DUKE, As I Knew Him by Tom Blake

"DUKE, As I Knew Him"

"Duke, As I knew Him ," published in 1966, Tom rote: "I first met Duke Kahanamoku in 1920 at Detroit, ichigan, where I was then living. Duke had arrived there on his way back from the Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium, where he had won the 100-meter free-style swimming event, just as he had won it eight years previous at the 1912 games in Stockholm. "A motion picture newsreel showing the United States swimming team's performance at Antwerp was running at a local theater. Duke and his fellow Hawaiian teammates came to see themselves in action on the screen. "I, too, had come to see the film and I was so impressed when I found myself near this champion that I intercepted him in the theatre lobby and asked to shake his hand. "'Sure!' Duke replied, smiling and eager to please, as always. He held out to me his big soft paw of a hand, and gave me a firm, hearty handshake. It made a lasting impression . I fe lt that somehow he had included an invitation to me to come over to his own Hawaiian Islands. "As I look back now, I realize how much I was influenced by this first contact with the man who has become the best known personality in the history of surfing. Inspired by him , I took up swimming in earnest, after migrating to California later in 1920, and worked out at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. By the autumn of 1922, when I was twenty years old, I had won the national AAU championship in a ten mile swim at Philadelphia. "The Islands still beckoned to me, and in 1924 I finally sai led from California to Honolulu. Duke was not living there at the time, but his brother Sam (one of five brothers, all great surf

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Above: Duke Paoa Kahanamoku surfing Waikiki, 1931, after Tom first developed a waterproof housing for the Graflex camera he had bought from Duke. Blake photo.

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DUKE, As I Knew Him by Tom Blake

and water men) took me out on his board, riding tandem, and introduced me to other surfers around Waikiki Beach. Sam was also a swimmer of Olympic caliber and a great surf-rider. From those days onward I was fascinated by surfing. "With this came an ever-growing interest in the design and building of surfboards which might make possible greater rides. l went to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and there began to study the enormous old boards preserved from the days of the ancient Hawaiians, who had been master surf-riders long before the influence of foreign nations took over the life of the Islands. Among

these were the long, narrow giants of the kind called olo boards by the natives. "Later in 1924, I returned to Southern California and was engaged as a lifeguard by the exclusive Swimming Club on the beach of Santa Monica, a little south of Santa Monica Canyon. "Next door to the Swimming Club stood the also exclusive Beach Club. One of the guest members there was Duke Kahanamoku! "About a year later, in 1925, Duke became lifeguard for the Beach Club. This meant that he and I were guarding stretches

Above: Tom surfing Waikiki, 1931. Duke had been surfing

these waters since shortly after the turn of the century.

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Above: Duke Kahanamoku having fun doing a headstand while en route to the beach. Unidentified in
foreground. Blake photo.

DUKE, As I Knew Him by Tom Blake

Above: Duke as sailor. Tom crewed for Duke in a sailboat race in 1931. They raced
from Ala Wai Yacht Club to Kewalo Basin and back. Of course, they won. Blake photo.

of sand and surf side by side. We saw each other every day and became constant surfing and swimming companions. "During the last years of the 1920's, Duke worked around Hollywood in motion pictures. He appeared as an actor in a number of films, among them 'Old Ironsides ' and 'The Medicine Man.' "Duke left his lifeguard position at the Beach Club, and I moved up to that position in his place. "In those days we made our surfboards of solid slabs of redwood. Recalling the great olo boards I had seen preserved in the Bishop Museum of Honolulu, I purchased a redwood slab sixteen feet long, two feet wide, and four inches thick. It weighed about 150 pounds- too heavy to be of service as a surfboard, even when shaped. So, to lighten it, I drilled hundreds of holes in it from top to bottom, each hole removing a cylinder of wood four inches long. Then I let the 'holey' board season for a month. "After the wood had fully dried, I covered the top and bottom surfaces with a thin layer of wood, sealing the holes, and shaped the board in a design adapted from that of the ancient Hawaiians. It finished up fifteen feet long, nineteen inches wide,
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and four inches thick. Its weight was 'only' L10 pounds, because it was partly hollow. "When I used this board in the California paddleboard races it proved a great success. Duke became interested in this modern version, or variation, of an old design. He took it out, rode it, and pronounced it good. This meant a lot to me, because in those days I hardly knew a good board from a bad one! "Finally, in 1930, both Duke and I were back in his native Hawaii at the same time. It was then that I began the period of my closest association with the Duke, then aged forty, and also with his mother, his sister, and his five brothers. Besides Duke, the eldest, there were also Sam, Louis, Sargent, David, and Bill Kahanamoku. Between them, they seemed almost to dominate the surfing picture at Waikiki in those days. I recall that Sam and Sargent were especially fine performers in the surf, although Duke was in a class by himself. Not many people know how Duke acquired his famous first name. Some, in fact, assume that it is a royal title, perhaps deriving from some ancestry among the ancient Hawaiian nobility. The true story seems to go back nearly a century to the year 1869,

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DUKE, As I Knew Him by Tom Blake

Above: Duke was an Olympic swimmer, surfing's greatest ambassador and a loca l favorite in boat races-- both outrigger and sailboat. When Tom crewed for him in 1931, Duke had a 32-foot sloop. Th is view was taken by Tom after winning the race.

