Duke Kahanamoku

 

Regal, Robust, Rugged, Noble, Distinguished,

and yet

Self Assured, Unassuming, Modest, Honest, Humble,

the Duke, a man among men.

 

Legendary…….

 

“……Where but the moment before there was only wide desolation and invincible roar, is now a man, erect, full-stature, not struggling frantically in that wild moment, not buried and crushed and buffeted by those mightily monsters, but standing above them all, calm and superb, poise on the giddy summit, his feet buried in the churning foam, the salt smoke rising to his knees, ands all the rest of him is in the free air and flashing sunlight, and he is flying through the air, flying forward, flying fast as the surge on which he stands…….

He is Mercury, a brown Mercury

His heels are winged, and in them is the swiftness of the sea. In truth, from out of the sea he has leaped upon the back of the sea, and he is riding the sea that roars and bellows and cannot shake him from its back. But no frantic outreaching and balancing is his. He is impassive, motionless as a statue carved suddenly by some miracle out of the sea’s depth from which he rose. And straight on toward shore he flies on his winged heels and the white crest of the breaker………”

 

from “The Cruise of the Snark” by Jack London

1911 at Waikiki Beach

 

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku was born August 24, 1890, a full blooded Hawaiian, the eldest of nine children of Duke Halapu Kahanamoku and Julia Paoakania Lonokahini Kahanamoku. Duke the elder was born in the Princess Ruth’s Hawaiian palace and named in honor of the Duke of Edinburgh at the time he was there in 1869.

 

 

In Waikiki, the Duke learned to swim to swim at a very young age and shortly thereafter developed his revolutionary freestyle stroke using a unique overarm and flutter kick style that amazed competitors and his growing legion of admirers. It was during this time that he also mastered the early sport of surfing on hand crafted surf boards made of koa wood, exceeding 16 feet in length and weighing in excess of one hundred pounds.

The Duke went on to become a world record breaking olympic swimming champion, a world renowned surfer, a master oarsman and sailor, a Beach Boy, and life saver. The Father of Surfing. The full embodiment of a legendary Waterman.

History has identified the gentile and humble Duke Kahanamoku with many titles.Father of Modern Surfing
World Champion Swimmer
Ali’i Nui o Waikiki Beach Boy
The Ultimate Waterman
Ambassador of Aloha