Duke Paoa Kahanamoku life and biography

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku (also known as Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku) born August 24, 1890 in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States - died January 22, 1968 in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States is an American surfer and swimmer.


Duke Kahanamoku achieved legendary status in two sports--swimming and surfing--and in the process became Hawaii's best-known citizen. More than a sports champion or media celebrity, however, Kahanamoku also represented a vital link with his native land's past. In popularizing surfing among new generations of athletes around the world, Kahanamoku helped to keep the ancient sport alive after it had almost perished along with other Hawaiian traditions in the nineteenth century. At the time of his death in 1968, Kahanamoku was celebrated not only as a superb athlete, but as a cultural icon as well.

A Hawaiian Childhood

Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku was born on August 24, 1890 in the Kalia District of Honolulu to Duke Halapu and Julia Paakonia Lonokahikini Paoa Kahanamoku. His father, who worked as a police officer, was born during a visit by the Duke of Edinburgh to Hawaii in 1869, and had been given the first name Duke to commemorate the event. When his first-born son arrived, the elder Kahanamoku passed the name along. The Kahanamoku family eventually grew to include six sons and three daughters.

Kahanamoku grew up during one of the most turbulent periods in Hawaii's history, one that brought its people close to extinction. There is no written record of when Polynesian groups settled the islands, but the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1778 is well documented. After shooting some islanders, the British explorer was killed in February 1779--but not before he left an extensive written record of his travels in the South Pacific. European audiences were fascinated by his descriptions of native traditions, particularly the sport of surfing, in which men, women, and even children would sail out into the ocean on long, flat boards, to be carried back to shore by cresting waves.

Cook's misadventure in Hawaii did not dissuade other explorers and missionaries from coming to the islands throughout the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, the effects of their settlements were far from benign on the Hawaiian people. Christian missionaries condemned many native traditions--including surfing--as uncivilized, and attempted to ban such practices. More threateningly, a slew of diseases cut the population of the islands from about 300,000 when Cook visited to just 40,000 in 1893. That year the islands were plunged into upheaval when pineapple grower Sanford Dole used American military forces to overthrow the governing Hawaiian monarchy under Queen Liliuokalani. Dole established a republic on the islands in 1894 and in 1900 all Hawaiians were made United States citizens.

As a son in a fairly privileged family, Kahanamoku's childhood was relatively untouched by the political controversies of the period. From his family's home near Waikiki Beach, he showed a talent for swimming and surfing from an early age. By the time he reached adulthood, Kahanamoku stood at six feet and weighed one-hundred-ninety pounds; his greatest asset in the water, however, was his size-thirteen feet, which he used as a propeller in the water in a flutter kick. Later in his career, the innovation would become known as the "Kahanamoku Kick," a variation of the Australian crawl that he used in freestyle swimming events.

After completing the eleventh grade, Kahanamoku devoted much of his time to a budding career as an athlete. Along with his surfing friends he founded the Hui Nalu Surf Club in 1911. The club often competed against the Outrigger Canoe and Surfboard Club in sailing regattas and the events proved to be a great tourist attraction. Kahanamoku also made headlines during his participation in the first Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) swimming event held in Hawaii, which took place in August 1911. The 100-yard freestyle event was held in between two piers in Honolulu Harbor on a temporary course set up just for the event. Consequently, when Kahanamoku won the race with a time of 55.4 seconds--the current record then stood at 60 seconds--AAU officials remeasured the course four times before declaring Kahanamoku the winner. In the 50-yard freestyle, Kahanamoku tied the world record of 24.2 seconds. The national AAU office refused to recognize his achievements, claiming that the course's irregularities must have helped Kahanamoku set the records.

Olympic Star

Kahanamoku was unfazed by the controversy over his record-breaking performances in the 1911 AAU event. Instead, he focused on making the U.S. Olympic Men's Swimming Team, set to compete in Stockholm for the 1912 Games. In a May 1912 qualifying meet in Philadelphia for the 100-meter freestyle event, Kahanamoku swept the field with a time of 60 seconds. He also qualified for the U.S. 800-meter relay team at a trial held in New Jersey, where he set a record for his leg of the race with a 200-meter time of 2 minutes and 40 seconds. At the 1912 Olympic Games Kahanamoku became one of the event's most famous athletes. On July 6 he took the gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle event and set a new Olympic record in the process of 63.4 seconds. Kahanamoku also helped the U.S. 800-meter freestyle team take the silver medal in that event. Perhaps the only other American athlete to emerge with a higher profile from the 1912 Olympic Games was Jim Thorpe, who, like Kahanamoku, was of aboriginal descent.

The First World War led to the cancellation of the 1916 Olympic Games, where Kahanamoku was a favorite to win at least one more gold medal. Forced to wait until the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium, Kahanamoku once again made the U.S. Team in the 100-meter freestyle and 800-meter freestyle relay. The first run of the finals for the 100-meter freestyle was nullified after some countries protested the outcome, which had thirty-year-old Kahanamoku setting another world-record of 61.4 seconds. In the rescheduled finals, he again proved his mastery of the event with an even better time of 60.4 seconds. This time, there was no protest and Kahanamoku was awarded the gold medal. He also helped to set a record as part of the 800-meter freestyle relay team, which took the gold medal with a record-setting time of 10 minutes and 4.4 seconds.

Kahanamoku's final Olympic medal came at the 1924 Games in Paris, where he placed second to Johnny Weismuller in the 100-meter freestyle event. Kahanamoku did not make the swim team for the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, but he did attend the event as a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club Water Polo Team, which failed to make it into the final competition. In all, Kahanamoku won three individual and two team medals in his Olympic career.

