The state Board of Land and Natural Resources voted Thursday to repeal administrative rules requiring surf instructors, outrigger canoe captains and other people who operate commercially in Waikiki waters to obtain a state permit certifying their qualifications, despite objections from some longtime operators who said it would threaten the traditions and legacy of the Waikiki beachboys.

In repealing sections of Hawaii Administrative Rules Chapter 13-251 regarding “Waikiki operator permits,” commonly known as blue cards, the Land Board also gave the state Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation 60 days to work with stakeholders to come up with employee training and safety standards to be incorporated as conditions of the commercial use permits issued to businesses providing ocean activities in Waikiki.

DOBOR for years has been seeking to drop the blue card requirement because of the state’s potential liability exposure and its own lack of resources and expertise to conduct the testing and approval process.

Although there was disagreement about whether blue cards are needed to ensure safe operations in Waikiki, nearly all those involved in the discussion and testimony at Thursday’s Land Board meeting agreed the current permit system was not working. And although the rules also apply to commercial outrigger canoe and catamaran captains, motor boat operators and sailboard instructors, the focus was on surf instructors.

According to DOBOR, approximately 160 Waikiki operator permits are currently issued, with an additional 111 applicants on a waitlist — a sore point for business owners who complained about the difficulty in hiring employees with blue cards, reporting that some applicants have been on the waitlist as long as three years.

DOBOR Administrator Ed Underwood said the current process for obtaining a blue card involves taking an open-book test and surfing two waves in Waikiki. The testing, done in groups, was last conducted in September 2018, May 2019 and April of this year — “whenever we can get staff together to go down there,” he said.

Even those who supported the blue card requirement at Thursday’s meeting were critical of the state’s testing standards and urged DOBOR to fall back on the expertise of operators with years of experience on Waikiki Beach.

Noted waterman Clyde Aikau, who operates Uncle Clyde Aikau’s Waikiki Surf School, was among the testifiers who opposed the repeal, saying the move would upend the legacy of Waikiki beachboys. He said it would be “a bad idea” to give business owners sole discretion in hiring surf instructors.

“There’s no guarantee that a business owner knows what they’re doing, because the almighty dollar will always be a high priority,” Aikau said.

He and others also criticized the current criteria for issuing blue cards. “My problem is, How can you give someone a permit to teach in Waikiki by going out and catching two waves?” he asked.

Aikau said applicants should be required to demonstrate detailed instruction on land that should include how to maneuver in the water “with a hundred boards flying all over the place.”

In written testimony, Harry “Didi” Robello, owner of Aloha Beach Services, founded by his father in 1959, said repealing the blue card rules simply because DOBOR doesn’t have the staff to handle the task would be “a direct threat” to the legacy and heritage of Waikiki beachboys.

“This reckless and dangerous action” would “negatively affect the public safety as well as end the legend, and the iconic profession of The Waikiki Beach Boy,” Robello said.

Another longtime operator, Aaron Rutledge of Star Beachboys Inc., said in written testimony that he was in favor of repealing the blue card rules as long as minimum training requirements are in place and business owners are held accountable.

“I believe that as a licensed beach boy and business owner, I should be able to decide who I allow to give a lesson or canoe ride to my customers without them having to wait years to get tested,” Rutledge said.

Also supporting the repeal was longtime beachboy, surf instructor and outrigger canoe captain David Carvalho of Pacific Island Beach Boys and Big Wave Dave Surf &Coffee, who said in his written testimony that “many businesses have been extremely hampered or burdened by trying to get the state to license their employees.”

Carvalho also spoke in person at the meeting, acknowledging that “everybody is in a hard spot here. We don’t want to break any traditions here … but we’re having a hard time finding people; we can’t even get them qualified.”

Underwood explained to the board that in decades past, a committee of roughly seven longtime Waikiki beach operators assisted DOBOR in the certification process. At that time, in addition to a written test, applicants were required to obtain signatures from three committee members acknowledging they were competent to be on the beach.

The process began to unravel, he said, when committee members became concerned about their potential liability and also pushed back against issuing more permits because “there were too many people on the beach.” Underwood also mentioned complaints about favoritism by committee members and discrimination against female applicants.

DOBOR then turned to city lifeguards to help judge applicants’ skills in handling a surfboard and in rescue situations, but ultimately it was left to Underwood’s staff to make the call on issuing blue cards.

“Moving forward, it got to the point where we just couldn’t keep up, and we really felt that we should not be certifying these folks for this particular activity, especially since we don’t possess that expertise to do it,” he said. “And our deputy attorney general at the time told us that the state is really hanging out there, liability-wise, by signing off on these individuals.”

Efforts since 2014 to drop the rules for Waikiki operator permits have failed, and in May 2020 the Land Board deferred the matter and directed DOBOR to work with stakeholders to determine the best way to proceed.

“So for the last two years basically nothing has changed yet again. We’re still at the same place,” Underwood said. “We feel that it should be the business owner deciding who they want to hire and whether those people qualify to be on the beach, because even if we issue an operator permit, it doesn’t mean you can just go to Waikiki and operate. You still need to be hired by a company in order to operate or come to us and obtain a commercial use permit to operate on Waikiki Beach.”

Underwood said he has “utmost respect for beachboys, but Waikiki Beach has changed.” He also mentioned that DOBOR is working with the state Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement on a “sting operation” to catch unauthorized operators in Waikiki, and noted that “hundreds” of surf schools are operating statewide without blue card restrictions “and it’s worked very well.”

Land Board member Riley Smith said he was wary of allowing businesses to regulate their own employees, comparing it to a “fox guarding the henhouse.” But, ultimately, a majority of Land Board members voted to repeal the blue card rules, offering suggestions for commercial use permit conditions that included written testing, minimum years of experience and advanced lifesaving/CPR/first aid certification.