JoliApparently it's not all peace, love and understanding in the Rainbow State.

Considering what was at stake, we probably haven't been covering Hawaii Senate bill 2646 like we should have, but I just figured that Senator Fred Hemmings' push to establish a "surfing preserve" on the North Shore and Waikiki was a no-brainer and would pass with flying colors. Obviously I was wrong.

Why not have a surfing preserve in Hawaii you may ask? Well, yesterday Honolulu Advertiser columnist Ferd Lewis summed it up perfectly: politics.

"It would not have cost taxpayers a cent beyond the paper it was printed on," wrote Lewis. "It would not have disenfranchised or granted exclusivity to any group or constituency. What it would have done is given surfing a form of official recognition."

"Yet partisan politics -- not reason -- and spite -- not the spirit of the sport -- seem to have prevailed in its messy demise," he continued.

And while it's the Republicans that have come to be known as the "party of no," in the Land of Obama and Ohana it was House democrats that dropped in on the bill like a Brazilian boogie boarder at Pipeline. For now it appears that it's back to the drawing board for Hemmings, although with his impending retirement from the senate, if Hawaii's ever to have a surfing preserve for its hallowed breaks a new, young buck is going to have to step into the political lineup.

You can read the rest of Mr. Lewis's story right here, and while you're at it you can check out the senate hearing YouTube video too.