Duke Kahanamoku: The Johnny Appleseed of Surfing

The rockstar life of the waterman responsible for spreading surfing across the globe.

Duke Kahanamoku is considered the god-father of surfing.

For those who don’t know, surfing was practiced by Hawaiian and Polynesian cultures for centuries. When the surf was pumping, natives would ditch their duties and take their wooden boards.

The boards of old were much larger than todays standards, typically 16 ft. in length and weighing nearly 100-200lbs.

Surfing wasn’t discovered outside of these tribes until James Cook landed in Hawaii with Christian missionaries.

The missionaries general disapproval for surfing and the diseases they brought with them nearly killed surfing in the crib, along with many of the Hawaiian people.

Duke gave surfing its renaissance after having its culture nearly exterminated. Throughout the 1920’s he became the face of surfing. If surfing had faded away from history it’s likely skateboarding and snowboarding would never exist either.

During the late 19th century there were probably no more than a few hundred people actively surfing.

As an ambassador of surfing, everywhere Duke traveled he planted seeds of small surfing communities to grow in his wake.

Duke’s Early Life: 1890 - 1920

Duke was born in 1890, his parents Duke and Julia were descendants of Hawaiian royalty.

He grew up as a Waikiki surf rat, enjoying the sandy playground equipped with surfing, swimming, bodysurfing and anything a beach kid could want. Legend has it he rode a 30 ft. wave called “Blue Bird”.

All of this time in the water paid dividends and developed him into an excellent swimmer.

On August 11, 1911, a 21 year old Duke was clocked at 55.4 seconds, smashing the old world record swimming by 4.6 second in the Honolulu harbor.

People simply couldn’t and refused to believe it!

The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) claimed they weren’t using the right clocks and then later walked back their statements to say the ocean currents aided his time. It would be many years later before they actually recognized record.

The next year Duke easily qualified for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. At the time, he technically broke the color barrier for swimming since most people wrongly considered him to be black.

Duke was well-liked among his teammates for his easy going attitude. He was also known to fall asleep anywhere and everywhere. Even before races!

The well rested Duke went on to win gold in the men’s 100 meter freestyle and a silver in the men’s 4 x 200 meter relay.

Duke competed in the 1920 and 1924 Olympic games adding another silver and gold before retiring from the Olympic games. Most account have Duke with 4 or 5 Olympic medals under his belt. Although he was an alternate in the 1932 US Men’s Water Polo team.

What made Duke so fast at swimming was how he kicked. Most swimmers were using the scissor kick, while Duke was using the flutter kick

Although, in his words he preferred to call it the “Kahanamoku kick”

Duke: The Nomadic Surfer 1912 - 1925

After his first successful Olympic campaign, Duke went on his world tour exhibiting his swimming and surfing skills for all to see.

He traveled far and wide to spread the sport of surfing and share his swimming expertise, for a good cause too.

He swam to 30 different countries to raise money to aid the war effort in 1915. He traveled to Atlantic City, Southern California, and Coney Island. After the war, he traveled to New Zealand and Australia.

These pockets of surfing have grown to become bustling surfing paradises, millions of surfers travel to these spots for the taste of a perfect waves.

Some notable spots include:

• Rincon beach Malibu US

• Newport Beach US

• Kirra, AUS

• Snapper Rocks, AUS

• Greenmouth, AUS

Duke didn’t just bring his boards, he built and demonstrated to others how to build them each destination he went. The board he rode and left in Australia is constructed of Pine.

Keep in mind: Up until this time Surfing had not left Hawaii! This was the first time surfing was practiced outside of Hawaiian and Polynesian cultures.

Mr. Hollywood 1920 - 1932

After wrapping up a successful swimming career. Duke settled in Los Angeles, CA to kickstart his acting career.

Most people thought Duke was black because of his dark toned skin, he faced unjust discrimination, much like he did in swimming early on, and didn’t get many roles starting out.

However, his persistence and swimming career paid off and he ended up being featured in 30 films. He wasn’t always credited with a role, playing mostly stuntmen and background characters. It was said Duke was well-liked among the acting community once he was able to break in.

While living out in California, Duke was took a break from the hustle and bustle of LA and scooted down to surf in Newport beach and noticed a distressed fishing vessel, called Thelma.

