Hawai'i residents love getting together for good fun and better company. So whenever it's time for a get-together, Magic Island in Ala Moana Beach Park is the spot to convene.
A protective reef just offshore buffers big surf and waves to create a calm, idyllic beach experience, safe even for young children. Numerous grassy areas throughout the park are perfect for tossing around a Frisbee or football, and public restrooms and showers are located throughout the park. Lifeguards also patrol the area to ensure everyone's safety, although the most dangerous event is usually a bad sunburn.
In the summer, ocean swells roll onto this south shore beach, creating off-shore waves that can be over 15 feet high. On these days, throngs of surfers call in to work sick and trek beyond the reef to ride the seasonal giants. Although amateurs should not try paddling out in such conditions, it's perfectly safe to watch other daredevils from shore.
If the surf is flat, stand up paddle surfers cruise near shore. As the name suggests, stand up paddle surfing involves balancing on a large surfboard while propelling yourself with a paddle. Paddling long distances is a great workout for the upper body and core, so on busy days, dozens of surfers will do laps from one end of the beach to the other.
Other park users who manage to keep their feet dry are fishermen casting out from shore. Depending on the season, they're either looking for oama (juvenile goatfish) or halalu (a type of mackerel). In the late summer, massive schools of oama travel past Magic Island, and the coast is packed with anglers hoping to pick up a few morsels. While oama grow upwards of seven inches and can be deep fried and eaten, they are often used as bait.
After work ends, another common sight around Magic Island is exercisers. Thanks to a wide, circular footpath, Magic Island is an ideal place to jog or ride a bike. Or, for ambitious wannabe tri-athletes, workouts consisting of swimming, biking, and jogging can be done in the same park.
After working out, it's time for dinner. For most local families, this means firing up the grill and barbequing. Cook-outs are an island tradition not just because of the food (which always includes rice, teriyaki chicken, beef, macaroni salad and hamburgers) but because it is a chance to get together and just "talk story" with friends and families.
Even though Magic Island is technically a peninsula, not an island, the family-friendly environment makes it a popular setting for a day of fun and an ideal spot to celebrate life in Hawai'i.
