'Profiting off a cultural practice': Hawaiians go to court over concerns about artificial wave pool

Brian Keaulana is the quintessential Native Hawaiian waterman, well-known in Hawaii and beyond for his deep understanding of the ocean, gifted with surfing and lifeguarding skills passed down from his big-wave rider father.

Now, as one of the islands' flag-bearers of surfing, Keaulana wants to help local surfers to keep honing their craft - even when there's no waves.

His plan is to build an artificial wave pool just down the road from the beach.

But it's made waves with locals who worry about the environmental impact the pool will have.

“The ocean is the greatest treasure that we have," Keaulana says, but "it can be flat. It can be big. It can be dirty. It can have, you know, sharks here and there."

He worries Hawaii's Olympic surfing hopefuls are at a disadvantage to competitors who can easily train at one of the surf parks worldwide. A wave pool allows for more time on a surfboard in an hour than most surfers get in the ocean in a week, he says.

“You see these surfers going to these surf parks and catching wave after wave and they are honing their skills and then they go into the ocean when there's a swell,” he said. “Boom. They're already primed and ready.”

The lawsuit against the wave pool has been filed in the state environmental court by a group of Hawaiians and residents who live near the proposed site.

They allege that the 7 million-gallon (26-million litre) artificial pool would damage nearshore 'limu', or seaweed, and desecrate 'iwi kupuna', or ancient Hawaiian remains.

Bidding to halt the project, the lawsuit challenges the Hawaii Community Development Authority’s approval and finding that it will have no significant environmental impacts.

The development authority and the state attorney general’s office declined to