No, thank you.
Sandy Beach didn’t get the nickname “Breakneck Beach” by accident. While we often hand out nicknames in surfing as some tongue-in-cheek figure of speech, the Hawaiian spot is literally world-famous for breaking necks of tourists and experienced surfers alike.
In fact, while reading about the wild 2,800 “preventative actions” recorded by Oahu’s lifeguards during a pumping Monday with good surf, I came across data from Honolulu Emergency Medical Services that shows Sandy’s hands out one of the heaviest workloads relative to a small number of actual visitors. Lifeguards there log some of the most public contacts, preventative actions, and have actually made more rescues at Sandy’s than any other beach guarded by the department. Meanwhile, it has some of the lowest overall attendance. Lifeguards performed more than 1,000 rescues at Sandy Beach in 2020 alone — a year in which tourism was down and access was limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And while there are plenty of experienced surfers, bodyboarders, and bodysurfers who frequent Sandy’s, Kurt Lager, acting chief for the Honolulu Emergency Services Department’s Ocean Safety and Lifeguard Services Division told The San Francisco Gate that tourists end up there a lot when they learn they can’t access Hanauma Bay State Park, which requires reservations.
As the video posted to YouTube earlier this week shows, this isn’t exactly a calm and cool place for mainland tourists to put their feet in the water and snap a few pics for the social feed. Sandy’s shore break was made for the maniacs.