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DUKE, As I Knew Him by Tom Blake

in July. All Honolulu was excited. The second son of Queen Victoria of England was coming on a visit. His title was 'Duke of Edinburgh' and his stay of two weeks became a memorable social event. Among the babies born about that time one was named in his honor- Duke. That boy grew up to become, in turn, the father of a Duke 'Junior' - who is the Duke Kahanamoku of surfing greatness. "Duke's middle name, Paoa, is a pure Hawaiian one. Duke, born in 1890, and his five brothers all grew up swimming and surfing under the primitive and unspoiled conditions then prevailing at Waikiki Beach. Remember that when Duke rode his first wave on a battered little board or first did body surfing, Waikiki was practically deserted. A century of population decline had reduced the number of native Hawaiians to a small fraction of the population that had lived in the Islands when they were discovered by Captain Cook on his expedition late in the eighteenth century. "Along with the decline in the numbers of Hawaiians, there had been a tragic decay in knowledge and mastery of the old surfing skills. The reawakening of interest in surfing was just beginning during the first years of the 1900's, about the time that Duke became a tall teenager. "About 1903, when Duke was a boy of thirteen, surf-riders at Waikiki were still struggling along, using short boards seven or eight feet long with squared-off tails built of solid wood. "No wonder that Duke, when he returned to Hawaii at the age of forty remained a marvelous physical specimen. His early life had laid a great foundation. His magnificent body resulted from a supremely healthy way of life during his boyhood years, when he was on the beach all day long, swimming, surf-riding or resting. "Some people may have assumed that all native Hawaiians of his generation had equally fine physiques; however, a physique so fine was the exception rather than the rule among the Hawaiians, and is, in fact, the exception among any people, today or in the past. "D uke won his place in 1912 as sprint swirnmer on the American Olympic Team, and in the Games and Stockholm took an easy first in the 100-meter free style. "His time, in that victory, was 1 minute, 3.4 seconds, which is equivalent to about 58 seconds for the 100 yards. During the next years, Duke repeatedly swam faster than this. Thus, in San Francisco, July 1913, he did 100 yards in 54.6 seconds. In Australia, January 1915, he was timed at 53.8 seconds for that distance- and 53 .2 seconds in Honolulu a little later. Finally, in September 1917, he whipped his way through I 00 yards in 53 seconds flat. "His winning time in the Olympics in Antwerp in 1920 (the year I first met him) was 1:1.4 - about 3 per cent faster than his time for the same event eight years earlier. In 1920, Duke was thirty, an age that many swimming coaches would today regard as past the peak for a sprint swimmer. Not until 1924 did the Duke lose his supremacy as a sprint swimmer- to Johnny Weismuller, a lanky kid from Chicago. "For instance, in 1912, during his first trip to the Olympic Games, he rode a board in the surf at Balboa on the Pacific Coast, and then arrived on the East Coast, surfed at Atlantic City, too.
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"In 1915, when World War I was already under way, Duk visited Australia for swimming events. There he took a board h had shaped himself into the surf at Manly Beach near Sydne) Australia, and demonstrated surf-riding. That 'first' helped mak surfing history for Australia, where the sport has attained enormou importance and is still growing today. "During the period between 1912 and 1918 Duke also rod big wave surf at Ocean City, New Jersey, and Nassau, New Yod The present day growth of sUifing along the East Coast of the Unite, States can be considered, in part, an extension ofthe demonstration that Duke Kahanamoku made - waves of the Atlantic as well a the Pacific provided all the power a surfer needed for riding. "Recognition of the Duke's surfing 'firsts' off beaches o the continental United States came with his inclusion in an honorar group called the Kalahuewehe Surfboard Club in the 1930's. Thi honor was limited to those who had ridden first-break surf of

Above: Duke, with olo-style hollowboard, inspired by the work Tom had done with the ancient royal Hawaiian surfboard. Blake photo.

DUKE, As I Knew Him by Tom Blake

Above: Duke riding hi s hollow o/o. This is the only known photograph of Duke riding an olo. Bla ke photo.

beaches in the continental United States. Among other charter members were George Freeth, the first to bring surfing from Hawaii to the Redondo-Hermosa area of California; Preston Peterson , still surfing beautifully now, in the latter part ofthe 1960's- also Tarzan Smith, a famous long distance paddler; Lorrin Harrison, a great board designer and builder, as well as rider of big surf; and a number of others. "One of the greatest extended surf periods in Hawaii came in 1917 at the time of a violent Japanese earthquake. It was during this giant surf session that Duke and Dad Center made a pair of the greatest surf rides of modern times. Many stories have grown up about those rides. This is the way Duke described it to me: '"It was about eight-thirty in the morning. There was no trade wind yet. The ocean was like glass except for the swells- and they were running about thirty feet high. '"We were waiting for the swells off Castle Point, about Page 58/60

three hundred yards outside the shallow coral and well to the west end of the break. We were so far out that we recognized the captain on a passing sampan! '" A set of blue birds (big swells in blue water) loomed up. It looked as though they would break on us, and we started paddling out - then stopped and decided to chance it. When the first one reached us it was just curling on top, and very steep. Dad caught it - and I took the next one. '"It took just one stroke to catch my wave. I had to slide hard to get out of the break. I went so fast that the chop of the wave struck the bottom of my board like the patter of a machine gun. '" I figured the approximate speed. I was going about thirty miles an hour, and when you are so close to the water, you appreciate speed. That, along with the danger that the wave would break over me, made it quite interesting. " 'I slid just a little too far to the west to make Cunha break.

