Three Hawaii beaches made this year’s list of top 10 U.S. beaches, but the top spot went to Coronado’s 1.5-mile stretch of sand and sea in San Diego.
With Kahanamoku Beach in Waikiki (No. 2), Hamoa Beach in Hana, Maui (No. 5) and Waimanalo Bay Beach Park (No. 7), Hawaii had more beaches on this year’s top-10 list than any other state, followed by Florida with two.
"Dr. Beach," aka professor Stephen P. Leatherman of Florida International University, makes his annual rankings based on environmental quality and safety for swimmers, which leaves plenty of room in his top-10 list for beaches in Hawaii and Florida, he said Thursday from Florida.
"That gives Hawaii and Florida a great edge, so Hawaii and Florida sort of dominate the list," Leatherman said. "It doesn’t make people so happy in places like Oregon."
Since 1991, 12 Hawaii beaches and six from Florida have been ranked No. 1 in the nation by Leatherman, making them ineligible for future consideration.
So Hanalei Bay on Kauai; Fleming Beach Park on Maui; Hanauma Bay, Kailua Beach Park and Lanikai Beach on Oahu; and Kaanapali, Poipu Beach, Kaunaoa Beach, Wailea Beach, Hulope, Hapuna and Kapalua Bay Beach on Hawaii island won’t appear on Leatherman’s top-10 list again — unless he changes his criteria.
The three Hawaii beaches that made Leatherman’s list this year represent a diverse mix, said John Clark, a retired Hawaii Fire Department deputy chief, former Sandy Beach lifeguard and author of the "Beaches of Hawai‘i" series of books.
Clark called Kahanamoku Beach on the makai side of the Hilton Hawaiian Village "a very valid nomination for a neat little beach. It’s a good swimming beach. It’s safe. There are a lot of public amenities, public restrooms and showers and plenty of free parking in the Ala Wai Harbor."
"You can buy cold drinks or eat at a restaurant or at a snack bar, but it’s not quite as commercialized as the other end of Waikiki," Clark said.
He called Hamoa Beach in isolated Hana a "traditional surfing beach for Native Hawaiians with a shallow sandbar, mostly for bodysurfing and bodyboarding.
"It’s a picturesque beach with a lot of vegetation in back that’s not nearly as commercial as some of the other beaches on Maui," Clark said. "It’s a nice little spot."
Leatherman said Ernest Hemingway called Hamoa Beach "the world’s greatest beach."
"I think it’s spectacular," Leatherman said. "It is quite an adventure to get there on the road to Hana. It’s hard to get to but it is right off of the road."
Out of several beach parks along a 3-mile stretch of Waimanalo, Leatherman selected Waimanalo Bay adjacent to Bellows Beach Park for his No. 7 spot this year.
"Local people know it as Sherwoods or Sherwood Forest," Clark said. "There are restrooms and showers, a live-in park keeper and a lifeguard. It’s kind of like Hamoa, a nice sandy beach and a nice shallow sandbar where people can bodysurf and bodyboard."
Leatherman said he liked mixing with Native Hawaiians when he visited Waimanalo Bay, but "I take off points for all the homeless. You kind of have to watch your valuables in your car, just like a lot of places. That is a concern."
As in previous years, Clark doesn’t worry that any of the Hawaii beaches on Leatherman’s top-10 list will be overrun by tourists.
"I don’t think the list leads to great explosions of people coming to use them," he said. "But for the most part, people enjoy having their beaches recognized as good places to go."
