On Saturday, Oct. 24, Haleʻiwa has keiki events running at both ends of the day. At Aliʻi Beach Park, LiveHeats has the next Menehune heats set to start at 2 p.m. In the Kamehamalu Courtyard at Haleʻiwa Store Lots, kids ages 12 and under will line up in costume for a contest with $1,000 in prizes. The season started a week earlier with the first Menehune weekend, Oct. 17–18, and this Saturday closes it out. From there the action passes from the youngest surfers to the pros at the same break, then leaves the sand for Kamehameha Highway in December.
The order matters this year because one key date has moved. The North Shore Chamber of Commerce surf calendar still has the Haleʻiwa Pro on Nov. 29 through Dec. 7. The World Surf League's official event page shows Nov. 5 through 14. The pros arrive at Aliʻi Beach about eleven days after the last Menehune weekend.
| Dates | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 24–25 | 49th North Shore Menehune Surf Contest, second weekend | Aliʻi Beach Park |
| Oct. 24 | Keiki Halloween Costume Contest & Trick-or-Treat | Haleʻiwa Store Lots, 66-111 Kamehameha Hwy |
| Oct. 26–Nov. 2 | HTA Sunset Pro | Sunset Point |
| Nov. 5–14 | HTA Haleʻiwa Pro Presented by Hurley, plus Longboard | Aliʻi Beach Park |
| Nov. 28 | Christmas Tree Lighting Festival | North Shore Marketplace Great Lawn |
| Dec. 11 | 24th Annual Haleʻiwa Christmas Parade | Historic Haleʻiwa Town |
The 49th Menehune Contest Is the First Event of the Season
The North Shore Menehune Surf Contest runs over two weekends, and the contest's site lists Oct. 17–18 and Oct. 24–25 for 2026. LiveHeats lists it as the 49th annual event, held at Haleʻiwa Aliʻi Beach. When Surf News Network covered last year's 48th edition, it reported that Friends of Aliʻi Beach presents the contest and thanked director Ivy Blomfield and the volunteers who run it.
The divisions show who will be in the water. Entry numbers on LiveHeats are highest in the older shortboard groups:
| Division | Entrants on LiveHeats |
|---|---|
| 11-12 Boys Shortboard | 57 |
| 9-10 Boys Shortboard | 47 |
| 7-8 Boys Shortboard | 43 |
| 10-12 Girls Longboard | 36 |
| 10-12 Girls Shortboard | 34 |
| 4-6 Boys and Girls Shortboard | 12 |
The surf decides the schedule, not the clock. In its 2025 coverage, Surf News Network said officials make the call around 7 a.m. each morning on which divisions go out, and that older pre-teens take the bigger days while the youngest surfers get pushed into the whitewater. The same article listed one year's 11-12 boys shortboard field, from 2010. It included John John, Nathan and Ivan Florence, Coco Ho, Zeke Lau and big-wave champion Billy Kemper.
The LiveHeats page showed the event as "On hold" between weekends. For contest updates, the organizers point people to Instagram at @menehunesurfcontest_haleiwa and to the contest hotline, (808) 637-2544.
The Halloween event that same Saturday has a time conflict on its own listing. The Chamber's event page shows 5 to 7 p.m. in its header, but its schedule lists registration at 11 a.m. and the costume contest at noon. Each of the four categories takes the first 50 entries: ages 0–3, ages 4–8, ages 9–12 and ʻOhana. After the contest, trick-or-treating moves to participating merchants, who mark their doors with "Trick-or-Treat" signs. A family planning on the early time can see a heat at Aliʻi and still make the courtyard in the afternoon.
The Pros Show Up Eleven Days Later
The Menehune finals end on Oct. 25. The next day, the WSL starts its North Shore regional run at Sunset Point with the HTA Sunset Pro, Oct. 26 through Nov. 2. Then the tour comes to Haleʻiwa. A WSL release dated Oct. 6, 2026 puts the HTA Haleʻiwa Pro Presented by Hurley and Longboard at Haleʻiwa Aliʻi Beach Park from Nov. 5 through 14.
Three things about this edition are new or newly at stake:
- A new presenting partner. Hurley joins the event as presenting partner for 2026.
- A live broadcast. For the first time, the WSL is streaming the event on WorldSurfLeague.com and the free WSL App.
- The longboard season starts here. Haleʻiwa is Stop No. 1 for longboarders trying to qualify for the 2027 WSL Longboard Tour. For shortboarders, it is a QS 2,000 event on the road to the Challenger Series.
Finn McGill won both Sunset and Haleʻiwa in 2025, according to the WSL. The break where the 4-to-6 division takes whitewater in October is the same one the WSL calls a place that "can make or break a competitor's hopes" in November. Anyone going by the Chamber's late-November dates will miss the whole event.
Why the Contest Weekends Matter More to Main Street This Year
Contest weeks bring people into town, and Haleʻiwa businesses have spent most of 2026 without enough of them. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported on June 1 on data analytics firm Zartico prepared for the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority. During the March Kona-low storms, visitor spending on the North Shore fell 55.6%, compared with a 42.7% drop in Waikiki, while spending at Ala Moana rose 69.9%. The same story said rockfall mitigation and contraflow on Kamehameha Highway kept day-trippers away, and that Waimea Valley's visitor numbers were down 25% to 30% from the year before.
The paper also reported that many North Shore businesses had moved to closing one day a week. With that in mind, check a restaurant's current hours before planning a contest-day lunch in town.
The town also gained a business this year. HAWAIʻI Magazine reported that Sunrise Shack opened its seventh Oʻahu location in Haleʻiwa with a mid-June soft opening, after the team got the keys in early May. It sits next to HI Pie Bakery + Café and across from Kaimana Shave Ice. Its address is 66-526 Kamehameha Hwy., Unit B. The magazine traces the chain's signature yellow to a discounted can of paint the founders bought at Ace Hardware in Haleʻiwa for their first stand across from Sunset Beach in 2016.
In December, Main Street Becomes the Venue
Once the Haleʻiwa Pro wraps on Nov. 14, the season moves off the sand. The North Shore Chamber lists its Christmas Tree Lighting Festival on the North Shore Marketplace Great Lawn for Saturday, Nov. 28, two days after Thanksgiving.
Two weeks after that comes the 24th Annual Haleʻiwa Christmas Parade on Friday, Dec. 11. Here are the details from the Chamber's page:
- Road closure: Main street closes to traffic at 5:30 p.m.
- Start time: The headline and invitation say 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The "Event at a Glance" box says 6 to 8 p.m.
- Entries: $50 for businesses, $25 for nonprofits, and free for schools and youth groups. Registration is open.
The Chamber hasn't posted the full 2026 route. The City and County of Honolulu's 2025 event record shows last year's parade starting at Weed Circle, running along Kamehameha Highway through Haleʻiwa Town, and ending at Haleʻiwa Beach Park. If the route stays the same, the night ends where the Menehune contest started in October, at the water's edge in Haleʻiwa.
At Hawaii Luxury Property Advisors, we keep a calendar like this one for our owners, because contest weeks and parade nights affect when guests arrive, when contractors can get through town, and when the beach park is busiest. If you own a home on the North Shore and want help planning a season around Aliʻi Beach's dates, Diana is happy to talk it through. Schedule a Free Consultation.
