Kalapaki Beach Boys, Lihue

Ok, so I hate Poipu! Poipu and surfing is a rough mixed bag of choppy surf and dangerous, very dangerous coral reefs where people surf. This is not a safe place to surf as my daughter, Joy discovered! Joy ripped her leg wide open from dragging across the coral reefs when she feel off her surfboard. The rentals were expensive and the board Joy rented was not the best either.

We work in Hawaii in the customer service industry, and we are used to making folks feel the Aloha of Hawaii, so we were really disappointed to find that the lady running this concession was very difficult to deal with. Most of the staff were really nice folks, but don't try to get any kind of pleasant conversation out of the manager. The staff were generally very well informed, great surfers, nice folks, ready to help out, except for the manager. She acted like dealing with customers is an inconvenience to her. Not even a little bit of friendliness. I understand that managing a concession can be hectic, but really, one has to understand the aloha spirit to work in this industry out here. Also, there's some really mean locals out at the surf break that try to chase tourists off the waves by being rude. No aloha at all. We'll just enjoy our waves over on Oahu, these Kauai surfers don't understand Aloha and Kokua, they've lost the spirit of surfing.

I learned to surf at Kalapaki and I've rented a surfboard many times from Kalapaki Beach Boys. Kalapaki is a great place to learn to surf partly due to the nature of the waves and also due to the fact that other surfers are pretty friendly with beginners and not super serious. I like all the people I've dealt with at Kalapaki Beach Boys and the owner. They've got great prices and they've given me a lot of helpful advice for learning to surf and staying safe. I see another comment on this page about Poipu and I wanted to mention that Poipu is not Kalapaki so that comment is misplaced. Poipu is not a good place for beginners due to the reef and currents. But in my opinion Kalapaki is a very good place for beginners. But also there are usually a lot of stand up paddleboarders at Kalapaki, and it has been my experience that those guys will sometimes hog waves from surfers.