In what may have been the biggest beach-access rally ever held on O'ahu, hundreds of people mobilized yesterday around the island with placards, shakas and pleas for passing motorists to support public access to the ocean.

There was a whole lot of honking, especially in Kailua, where locked gates have sprung up in recent years preventing beach access.

"We're losing access and traditional access points that may or may not go across public land are being closed off," said Roxanne Darling, who was at Kailua's Triangle Park. "It's not just for the community (in Kailua), this is for the public at large. These beaches are public beaches. They've always been public."

Kailua resident Ray Schab held up a sign that read ALOHA vertically, with the first letters horizontally spelling out "Allow Open Hawai'i Access."

"As the price of real estate goes up, people are like, 'You know what, I don't want people coming through my lane (to get to the beach),' " Schab said. "A lot of people don't even know about this."

About 26 people waved signs at Triangle Park, a similar number were at Kalama Beach Park on Kalaheo Avenue, and about 35 rallied at L'Orange Place, a private road where a 6-foot-tall gate was installed last August blocking public access to the beach.

Similar rallies were held around Turtle Bay Resort, in Portlock, 'Aina Haina, Hawai'i Kai, and at Ala Wai Boat Harbor. Others were scheduled on Maui, Kaua'i and the Big Island.

Rich Figel, a co-founder of Beach Access Hawai'i and a rally organizer, said the statewide event was intentionally held yesterday on Groundhog Day.

"A lot of these issues have been kind of lying dormant," Figel said. "We felt it was time to wake up the public and remind them of all these various battles we're fighting."

Those battles include fighting the increasing numbers of gates blocking beach access, beachfront homeowners planting thorny plants to keep beachgoers at bay, and resort, commercial and residential development cutting off access.

It all adds up to fewer and fewer ways for the public to get to Hawai'i's public beaches.

"We need to be more diligent in protecting the public access we have," said state Senate Majority Leader Gary Hooser, D-7th (Kaua'i, Ni'ihau).

Hooser yesterday attended a kickoff rally at the state Capitol, where some of the members of 20 different participating organizations spoke of the beach access problem.

Ann Marie Kirk, from the Livable Hawai'i Kai Hui, said that in East O'ahu there is just one public right-of-way for six miles of oceanfront, in addition to three parks.

"Public right-of-ways open up the space, so you don't have one point taking all the activities," Kirk said.

Figel said his group has received reports from people trying to go to Ko Olina Resort who say "that if they try to go in the afternoon, they have been turned away by the guards."

"This is the other fear with the planned expansion of Turtle Bay — that it would probably be kind of a similar plan, with very limited parking," Figel added.

Although Beach Access Hawai'i said the state Supreme Court repeatedly has upheld the public's right to use beaches, getting to them has gotten increasingly complicated.

The city has a "suggested guideline" that — where reasonable in urbanized areas — there should be beach access every quarter mile, according to the organization.

In Kailua, there are seven public accessways to the beach, counting parks and 17 gates, Figel said.

Some roads and beach accessways are privately owned, and in recent years have been closed to foot traffic.

L'Orange Place, a short private road off Kalaheo Avenue, has become ground zero for the beach access movement. According to Beach Access Hawai'i, residents used the beach path at the end of the lane for decades.

But last August, a gate went up.

In September, John Price, who has lived on the street for 20 years, said residents grew tired of the increased traffic, noise, litter and crime, late-night revelers and bonfires on the beach.

But Bob Moncrief, who has lived on L'Orange for 38 years, yesterday was one of 35 people along Kalaheo rallying for beach access. He and his wife voted against the gate.

"I feel like I always have. It's always been open on L'Orange as long as I can remember," said Moncrief, 68. "I'm against the whole concept of closing off access to public beaches."

Moncrief said the people who used the accessway were respectful. But he also said the demographics are changing with homes on L'Orange selling for $2 million to $4 million.

"People with a local spirit and local attitudes have been displaced by people from the Mainland who know nothing about it," he said.

A private security guard was stationed on the street yesterday to keep people out, and the street entrance displays permanent signs saying "Private lane, no trespassing," "Private Road," and "No Beach Access."

Lawmakers increasingly are paying attention to the beach access issue, and at least five bills have been introduced in the state Legislature this session.

With yesterday's statewide rally, Figel hopes there will be more public attention to the issue — and more results.

"I would like to see state and county laws that are consistent," Figel said, "and at least say there shall be — not should be — public beach access every quarter mile or less of beach."

Melissa Ling-Ing, with Common Ground Hawai'i, had argued at the state Capitol against proposed parking fees at the Ala Wai Boat Harbor as part of the access issue.

"It's wrong," she said of parking fees. "That's what makes Hawai'i special — free beach access."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.