Hapuna Beach State Park was ranked the best beach in the U.S. in Dr. Beach’s review of sandy shorelines for 2021.
Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman, a coastal scientist and professor at Florida International University, hopes his 30th annual list will encourage people to get out and leave the past year of pandemic struggles in the rearview mirror.
Leatherman acknowledged that people will have to pay extra to get tested for COVID-19 before coming to the islands. “Hawaii is a really special place, and so I think it’s worth it,” he said.
Leatherman agreed and said that while Hapuna has a well trained group of lifeguards and is great for swimming and snorkeling on calm days, the winter swells can be deceiving.
Rip currents cause “the greatest loss of life that we have at beaches,” he said. ”I’m trying to give people a better understanding of rip currents because a lot of people don’t understand them. They say ‘We can’t see them, then they’re probably not there.’ ”
Leatherman uses 50 criteria to evaluate beaches, with the most important categories being safety and cleanliness.
Leatherman uses data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to grade the beaches on water quality and has been to all of the beaches on his list.
Beaches in Hawaii are consistently ranked high, and in recent years he has given them extra points for prohibiting smoking.
“First of all, it’s a health issue,” he said of wafting cigarette smoke. “But the biggest thing is disposal of the cigarette butts. People look at beaches like a giant ashtray.”
Cigarettes “are the number one form of litter in terms of numbers,” Leatherman said.
For the first 25 years of rankings, any beach that won the top spot on Leatherman’s list was 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, though new winners are now being retired.
Last year, Leatherman chose a beach outside of Hawaii because, he said, island lockdowns and quarantine rules made it nearly impossible for people to visit.
“I know a lot of people have been vaccinated,” he said. “And so I think this year it’s fine for Hawaii to be on the list. And I encourage people to go there.”
“You can really social distance on the Big Island,” Dr. Beach added.