I'm trying to optimize my extendeddatatable code to speed up the load time for my page. during my profiling i discovered that the method that i pass into the "value" attribute of the columns object, gets called for every reference i have to its alias "column" in my code. This ends up being 1018 times. I tried outjecting via seam the field that my getColumns method returns, but its just ended me into a slew of scope problems, so i'm wondering if anyone out there has any idea how to reduce that call.
I've also tried using c:set, and a custom set taghandler, which makes the table not render at all.
Here's my html:

<ui:composition xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
 xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
 xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
 xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
 xmlns:c="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core"
 xmlns:service="http://connect.garmin.com/jsf/service"
 xmlns:a4j="http://richfaces.org/a4j"
 xmlns:rich="http://richfaces.org/rich"
 xmlns:s="http://jboss.com/products/seam/taglib"
 template="/api/activity-search/template/activitiesDefault.xhtml">

 <ui:define name="content">
 <h:form id="activitiesForm">
 <rich:extendedDataTable id="activitiesGrid" value="#{activitiesListingDataModel}" var="row"
 rows="20" style="height: 524px"
 cellpadding="5" rowClasses="activityRow, activityRowAlternate"
 onRowMouseOver="activitiesHandler.highlightRow(this)"
 onRowMouseOut="activitiesHandler.unHighlightRow(this)">
 <rich:columns id="#{column.fieldName}Column" value="#{activityListingDataProvider.columns}"
 var="column" style="text-align:#{column.alignment};" label="#{column.columnHeader}"
 rendered="#{column.fieldName != 'privacy'}">
 <f:facet name="header">
 <a4j:commandLink value="#{column.columnHeader}"
 styleClass="ascSort"
 reRender="activitiesGrid, counter"
 title="#{column.unitOfMeasurement}">
 <a4j:actionparam name="sortField" value="#{column.fieldName}" />
 <a4j:actionparam name="sortWasClicked" value="true" />
 </a4j:commandLink>
 </f:facet>
 <h:outputText value="#{row.cellMap.get(column.fieldName).displayValue}"/>
 </rich:columns>
 </rich:extendedDataTable>
 <div class="activitiesToolBar left">
 <a4j:commandButton id="setToEdit" value="refreshGrid"
 action="#{activityListingDataProvider.setIsInEdit()}"
 reRender="activitiesForm">
 </a4j:commandButton>
 </div>
 <rich:panel id="counter" styleClass="counterPanel" rendered="#{not activityListingDataProvider.isInEdit}">
 <div class="activitiesFooterLeft">
 <rich:datascroller id="pageScroller" for="activitiesGrid" reRender="counter"
 page="#{activityListingDataProvider.scrollerPage}"
 align="center" maxPages="10" tableStyleClass="paginationTableStyle"/>
 </div>
 </rich:panel>
 </h:form>
 </ui:define>
</ui:composition>