KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii — Despite the overcast skies and drizzle on Saturday morning, dozens of runners and walkers were out exercising along beachside Alii Drive in Kailua-Kona on the west coast of Hawaii’s Big Island.

All of the beach parks in Hawaii County are closed. But a handful of surfers in downtown Kona still waded into the ocean to take advantage of the light storm surge. At Magic Sands, a coastal park popular for body boarding and bodysurfing, a group of body boarders tackled an intermittent swell of 2 to 5 feet.

“I hate all this anxiousness around the storm,” said Paul Healey, 61, who drove in from his home north of town to bodysurf before the storm. “We have time, so why don’t we enjoy it?”

Lifeguards were present and urging bystanders not to get in the water.

Nearby, a line formed in front of Beach Shack, which served breakfast sandwiches, smoothies and coffee while blasting 311, Gregory Isaacs and other surf music on the restaurant’s ocean-facing speakers. Its patio seating area was closed, but small groups of wave watchers, chased off the beach by lifeguards, congregated with coffees in hand.

Peggy Szelinski, the restaurant’s manager, said she had asked only staff members who lived nearby and wanted to work to come in for shifts on Saturday. She said the restaurant was busier than normal, most likely because so many other places were closed because of the storm.

Visitors asked patrons what to expect of the upcoming storm conditions.

“We’re not sure,” said Stacey Duncan, 44, who was staying across from the beach park with her two children. “We’re just following what locals are doing, getting the kids out to run around and hoping we can get out on Monday.”

In Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, J Tyler Landon went to work at the Blue Planet surf shop on Saturday as if it were any other day. He said he was planning to surf on Sunday at Kahana Bay Beach Park in Oahu with some fellow daredevils and a videographer.

Big weather makes for big waves, he said.

“It gets us pumped,” Landon said. “Those strong winds generate a lot of energy on the surface of the ocean, and that energy is thrust right at us.”

Landon, 34, chose to skip surfing on Saturday to play it safe. After the worst of a storm has passed and surfers flock back to the water, conditions at the beach can be “dark and gloomy and ominous and spooky,” he said.

“It’s like you’re at war with the Pacific Ocean.”

Jake Luedtke, 33, said he gave a surfing lesson around 7 a.m. on Saturday along Oahu’s North Shore, the stretch of coastline known for some of the world’s best surfing.

He said the crowds were smaller than usual but there were still dozens of surfers.

“This morning was a last little bit of perfect window,” Luedtke said.

Andrew Giletti, 35, went surfing on the west side of Oahu on Saturday morning before opening his tattoo shop for the day. He said surfers are known to “capitalize on bad weather.”

“It felt like anyone who was wanting to surf just did it anyway,” Giletti said. “I’m more worried about my house getting a window blown in than something happening in the water.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2026 The New York Times Company