Glass hunters talk thrill of pursuit prior to Beachcombing Conference in Waimea

OLD AIRPORT PARK — Beaches contain more than sand and lava, suntanning spots and shady places, sand castles and keiki-dug pits. In that human chaos there exists a world of treasures.

That can be the long purple needles of sea urchins, cowrie shells that an octopus just finished or relics of the millennia-long human inhabitation of the islands.

One reminder of the latter is sea glass — glass that has been battered and worn by the ocean until it has a cloudy surface. Thin brown glass, held to the sun, can glow like root beer-colored jewelry.

All in all, it can be a lot to take in.

Literally.

“Beachcombing makes people become conservationists,” said Deacon Ritterbush, a writer and long-time beachcomber who has picked up thousands of items from Hawaii’s shorelines.

The source of the glass varies. Some of it is the remains of old beer bottles, with the raised company logos slightly visible. Others come from broken hotel ashtrays, busted windows or anything else glass that makes its way into the sea.

It takes decades for them to wear down into the shape treasured by collectors and used for decoration, jewelry and other art. It’s made into necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings and more esoteric projects, like in one instance, a model group of penguins on a beach, Ritterbush said. Glass is largely a specialty of the windward side, a result of human history and the ocean characteristics.

But it’s not all glass in the art of beachcombing, which is a popular pastime in beachfront cities. Websites, like www.drbeachcomb.com, show off top finds and offer tips. The North American Sea Glass Association, a loose-knit organization of beachcombers, artists and entrepreneurs that each year gathers in a shoreside community, has drawn around 4,000 people when they’ve met in recent years in Delaware and Lake Erie, which says glass can be found on freshwater beaches as well.

But a popular item for Ritterbush on the Big Island is the spines of wana, the spiny urchins best known for stabbing bare feet.

Freed from the urchin, their trip through the ocean normally takes off their point and leaves them as rods. Shells in various stages of wear are also popular, including cowries that almost appear sawed off.

But glass is far from the only manufactured thing found on the beach. There’s ample quantities of trash on most beaches, like wrappers, bottles, cigarette butts, you name it.

Sometimes it can become a massive effort, like the annual Big Island Beach Cleanup that took place in February, where volunteers cleaned hundreds of pounds of waste off the beach.

But each beach has its own characteristics, Ritterbush said, a result of the ocean’s bottom, how the sea moves the material and what is present in the water. Kailua Village searches bring up glass from the hotels that have been there for decades, while other beaches reveal the reefs that reach far out into the ocean.

The two best lines are the break line for recent material, while the high water line carries all sorts of material.

The whole process has a meditative nature as well, which is why Ritterbush is offering a scholarship for a veteran with PTSD to attend the seventh annual International Beachcombing Conference May 11-14 in Waimea.

“(You) just focus on what’s in front of you, and put everything else behind,” said Peter Milone, another beachcomber who often walks the beach with his wife.

Info: www.thebeachcombingconference.com.