Hawaii’s Kailua Beach tops 2019 ‘best beach’ list

(23 May 2019) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus117454

In Kailua the sand is soft and white, the water is clear and calm, and the view is exactly what you might expect from a beach in the Hawaiian Islands.
Those are among the reasons Oahu’s Kailua Beach Park has been selected as the best stretch of sand for an annual list of top U.S. beaches.
Stephen Leatherman, a coastal scientist and professor at Florida International University, has been drafting the list under the alias “Dr. Beach” since 1991.
Leatherman uses 50 criteria to evaluate beaches, with the most important categories being water cleanliness, safety and management of the beach environment and its facilities.
Leatherman uses data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to grade the beaches on water quality and has been to all the beaches on his list.
Beaches in Hawaii are consistently ranked high, or at the very top, of his list.
In recent years Leatherman has been giving “extra credit” to beaches that prohibit smoking, which all Oahu beaches do, and thinks other beaches around the state and country should follow suit.
Leatherman also looks for powdery soft white sand, something Kailua Beach Park has in abundance.
Vari Singh and her family were visiting Oahu from Los Angeles last week and spent a day in Kailua.
“The color of the sea is something like we’ve never seen before. The sand is super soft and fun to play with, it makes good sand castles,” she said as her daughter wiped sand from her face.
Braden Marquez, 18, who grew up in Kailua and was at the beach last week, says he is worried about overcrowding, but is also hopeful for the future of his hometown.
“This beach is pretty special to me just because my family has been coming here for years and years,” he said.
For the first 25 years of ranking, any beach that won the top spot on Leatherman’s list was retired and became ineligible for inclusion in subsequent years.
But in 2015, Dr. Beach cleared the slate to allow any beach in the nation to once again be eligible, resetting the clock, and perhaps the relevance, on his annual contest.
Kailua was named the best beach in 1998, making it a two-time winner.
Leatherman is again retiring new winners and posting them on his website.
Leatherman’s goal in producing the list each year, he says, is to reward high quality, safe beaches that balance nature with accessibility and amenities.
He hopes beaches that haven’t made his list will make changes for both a better experience and a healthier coastal ecosystem.
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