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Citing an overabundance of unused stand-up paddleboards on island, Maui County officials ask owners to somehow re-purpose their neglected SUPs to free space on storage racks.
“We have to do something about all these old, faded, and dusty SUPs,” said Mayor Richard T. Bissen, Jr. “There’s no more space on the racks, and racks at the condos are packed full, and locals believe many were just left behind by mainlanders.
"All of it adds up to no more space to keep our SUPs. We're at a near-emergency level."
In response, the county offers the following ideas to re-purpose old SUPs ~ and lighten the burden on the racks.
- Donate SUPs to build tiny homes, so we get the double benefit of also providing more desperately needed affordable housing.
- Set up as permanent wind-break walls for South Maui afternoons.
- Use them to build a bigger and better “Don’t Feed the Hippies” sign for Paia.
- Use white or light-colored SUPs to spell out “BAD VIRUS AT OGG!” on open land on the isthmus, so visitors can read from airplanes passing overhead and spread the word on mainland, lessening the impact of over-tourism.
- At the same isthmus location, spell out “BEWARE OGG SPEED BUMPS!” so visitors no break more rental car axles.
- Use them to build a huge “ROAD NO GOOD - GO BACK” on the back road to Hana.
- Build roadside fruit stands with them. After all, we can never have enough roadside fruit stands.
- Batch with the thousands of abandoned rubber traffic cones to build public art displays which tourists must pay to see up close.
- Build a series of Impromptu Makeshift Talk Story (IMTS) stands, to help free space in parking lots at parks and beaches.
If residents cannot reuse enough SUPs, the state may use eminent domain to take them and build the new pedestrian overpass at the roundabout in Kihei, the one they forgot to build for the new high school.
“Good to combat climate change and stuff,” said Horacio Saenz, Landfill Space Protection Analyst for the county.
