Waikiki Beach

One of the greatest child phenomenons in surfing history, Donald Takayama saved up money from his paper route to buy a plane ticket to travel from one boarding mecca to another. He arrived in Los Angeles in the mid-1950s, a Hawaiian runaway with $10 in his pocket. He was 11 years old. At pioneering Velzy-Jacobs Surfboards in Venice Beach, Takayama was soon practicing the craft he would master, shaping boards. He'd been a dedicated surfer since kindergarten, when he'd skip school to ride the waves on a board pieced together from railroad ties.

Hawaiian authorities were rushing to evacuate up to 100,000 residents and tourists from low-lying coastal areas Saturday morning as an estimated 3-to-8-foot tsunami raced toward the islands at the speed of a jet plane. Radio stations were broadcasting civil defense alerts, and sirens sounded in the early-morning hours, well ahead of the expected arrival of the waves, estimated at about 11 a.m. Hawaii time, triggered by a massive earthquake in Chile. "We are taking this very seriously.

Buyers of 11 condominiums at the soon-to-open Trump International Hotel & Tower Waikiki Beach Walk in Honolulu have filed a lawsuit seeking to cancel their sales contracts. They contend that Los Angeles-based developer Irongate wrongly stated in 2006 that Donald Trump was a co-developer of the 38-story project. An Irongate spokesman did not immediately comment.

Honolulu hotel workers voted to authorize a strike at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and four Waikiki Beach hotels operated by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. Labor contracts covering those properties, as well as Honolulu resorts operated by Global Hyatt Corp. and Marriott International Inc., expired at the end of June. The vote, which affects about 4,000 employees, follows similar strike authorizations by hotel workers in Chicago on Wednesday and by Toronto employees two weeks ago.

A total of 3,000 volunteer hula dancers will sway--hopefully in unison--across Honolulu's Waikiki Beach starting at 6 p.m. Saturday in Hawaii's first-ever "Waikiki Hula." The event, which organizers hope to enter in the Guinness Book of World Records, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the state's Aloha Festivals. The hula is among scores of special events in September and October during the festivals, founded in 1946 as Aloha Week to honor Hawaiian culture.

A project to replenish sand to Waikiki's Kuhio Beach has been completed, with some parts of the beach growing by 40 feet in width. State officials finished the $475,000 project Friday. It restored an estimated 9,500 cubic yards of sand to Kuhio Beach.

Here's a Waikiki hotel deal with a great price--and some major caveats. The former Hawaiian Waikiki Beach Hotel, which recently changed hands and was renamed the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel, is offering rooms for $65 per night during its $30-million renovation. The pluses: The 719-room, high-rise hotel at 2570 Kalakaua Ave. is across the road from a prime beach, and the discounted price is a fraction of its published rates, $169 to $239.

It wasn't quite the birthday in paradise Cameron Diaz was hoping for. Diaz said she broke her nose Saturday -- her 31st birthday -- during a surfing mishap off Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. It was the first day of a two-week vacation with family and friends. "I'm fine," she told the Associated Press. "But I'm just totally bummed out because I can't go surfing anymore." Diaz said she was surfing with her older sister and a couple of friends when she wiped out and someone's board hit her in the face.