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Keenan Seguancia and Cade Ito, both 16, have been playing soccer since they were 5 years old. But only recently did they experience the game on sand.

"It's a lot harder," said Ito, a sophomore at Punahou School. "You can't dribble as much because the ball gets stuck in the sand."

Added Seguancia, a junior at Roosevelt High: "It's frustrating."

Sand soccer isn't a new sport, but it's relatively new to the Islands, where thousands of people — not just kids — play the traditional version of the sport. (Meaning, on land.)

But this version — first played in Brazil more than 30 years ago — is considering one of the fastest growing sports internationally, with hundreds of thousands of players and spectators attending events around the world.

The sport is played on smaller fields — usually 30-by-40 yards — and with less players; usually four on a team plus a goalkeeper. And players aren't allowed to wear shoes or shin guards.

All this makes the sport a fast-paced, high-scoring, skin-bearing event.

"It's a fun day at the beach," said Jeff Kuester, 48, who's organizing the Hawaii Sand Soccer Championships, the first sand soccer tournament in Hawai'i next month. "It's great exercise, you're out in the sun, and it's a lot of fun."

Kuester expects about 45 soccer teams — or roughly 450 players — to participate in the tournament at DeRussy Beach. (The event will also feature beach volleyball.)

Sand soccer is already played around the world, from Brazil to New Jersey. It originated as a pick-up sport, played on beaches just for fun.

Beach Soccer Worldwide held the first U.S. event in Los Angeles in 1992. Now it hosts pro beach soccer events in Europe, North and South America and Asia. In 2005 FIFA recognized it as a sport.

The sport's popularity has grown so much, and so quickly, advocates were trying to get it included in the 2008 Olympic Games.

Though Hawai'i may seem like the ideal place to host a sand soccer tournament, finding a beach on the island big enough was a challenge, Kuester said. But he figures once people see it, the sport will likely catch on.

"There are so many variations of the sport," he said. "This just happens to be one of those different kinds that you can have a lot of fun with ... I think it's a no-brainer for Hawai'i. We just don't have a lot of very long, very wide beaches here, so it's a lot more difficult."

Seguancia and Ito — who both compete with the Honolulu Bulls Soccer Club — aren't thinking about ditching their kangaroo-leather soccer shoes for sand soccer socks anytime soon.

But they wouldn't mind hitting the sand every now and then for cross-training. Or just as an excuse to check out the surf.

"It's more all-out, you're always going after the ball," Ito said. "It's more freestyle."