The Father of Surfing

After his appearance at the 1912 Olympics, Kahanamoku was an international celebrity. He toured the United States giving swimming and surfing exhibitions and even went to Australia at the invitation of the Australia Swimming Association in late 1914. Although some Australians had tried to surf before, Kahanamoku's appearance at the Freshwater Beach near Sydney in February 1915 caused a sensation in the country. Kahanamoku spent two-and-a-half hours giving a demonstration of surfing on a board that he had made himself, and even took a young woman out on the board for a ride. Surfing eventually became one of the Australia's most popular past-times, and many credited Kahanamoku with being the "Father of Modern Surfing" for increasing interest in the sport at home and abroad.

By now the most famous resident of Hawaii, Kahanamoku was sought out by numerous celebrities during their visits to the islands. One of his most notable acquaintances was the Prince of Wales, whom he taught to surf in 1920. Kahanamoku also rubbed shoulders with some of Hollywood's most famous stars, a by-product of his own career as a character actor--usually playing tribal chiefs--that began in the 1920s. Kahanmoku's most memorable appearances came at the end of his acting career in the 1948 John Wayne movie The Wake of the Red Witch and the 1955 Jack Lemmon movie Mister Roberts.

Kahanamoku also earned praise for his heroism during a daring rescue of passengers from a capsized boat off the coast of Corona del Mar, California on June 14, 1925. Twenty-nine passengers on the pleasure boat the Thelma had been pitched into the Pacific Ocean after the craft had capsized. Upon hearing the news, Kahanamoku jumped onto his surfboard and paddled out to the scene. He managed to drag eight people out of the ocean and ferry them back to shore; only four others survived the wreck. As Leonard Leuras later quoted a story from the Los Angeles Times on Kahanamoku's life in his Surfing: The Ultimate Pleasure, "His role on the beach that day was more dramatic than the scores he played in four decades of intermittent bit-part acting in Hollywood films. For one thing, that day he was the star."

Hawaii's Official Greeter

In 1934 Kahanamoku gained office as Sheriff of Honolulu; he also owned and operated two gas stations in the city. In 1940 he married Nadine Alexander; the couple did not have any children. While serving as sheriff, a post he held until it was abolished in 1960, Kahanamoku continued to make film appearances and attended numerous international surfing events as the sport's elder statesman. In his retirement Kahanamoku was appointed Hawaii's official greeter, a ceremonial post that recognized his contribution to promoting the state's culture and traditions. In 1965 Kahanamoku was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame; the following year, he was inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame.

Although Kahanamoku still cut an impressive figure as he reached his seventies, a heart attack in 1955 and cerebral blood clot in 1962 limited his physical activities. One of his last major appearances was as guest of honor at the U.S. Surfing Championships in Huntington Beach, California in September 1965. In December 1965 he attended the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championships in Hawaii; when the event was telecast the following year on CBS, it attracted the largest audience ever to watch a surfing competition, estimated at up to fifty million viewers. He also made headlines for showing the Queen Mother how to dance the hula during her visit to Hawaii in May 1966.

The Duke's Legacy

Duke Kahanamoku suffered a fatal heart attack at the Waikiki Yacht Club and died on January 22, 1968. His death marked the passing of a world-class athlete in swimming and surfing who also served as a vital link to Hawaii's past.

In 1984 Kahanamoku was posthumously inducted into the U.S. Olympic Committee Hall of Fame. In 1990 his widow led efforts to have a statue of Kahanamoku dedicated on Waikiki Beach. The figure showed a nine-foot Kahanamoku with a surfboard facing away from the ocean with his arms outstretched in a welcoming embrace. Nadine Alexander Kahanamoku also supported efforts to set up the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation, a public trust devoted to funding youth athletic activities and traditional Hawaiian sports. These activities continue to promote the ideals expressed in Kahanamoku's life while preserving his culture's heritage for future generations.

Kahanamoku is still regarded a generation after his death as Hawaii's best-ever athletic champion. His five Olympic medals also rank Kahanamoku as one of the greatest athletes in the history of the modern Summer Olympic Games. If not for his efforts to promote surfing, it could well have become a cultural relic of Hawaii's past. Instead, Kahanamoku popularized the sport around the world and in doing so, helped to preserve a part of his culture's history.


AWARDS

1911, Gold medal, Amateur Athletic Union, 100-yard freestyle swimming; 1912, Olympic gold medal, 100-meter freestyle swimming; silver medal, freestyle relay swimming; 1920, Olympic gold medal, 100-meter freestyle swimming; gold medal, 800-meter freestyle relay swimming; 1924, Olympic silver medal, 100-meter freestyle swimming; 1965, Inducted into International Swimming Hall of Fame; 1966, Inducted into Surfing Hall of Fame; 1984, Inducted into U.S. Olympic Committee Hall of Fame.

CHRONOLOGY

* 1890 Born August 24 in Honolulu, Hawaii to Duke Halapu and Julia Paakonia Lonokahikini Paoa Kahanamoku
* 1912 Wins gold medal in 100-meter freestyle swimming event at Stockholm Olympic Games
* 1914 Popularizes surfing in Australia during an exhibition tour
* 1920 Wins gold medal in 100-meter freestyle swimming event in Antwerp Olympic Games
* 1924 Wins silver medal in 100-meter freestyle swimming event in Paris Olympic Games
* 1925 Saves several swimmers from drowning off the coast of Corona del Mar, California
* 1936 Elected sheriff of Honolulu
* 1940 Marries Nadine Alexander
* 1948 Appears in John Wayne movie Wake of the Red Witch
* 1952 Suffers heart attack
* 1962 Suffers from cerebral blood clot
* 1968 Dies in Honolulu on January 22
* 1990 Statue is dedicated to Kahanamoku on Waikiki Beach

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