DUKE, As I Knew Him by Tom Blake

Dad Center did the same thing. This made the ride more than a half a mile long. "'That's not the limit, however, for I feel sure that a ride twice that long is waiting for somebody.' "In spite of all his surfing accomplishments as a young man and in his thirties, I would say that the Duke attained his greatest surfing satisfactions and some of his greatest achievements as a rider after his fortieth year and during the period from 1930 onward when I was able to see him and surf with him frequently in Hawaii. "It took a real man to carry Duke's 126 pound board into and out of the surf. It was even heavy in the water, responding slowly to a rider's efforts to turn and trim it. I tried it out, but I lacked the body weight to control it on a wave. "However, Duke's 210 pounds - his weight at the timeseemed just right. And the board seemed suited to him in every way. The test came when we went out together on the first good day of storm surf at Waikiki. Duke caught a big wave, then rose to his feet on the new giant board. He was like a man transformed! The success of this ride went to his head like wine. He yelled and shouted at the top of his voice as he rode, sliding left on a big storm wave well outside the Cunha surfing area. "After completing this ride, Duke pulled and paddled back to join me. "'Fine riding,' I said to him. "'We're making history today,' was his answer. '"What break do you call this?' I asked him, for he had ridden a break that until then had never had a name of its own among us surfers. "'It's got no name- but let's give it one,' answered Duke. "We were both riding our new long boards, so I suggested naming the break in honor of those boards. I asked Duke what the Hawaiian word was for big boards like these we were riding. "'Papa nui,' was Duke's reply. Papa stands for board, and nui for big or large. Thus the outside Cunha break came to be known as the Papa Nui break. During all the years since that memorable day in 1932, hundreds of surfers have talked about or heard about the Papa Nui break at Waikiki, but no one has ever questioned the origin of this name. "During 1933 this monster board of Duke's figured in an event that made a vast difference in my own surfing experiences. Duke and I were out in Waikiki Bay surfing storm swells, running at that time fifteen to twenty feet high at Castle's First Break. "I caught a nice wave and made all the way in to the Public Baths surf area. Once I reached there, I cut out of the wave, as usual, and joined a group of other riders who were sitting on their boards. "From there I watched Duke, and saw how, on the giant sixteen foot board of his, he caught another wave and came steaming in over the same course. This time, however, instead of cutting out of his wave at the Public Baths surf as I and the others had done, he, instead, attempted to ride it on through. And, in fact, he almost managed to do just that. .. "I could hardly wait to question him. "The first chance I got, I paddled near and asked him, 'What were you figuring to do?' '"I was trying to ride on in, all the way to the beach,' Duke answered.

"All the way to the beach! The notion of that hit me hard. It was like a new light turned on for me. So far as I knew, this was the first time a surfer had seriously shown such an intent. "Duke continued to ride his great sixteen foot board, year after year. He treated it with utmost care and affection on land. After every use in the surf he washed it off with fresh water before storing it away carefully . "Duke had a full life from then on . He became a prominent figure in the public and political life of Hawaii. He was re-elected sheriff of Honolulu city and county again and again. He served a total of nine consecutive terms in that office! He had set a record (nonsurfing) for distance and duration by the time he retired from that office. "Duke did not retire into obscurity or forgetfulness. Hawaii, now a state of our Union, has bestowed on him two honorary titles: Ambassador at Large and Official Greeter. The surfing associations of both the United States and Australia have invited him to preside as guest of honor at their greatest contests where the top surf stars of today perform so brilliantly. "I often look back over my experiences and contacts in surfing with Duke Kahanamoku. Although it is not easy to sum up memories that have so many meanings for me, I believe the best conclusion is the following, in the same words that I wrote for my 1961 book, HAWAIIAN SURFRIDING: "'To have been a surfing companion of the Duke in his prime was a privilege accorded to me. We often rode the Hawaiian and California surfs together. "'To see Duke coming in at Waikiki on his long olo board was to see surfriding at its best. Somehow, to me, the Duke is the last of the Great Hawaiians, the man by which to measure the race; the surfrider by which to measure the surfriders of all time!"' 217

'l>" r"<t
Above: Duke on a Blake board, demonstrating the rescue potential of the hollowboard to the U.S. Coast Guard, Honolulu Harbor, 1936. Blake photo.

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DUKE, As I Knew Him by Tom Blake

Above: Tom and Duke, at Waikiki in 1936, with the first surfboard
outfitted with a fin ( keg) innovated by To m the yea r before.

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