The 40 ft. fishing yacht was chugging in through the inlet getting walloped by 20-30 ft. swells and capsized over.

Duke and two other friends made multiple trips ferrying over fisherman to shore. At one point, Duke had four fisherman on his surfboard. This rescue event led to lifeguards adopting surfboards as rescue equipment.

Duke and company ended up saving 12 of the 17 fisherman from a trip to Davey Jones’ locker. The press arrived and the humble Duke crept away and bolted for his car back to LA to avoid the attention.

More on “The Great Rescue of 1925” and firsthand accounts, here.

Twilight of Duke’s Life 1932 - 1968

After calling it quits Duke left his successful acting career behind in LA and returned home to Hawaii.

Duke was elected to Sherriff in 1932 and was re-elected to the position 13 consecutive terms until 1961. During WWII, he also served as a military police officer.

Our boy ended up marrying Nadine Alexander, a dance instructor at the age of 50, she was 35. Chad!

After retiring as a sheriff, Duke became Hawaii’s official greeter until the day he died. Duke would greet politicians, famous actors, and athletes who traveled to Hawaii. Some include Babe Ruth, Joe Dimaggio, and he even taught the Queen Mother of England how to hula!

Duke’s Creed

ALOHA

In Hawai’i we greet friends, loved ones and strangers
with Aloha, which means with LOVE.

ALOHA is the key word to the universal spirit of real hospitality,
which makes Hawai’i renowned as the world’s center of understanding and fellowship.

Try meeting or leaving people with ALOHA.

You’ll be surprised by their reaction.

I believe it and it is my creed.

ALOHA to you.

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku

Duke greeting President John F. Kennedy in Hawaii.

Some accounts say, Kennedy was rather bored speaking with political figures until he saw Duke. One said “his eyes lit up when he came in contact with Duke", the two chatted about surfing and life in Hawaii before the president was ushered to move along”.

At the age of 77, Duke passed away in 1968 from a heart attack.

He was immortalized as the one who shared the stoke of surfing using his platform as an Olympic champion and acting star.

Sadly as popular as our hero Duke was, he never got rich. He lived mostly penniless throughout his life but he had a rich life of adventure and grandeur that few ever dream to accomplish.

As a cartoon character writes in 2023, it’s safe to Duke lived a life worth living and will never be forgotten for his contributions to surfing and swimming.

Digital Minimalism: First Week Down

So far I’m a week into my social media hiatus, declutter, whatever you want to call it and I’m loving it.

I miss shitposting on Twitter but productivity has been through the fucking roof. I booked 2 qualified meetings this week for this month at 9-5, after quite the dry spell in Q4. Cold calling used to feel like I’m getting punched in the face but it starting to feel like a slot machine, except the only downside is “No.”

As for WiFi $ I have so much extra time. I revamped a site I’ve been working on for the last 9 months and it feels like things are finally clicking. Plenty of time to sit back, reflect, and take action.

Autist Note: I’m working on some surfing courses some will be free and more advanced will be paid. Feel free to leave a comment if you’re looking for anything in particular.

Social media has been a total distraction and it’s sad it took me this long to figure it out. It’s one of the first rules in Efficiency for fucks sake! I thought I was an exception to the rule but learned the hard way I am not.

If you want to take massive action and free up time, power those apps down anon.

Solitude in A Distracted Digital World

I will admit I’m checking my email and diving deeper on more jungle substacks in my downtime. However, my screen time is cut in half. I’m hovering around 2-3 hours of screen time per day.

It’s a strange feeling hanging out with friends and there’s brief moments when everyone’s staring at their phones. Meanwhile, I’m just looking around like Zuckerberg just hit the pause button on my social circle.

Weird innit?

I also decided not to tell some of my friends and to see if they actually notice or not. If they ask “did you see this on <redacted>’s profile?”. I simply reply:

“Nope. Haven’t seen it yet!”

The truth is, no one really notices what you’re doing on social media, it’s only what they’re doing.

Anyways thanks for reading. I truly appreciate everyone who reads my work. Until next time!

EDITORS NOTE

33 mins after posting: I need to take a moment to reread and edit before I fire these poasts off.