City officials are cracking down on abuses surrounding a Waikiki tradition — cheap beachside surfboard storage racks — and it worries some veteran surfers who fear that the changes could crowd them out.

Honolulu police dragged two more surfboards out of the city's storage racks yesterday afternoon at the Waikiki police substation as part of the city's push to clean up the popular rentals.

City Enterprise Services Director Sidney A. Quintal had notified police that those two boards appeared to be illegally stored among the hundreds of legal boards.

"We've had a number of complaints about illegal activity around those lockers," he said.

Besides illegal storage, the city has found that some people hadn't paid their rental fees for years and some of the rentals that were being paid were registered to dead people.

Quintal has even seen abuse himself, running into a tourist who said he was looking for the man who arranged to rent him a rack for $140 for a full week.

The city has 592 surfboard locker slots and a waiting list nearly as long.

The rental slots are cheap — $10 a month — conveniently in the heart of famed Waikiki Beach, where they've long been a favorite of beachboys and others.

Quintal has been overseeing a crackdown and cleanup in the area since April 12. That was the day he had crews cut the locks off surfboards and beach chairs chained improperly to the racks outside of the rental slots.

"We're bringing administrative sanity back to a very chaotic operation," he said.

Retired Honolulu police officer James McGhee praised Quintal for some improvements, but worries that the city will go too far and end up pushing out old-timers who depend on the convenient storage to help them get in their exercise — surfing.

McGhee, 54, was disappointed that Quintal's people didn't put back two benches behind the police substation where people would often sit and watch the surfers.

Quintal told a private concession for surfboard and umbrella rentals that it could spread out into the area to help discourage what he calls "wildcatters," people who rent out surfboards for cash but don't pay fees or get a state-required sticker.

Surfer Bill Plewes has rented a spot in the racks for 15 years, relying on surfing to help him keep fit after a spinal cord injury. He's a disabled chiropractor and said he believes that the locker racks are important.

"It's always been a part of Waikiki Beach," he said.

Plewes agrees that the city's recent cleanup in the area has done some good, but he worries about rumored moves to limit the amount of time someone could rent a spot in the locker rack.

"I think the best solution would be to have more racks," Plewes said.

Quintal hopes to find another nearby space for additional rentals.

"We're trying to find space," he said. "There's so much demand for space."

McGhee, too, worries about word spreading among surfers that the city plans to limit rentals to one per person, instead of two, and to establish a two-year limit on the lockers before they need to be turned over to others on the waiting list.

Quintal acknowledged he's proposing tighter regulation. But he wants to hear more from veteran surfers and others about the best way to make improvements.

McGhee agrees that some cleanup is good. He said he was aware of a rack near his where the man hadn't paid the city in two years.

And he thinks most renters would agree to higher fees, even a doubling to $20 a month, to clean up the place.

Quintal said he won't make new rules without asking the renters and others in the community for help in deciding what improvements should be made.

He plans a public meeting regarding the issue.

"We're not going to please all of the people all of the time on this," Quintal said. "It's a little bit emotionally charged.

"I have to do the fairest job possible."

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.