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Unlike an uncle who teaches a kid for free, surf schools on Oahu must have a commercial use permit. In addition, every individual who’s teaching surfing in the waters between the Diamond Head Lookout and Kewalo Basin must have an operator permit. Read more

On a windy, late-winter Saturday out at Suis, I was enjoying uncrowded if unruly waves when Grace Gallagher paddled up in a rage.

“That surf teacher is ruining Suis!” she said.

He wasn’t around that day, but for years, he has been bringing beginners out to Suis, not a beginner break, as well as coaching kids. He doesn’t respect other surfers’ priority and personal space when paddling for waves. And he teaches his students to get closer than is not only comfortable, but safe.

“He plants his students in the impact zone so they’re blocking the rest of us from taking off. And of course he’s there in the middle, shouting at them to paddle around other surfers or just drop in on top of them,” Grace said.

In the lineup the other day, she’d told him off but he laughed at her.

“He told me ‘Grace, you’re the only person out at Suis who doesn’t love me!’”

Not true. I’ve heard other surfers complain.

“Aren’t there laws?” Grace asked. “Can anybody just come out and teach in public waters, making money while making us miserable?”

The answer is no, said Meghan Statts, director of the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation, a division of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources that regulates commercial activities in Hawaii waters.

First, no one can make money teaching surfing without a permit. Unlike an uncle who teaches a kid for free, surf schools must have a commercial use permit, which costs $200 a month and requires $500,000 in liability insurance, Statts said. In addition, every individual who’s teaching surfing in the waters between the Diamond Head Lookout and Kewalo Basin must have an operator permit known as a blue card.

What about misbehaving teachers? They can be intimidating. Another instructor reportedly has been behaving badly at Threes, a break in Waikiki.

“I doubt anyone would want to take him on directly,” Grace said.

No one should directly confront a problem surfer in the water, Statts advised. Instead, complaints can be called into the Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement at 643-DLNR (3567). Give a description of the teacher and the place and time of day they’re usually in the water, and DOCARE will investigate and serve notice if they are teaching without a permit.

Recently, she added, “There were lots of complaints coming in from the North Shore about schools teaching without permits, so DOCARE went out there and after that we had a few people come in to get the application to get legal.”

While DOBOR has never, in Statts’ 23 years with the agency, revoked a commercial operator permit for surf lessons, the permit process encourages pono behavior, she said.

And “should one of the surfboards go flying and hit someone else, the requirement of insurance protects regular surfers, the company and the state.”

Statts checked to see if either the Suis or Threes instructors had blue cards. They don’t.

This spring, DOBOR will be testing blue-card applicants on surfing skills and safety criteria — an opportunity for rogue teachers to clean up their acts.

“The rules are about minimizing conflict and balancing recreational and commercial use,” Statts said. “We’ll have to continue to work with communities to do that.”

Surfing’s all about balance, after all.