Duke Kahanamoku - The Lord of the waters

When a little known Hawaiian called Duke Kahanamoku won the 100m Freestyle Swimming gold at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics in record time, there was genuine and widespread disbelief. After he broke the world record for the 200m freestyle in the trial heats and went on to clinch silver with the US relay team, excitement around Duke was paramount. Soon the world would learn about this polymath who went on to receive great acclaim as a swimmer, water polo and beach volleyball player, actor, lawyer and businessman. He was the embodiment, the ambassador, of Hawaii’s aloha spirit.

Born on this day in 1890 as Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku into a family of lower-ranking nobles, he acquired the title Duke from his father. It had been the arrival of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, to Hawaii during the birth of Kahanamoku Sr. (1869) that led Bernice Pauahi Bishop to christen him as Duke. Kahanamoku and his gang of beach boys used to spend most of their time on the Waikiki Beach helping out tourists. In the process, Duke honed his swimming skills in the ocean which was his real home, his family, friend. It was the sea from which he imbibed an inner tranquility, an unassailable integrity, and a warm, welcoming and transparant nature. The sea in turn provided him speed that was unseen during those times. He smashed records with ease in his first ever trials in the Honolulu Harbour in 1911. So unbelievable was his feat that the American Athletic Union refused to accept those timings until a few years later.

Duke made the American team for the 1912 Olympics and his achievements and nobility won him fans in Stockholm. By then, he had started welcoming more youngsters to surfing and started travelling around the world to promote the sport, especially in Australia. He travelled the world and spread the Hawaiian culture of kindness, simplicity and sportsmanship. His never-dying craze for building bigger wooden surfboards was insatiable. The biggest was a giant redwood 10-footer now preserved in Bishop Museum, Honolulu. He once rode a monster wave more than a mile at the Waikiki, that too on a finless board. Truly an unsurmountable feat. Duke believed more in body surfing and would seldom use a board.

In between life in the water, Duke Kahanamoku had found time and joy in acting in several documentaries and movies during his stay in Hollywood-country, Los Angeles. Not only that, he had even served as a military officer during World War II and had arrested a man called Duncan for drunk and disorderly behaviour, a trial that went on for quite a while.

A man with enormous charm and a sense of humour, he set a great example by keeping off addictions like tobacco and alocohol. The only addiction he had was to the water, and he returned again to win golds in the 100m freestyle and 4x200m relay at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics.Duke was the epitome of sportsmanship and generosity as he even helped out his fiercest rivals, be it with surfboards, the art of surfing or even swimming. As swimming legend and 5-time Olympic gold winner Johnny Weissmuller once proclaimed, “This bloke, this old guy, he taught me how to beat him”. Weissmuller had broken Duke’s 100m freestyle record in 1922 and won gold at the 1924 Olympics, with Duke and his brother Sam Kahanamoku taking silver and bronze respectively. Weismuller, who since became a household name for his exploits in the pool and his portrayal of Tarzan in Hollywood blockbusters, recalled Duke saying prior to the start of the race that what mattered most was the American flag going up thrice at the medal ceremony.

A year later in California, a fishing boat capsized near Newport Beach while entering the harbour leaving 29 fishermen to drown. But Kahanamoku and a couple of surfers managed to rescue 12 of them, with Duke alone bringing to shore 8 men. This superhuman act of gallantry was lauded immensely by the Hawaiian folk and showed Duke’s concern for everybody, especially people working the waters.

An enterprising and loving character, he was Hawaii’s unofficial ambassador long before he was made sheriff of Honolulu for 13 successive terms. From President Kennedy to the Queen of England, The Big Kahuna greeted everyone in his uninhibited gracious and playful style, and often broke into an impromptu hula dance with them. Not to mention, taking them along on a canoe ride.The respect that people had for Duke was evident not the least from the gesture of the US water polo team at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics which presented a bronze medal to him despite being an alternate. An iconic statue adorns the Waikiki beach, portraying a larger-than-life Duke standing in front of his surfboard with welcoming arms. His contribution to the surfboard gaining popularity in Australia also resulted in Freshwater, Sydney to erect a figure of him riding the waves.

Duke was a down to earth individual. It were his true Hawaiian traits of humility and purity for which money had no importance in his life and the very reason why the Western world could not change him at all. His first step with young surfers was always to help them become gentlemen before riding the waves. Patience, he felt was the key to become a good surfer. A passionate waterman, he simply believed in spreading the sport of surfing to the entire world and vouched for it to be included in the Summer Olympics. In addition, he had this truckload of charisma that became commodified by everyone around him.

Duke Kahanmoku - The Father of Surfing. The Ambassador of Aloha.