Hey guys. Hawai'i (mostly just O'ahu) is having some problems right now concerning offroading. In the last 8 days the newspapers here have blitzed the offroad community with pictures and stories of certain irresponsible drivers ripping up beaches and other places. The implication is that everyone here who offroads is a criminal.

For the most part, they are correct. That is because there are NO legal trails on the entire island of O'ahu. Home to about a million people, yet there is no place they can legally go. Some choose to still go illegally, even though the state and military have blocked almost every trail off now. Others take to the beaches, and at the same time many fisherman park their trucks on the beach when they go fishing. Soon they will be arrested for doing this.

There is a bill before the Hawai'i legislature that will make illegal riding of vehicles on the beaches a crime punishable by arrest, confiscation of property, and possible jailtime.

"We know people want to use it as a recreational activity," he said. "However, we don't want it to happen anywhere, any time." (http://starbulletin.com/2007/01/29/news/story02.html)

The state's solution is to completely outlaw it, and the only alternative they have in mind is to build an 'off-road park' in Sand Island. For those of you not familiar, Sand Island is in the city. To go offroading legally under their idea, we will have to drive into the city. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm not going into the city to offroad. And I am especially not going into the city at all with my vehicles, because they are mostly 4wd only and driving them on the highways yields gigantic tickets and possible arrest too. Seems to me like them putting the park in Sand Island is an effort to raise more money for the state through ridiculous ticketing of everyone with a modified vehicle. Every time I get popped for having tires that are 1" wider than the fender flare, it's $70. It's clear why I don't go near the city...

O'ahu is not even 600 square miles. Yet there are two enormous mountain ranges which have (blocked off) trails in them. We would like some of them to be reopened to responsible wheelers.

I don't agree with careless wheeling. The beach is a place for people to go and have fun and not worry about someone running over their kids. There is also a lot of wildlife growing under the sand that isn't visible. Turtles lay their eggs there. However, this is going to greatly hurt the average fisherman, who now has to park far away, haul his things to the beach, and secure his truck in this theft-ridden island. This is also going to kill beach camping and cookouts, as nobody is going to want to park half a mile away where they can't see their vehicle.

In short, the state has taken a hasty and ill-planned route to stop beach traffic altogether, while proposing the weakest 'offroad' alternative I have ever heard of. Who wants to go 4wheel in a parking lot with some dirt hills in it? Not me.

The only thing that can be done right now is to petition. Currently there is a petition started at www.4x4boyz.com - please support us to get trails opened to responsible wheelers and stop getting spots taken away because of the actions of a few careless people.

here is the article that started it all: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/ar...701220337.html