Waikīkī Beach

This guide to Waikīkī Beach in Honolulu opens with a surprising fact about the sand under your feet, then traces how the marshy shoreline behind it was drained in the early twentieth century by a public-health campaign that turned unwanted wetland into the most valuable shoreline in the Pacific. It follows the barefoot local boy who learned to surf on that reclaimed ground and carried the sport around the world. Watch for the bronze statue nearby as you listen.