George Downing, October 13, 2000
(from John Clark's Hawai'i Place Names)

"Steamer Lane" was a term that was used to describe Waikiki when it was breaking at its biggest, as in, "We have a Steamer Lane swell today." It happened when the lineup put you so far offshore that you were in the shipping lanes used by the former interisland steamers. But it wasn't one specific site.