not meet water circulation and visibility standards under a prior statute.

Prior to the amended law, Ocean Pointe and Hoakalei residents had been using a small part of the lagoon with a sandy shore for recreation. That use was discouraged by Haseko after Health Department enforcement actions in 2018.

The quality of the lagoon water, which is fed by a mix of fresh spring water and ocean water permeating through the ground, is better than some of Oahu’s most popular beaches, according to tests.

Haseko recently received criticism from state Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-­Iroquois Point) who questioned why the company is using potable water for its wave pool instead of brackish lagoon water that has about one-third the salinity of seawater.

“I was disappointed to learn of Haseko’s plan to use potable fresh drinking water to fill this surf pool,” Fevella wrote in an Oct. 3 letter to Haseko officials.

Fevella said he supports Haseko’s master plan, but called use of drinking water for the wave pool, including an estimated 3,260 gallons a day to offset loss, unacceptable and unconscionable especially in light of ongoing Oahu water conservation efforts.

The Wai Kai Wave pool holds 1.7 million gallons of water, or about 2-1/2 times the water needed to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Haseko said it opted to use potable water due to a combination of factors including maintenance, health regulation standards and impact on lagoon biology.

For many years, Haseko intended to develop a community with a boat marina as its centerpiece instead of a lagoon.

Initial plans for the 1,100-acre residential and resort community date back to the 1990s and included a 120-acre marina. Later, the marina’s planned size was cut by more than half as Haseko amended its plans while it built and sold homes.

A golf course opened in 2009, and about 4,000 of 4,850 permitted homes have been developed at Ocean Pointe and Hoakalei to date.

Excavation of a 20-foot-deep basin for the marina was finished in 2008 after six years of work. But in 2011 before a channel to the ocean was dug, Haseko announced that the basin, which filled up with water naturally, would be a better community resource as a recreational lagoon for nonmotorized watercraft and with no outlet to the ocean.

Some homeowners disgruntled by the change sued Haseko, and a state judge in 2018 awarded about 3,000 homeowners $20 million in damages, though an appeal by Haseko is still pending.

Before the judge’s decision was rendered, Haseko in 2017 announced plans to build a $300 million retail village on 25 acres next to the lagoon with room for 110 tenants spread over 26 building clusters anchored by seven major restaurants, a specialty market, health club and spa to start construction in 2018 and open in 2020.

The initial phase featuring Wai Kai Wave, which began construction in late 2020, is on 9 acres and includes parking for over 250 vehicles. Timing for future phases is undetermined.

Haseko also is permitted to develop up to 950 hotel, timeshare or vacation condominium units, but the timing for this also is undetermined.