Duke Paoa Kahanamoku · 1890 to 1968
The short version.
He grew up on this shoreline, carried surfing from Waikīkī to the world, and came home to welcome everyone else to it.
Who he was
The ocean taught him first, and he spent the rest of his life passing on what he learned.
Everything on this page is sourced. Where the record disagrees with itself, we say so rather than tidy it up.
Born in the Kingdom
Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku was born on 24 August 1890, in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. The Kingdom was overthrown in January 1893, when he was two. His family moved that same year to Kālia, at the far end of this beach, to be near his mother’s people, the Paoas.
A given name, not a title
He was named for his father, who was christened Duke by Bernice Pauahi Bishop in honor of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, who was visiting Hawaiʻi.
The Club of the Waves
Around 1908, he, Knute Cottrell and Kenneth Winter sat under a hau tree by the Moana bathhouse and named a club: Hui Nalu. The bathhouse was the clubroom. Dues were a dollar a year and bought you a hook for your clothes.
The swim nobody would ratify
In August 1911, in Honolulu Harbor, he swam a hundred yards in 55.4 seconds, 4.6 seconds inside the world record. The Amateur Athletic Union refused to ratify it. The next year he went to the mainland to race in front of them, and at Stockholm he equalled the world record for 100 metres.
Five Olympic medals
Three gold and two silver, at Stockholm in 1912, Antwerp in 1920 and Paris in 1924. Hui Nalu paid his way to the first trials by subscription and donation.
Freshwater
Surfing is heʻe nalu. It is Native Hawaiian and centuries older than him, and he did not invent it. What he did was take it with him. At Freshwater in Sydney he shaped a board from sugar pine bought from a Sydney timber yard and paddled out, and Australia dates its surfing to that afternoon. The board is still at the club there.
Newport Beach
On 14 June 1925 a fishing boat called the Thelma capsized off Newport Beach in California. He went out on his board and brought eight men in alive.
Sheriff of Honolulu
Elected Sheriff of the City and County of Honolulu in 1934, he served thirteen consecutive terms. When the office was abolished in 1961, Mayor Neal Blaisdell made him Honolulu’s greeter, which meant that welcoming people was, quite literally, his job. He is remembered as Hawaiʻi’s Ambassador of Aloha.
Aloha to you
He died on 22 January 1968. Jan Gordon Fisher’s nine-foot bronze of him was dedicated at Kūhiō Beach on 24 August 1990, his hundredth birthday, a few hundred steps from the gallery door.
Duke’s creed of aloha
In Hawaiʻi we greet friends, loved ones or strangers with ALOHA, which means with LOVE. ALOHA is the key-word to the universal spirit of real hospitality, which makes Hawaiʻi 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
The long version
His life in full.
The creed, the film, the foundation that carries his name, and the full story are at alohatoyou.com, the record site for Duke Kahanamoku.
- Where
- Moana Surfrider
2365 Kalākaua Avenue, Lobby Suite 3
Waikīkī, Honolulu - Call
- 808.382.5618
- Entry
- Free. You do not have to buy anything.