Camera! Action! Haleiwa? - Oahu - Brief Article

Hard bodies, tight spandex, and big-time TV are changing this classic Hawaiian surf town

It's evening on the North Shore of Oahu. Sitting on the edge of the grass in Haleiwa's Alli Beach Park, we watch the sun slip beneath a horizon splashed with reds and oranges as a veil of ocean mist shrouds far-off Kaena Point. This could be a movie set.

Wait a minute--it is a set. Last year, Hawaii lured Baywatch, the perennially popular television show about the buffed and the beautiful, from its Southern California home with an offer the show's producers couldn't refuse: polychrome skies, world-famous surf, and a brand-new production facility in this beach park that fronts the island's favorite surf town. After just one season, the show has hit this coast like a 20-footer.

Baywatch Hawaii, as it is now called, began shooting its second season in early June and will continue production until November. Show producers promise that the town will play a bigger part on the tube this season, so spandex sightings should be on the rise. While it's impossible to get a heads-up on filming schedules, they do shoot at their Alii Beach lifeguard headquarters at least twice a week. And in true Hawaiian style, they welcome all visitors.

Your best chance to catch a glimpse of one of the hard-bodied cast members off the set is to have lunch or dinner at Haleiwa Joes Seafood Grill (66-011 Kamehameha Hwy.; 808/637-8005), a fish and steak place a short walk away from the set. BAYWATCH FACT: Head lifeguard Jason Brooks orders nothing but the black-and-blue ahi. You also might find some of the lifeguards sneaking a rainbow shave ice at Matsumoto's Shave Ice (66-087 Kamehameha Hwy; 637-4827). HALEIWA FACT: Locals order shave ice with ice cream and adzuki, Japanese sweet beans. Head upstairs at Jameson's by the Sea (62-540 Kamehameha Hwy.; 637-4336) for great seafood or grab a terrific burger at Kua Aina (66-214 Kamehameha Hwy.; 637-6067).

If you want to look like an action star, check out the surf clothes and boards at Strong Current (North Shore Marketplace, 66-250 Kamehameha Hwy; 637-3406). If you want to act like an action star, take lessons at Surf-n-Sea (62-595 Kamehameha Hwy.; 637-9887). To learn about real Hawaii surf heroes, visit North Shore Surf & Cultural Museum (North Shore Marketplace, 66-250 Kamehameha Hwy.; 637-8888), which has stories to go with its collection of vintage boards.

And for an Emmy-worthy sunset, catch the evening show from the sandy edge of Alii Beach Park.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Sunset Publishing Corp.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group