The Fascinating Story Of Duke Kahanamoku, One Of Hawaii's Most Famous Residents
By Megan Shute|Published May 11, 2020
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Megan Shute
Author
With more than 10 years of experience as a professional writer, Megan holds a degree in Mass Media from her home state of Minnesota. After college, she chose to trade in her winter boots for slippahs and moved to the beautiful island of Oahu, where she has been living for more than five years. She lives on the west side but is constantly taking mini-road trips across the island and visits the neighboring islands whenever she can getaway. She loves hiking, snorkeling, locally-grown coffee, and finding the best acai bowl on Oahu.
Whether you’ve called our beautiful islands home for your entire life, recently made the move to the Aloha State, or perhaps are simply dreaming of the day you’ll finally fly into Hawaii, there are countless fascinating places and people that make the Hawaiian Islands so unique. And while we’ve featured many of the islands’ most famous places, it is perhaps the people who live here that have shaped the islands even more than our volcanic past. One of those influential people is none other than the famous Duke Kahanamoku, and we can’t wait to share his life and legacy with you.
Born August 24, 1890, in Honolulu at the very end of the Kingdom of Hawaii and living into statehood as a United States citizen, Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku is most famous for his competitive swimming career and role in popularizing the ancient Hawaiian sport of surfing.
Duke spent much of his time at the beach, and in 1912, easily qualified for the U.S. Olympic swimming team, winning medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, the 1920 Antwerp games, and the 1924 Olympics in Paris. He was even an alternate for the U.S. water polo team at the 1932 Summer Olympics.
In addition to being a five-time Olympic medalist in swimming, Duke was also a Scottish Rite Freemason, a Shriner, an actor, a law enforcement officer, a beach volleyball player, and a businessman.
During and after his Olympic career, he traveled internationally to give swimming exhibitions and it was during this time that he popularized the sport of surfing — which was previously only known in Hawaii.
It is said that his surfing exhibition at Freshwater Beach in Sydney on December 24, 1914, was a seminal event in the development of surfing in Australia.
He also brought surfing to the mainland and while living in California, Kahanamoku rescued eight men from a fishing vessel that capsized off the coast of Newport Beach while attempting to enter the city’s harbor.
The police chief called Duke’s efforts, "The most superhuman surfboard rescue act the world has ever seen." This also led lifeguards across America to begin using surfboards as standard equipment in water rescues. Later, from 1932 to 1961, Kahanamoku served as the Sheriff of Honolulu for 13 consecutive terms.
Duke was the first person to be inducted into both the Surfing Hall of Fame and the Swimming Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and was honored by the first major professional surfing contest ever held in massive surf on the north shore of Oahu, the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championships.
His ashes were scattered into the ocean after his death in 1968 at age 77, and it is here that the City of Honolulu erected a nine-foot cast bronze statue of Kahanamoku. His legacy doesn’t end there, however.
Kahanamoku’s name is used by Duke’s Canoe Club & Barefoot Bar, now known simply as Duke’s Waikiki, a chain of restaurants named after him in California, Florida, and Hawaii. On the 112th anniversary of his birth in 2002, the U.S. Postal Service issued a first-class commemorative stamp with his photo on it.
