Dr. Beach on Hanalei
What makes a great beach great? It seems like an easy enough question, but then the variables start to come into play. The width and accessibility certainly do matter, because it’s never been a very good idea to climb down a very rocky slope to a small section of sand, only to discover that the waves are large and fast enough to climb the rocks much faster than people can. There are also factors that make it more comfortable and welcoming to human beings, things like softness of the sand, texture, warmth of the water, and the amount of sun.
There are at least a dozen things that come readily to mind on this track, and Dr. Beach has 50 that he works with. It’s all right that he is way ahead of the game over everyone else, because he is a doctor, after all. He actually is, and his name is Stephen P Leatherman and he works at Florida International University. His main focus of study happens to be the effects of natural disasters on the amount of erosion happening on beaches all around the world, and he’s been doing it long enough that he’s become something of an expert.
Some might say, The Expert, and being an expert on beaches makes him probably the coolest and the luckiest guy in the world. The list varies year to year, and last year, Hanalei Beach made it to the very top of his list, helping to attract people, certainly, to the wonderful hotels Hanalei has to offer.
It’s rather fascinating how the whole thing got started. Someone from a magazine saw his credentials and called him one day and asked him for his opinion of the best 10 beaches in the world. Leatherman named 10 off the top of his head, then went on a trip that took him unwittingly into the Tiananman Square moment of history. He’d forgotten about the list, and when he returned, it was published, and he was hounded with questions about why other beaches didn’t make the list. So he decided to put together a list of 50 criteria that would determine what makes a great beach, and every since, he’s been Dr. Beach. Busy, lucky man.
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