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Fifty years ago today Hawaii lost one of its most famous keiki o ka aina and, arguably, its greatest athlete. Read more

The ocean awaited its turn to mourn.

While the rest of the world absorbed the news that Duke Paoa Kahanamoku — Olympic swimming champion, father of modern surfing, the embodiment of aloha — was dead at age 77, the waters off Waikiki were patient, awaiting the return of a favored son.

Fifty years ago today Hawaii lost one of its most famous keiki o ka aina and, arguably, its greatest athlete. Five decades later there is no need for revisionist history or inflation of the legendary, sometimes heroic deeds.

Everything is true.

>> His three gold medals, each accompanied by a world record, plus a silver and a bronze in a 20-year Olympic career interrupted by World War I.

>> His rescue of eight men — one by one — from a capsized sportfishing boat on his surfboard in surf so heavy it had closed out the harbor channel off Corona del Mar, Calif., forever changing the way lifeguards did ocean rescues.

>> His graceful yet powerful command of a surfboard that captivated crowds so much so that the sport took off on an international wave, a global ride that continues today. One that — finally — will ride into the 2020 Tokyo games, 100 years after Kahanamoku recommended the sport’s inclusion to the IOC.

>> His favored 16-foot, 114-pound redwood longboard without a skeg, which he had no problem carrying — although it took two or three other beachboys to retrieve it from beachside racks. The one he rode in 1917 to connect the surf breaks of Kalehuawehe for over a mile, a storied ride from Castles to Publics, Cunha’s to Queen’s and finally the edge of Canoes where he was greeted by cheers when he stepped off onto the sand.

Yet what has stood the test of time perhaps more than anything, why Kahanamoku’s legacy endures, particularly in Hawaii, is the way he lived his life. After his job as sheriff of Honolulu was abolished upon statehood in 1959, he was appointed “Ambassador of Aloha.”

It was more than a job. He called it his creed, and it reads, in part, “We greet friends, loved ones and strangers with Aloha, which means love. Aloha is the key word to the universal spirit of real hospitality. … Try meeting or leaving people with Aloha. You’ll be surprised by their reaction. I believe it and it is my creed.”

“I think part of the magic of Duke’s life is he knew no ‘a‘ole’, no ‘no,’” said former state Sen. Fred Hemmings, captain of the Duke Kahanamoku Surf Team, created in 1965. “He knew no negative. No matter what happened, he always saw the good side.

“He had no great personal wealth, no political clout. Yet he was far and away the most respected person in Hawaii. We’ve had huge luminaries as part of the 20th century history of Hawaii, military, political, religious and entertainment leaders, but I’ve come to the conclusion that the most beloved person of the 20th century in Hawaii was a surfer. Duke Kaha­namoku.”

Hemmings recalled hearing the news 50 years ago — also a Monday — that Kahanamoku had collapsed in the parking lot of the Waikiki Yacht Club where he and brother Bill had been working on Duke’s skiff. Kahanamoku had previous medical incidents, including a heart attack in 1952 and a cerebral blood clot in 1962.

“He was gone by the time I got there,” Hemmings said.

Both Honolulu dailies devoted several pages to the news the next day. Headlines in the Star-Bulletin read, “Duke happy to the last” and “A close family; His life by the sea.”

There were photos of Kaha­namoku with his five brothers standing in front of their surfboards in Waikiki; with Johnny Weismuller at the 1924 Olympics in Paris where the man who went on to “Tarzan” fame defeated Kahanamoku for gold in the 100 free; of him happily eating poi; and as sheriff, actor, gas station owner and musician.

People from all over the world scrambled to get to the funeral that Saturday. Entertainer Arthur Godfrey, taught to surf by Kaha­namoku, made it in time to give the eulogy.

John Gregory “Pops” Monte Jr., a Waikiki beachboy and childhood friend of the Kahanamoku siblings, was living in California.

“My father came home, told us Duke had died and drove up to Los Angeles,” Monte’s son, John Keoni, said in a telephone call from San Diego. “He met Pua Kealoha (second to Kahanamoku in the 100 free at the 1920 Olympics), who flew down from San Francisco. They flew home together for the funeral.”

According to the Jan. 23, 1968, Sunday Star-Bulletin & Advertiser, “A daylong rain paused during the 3 p.m. services at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. Duke’s widow, Nadine, had asked that, instead of floral arrangements, that his thousands of friends contribute to the Duke Kahanamoku Foundation.”

The few arrangements included a replica of a Honolulu Police Department shield in yellow and a surfboard made of white flowers. Mourners lined the streets as the motorcade, led by 30 HPD motorcycles, made its way to Waikiki, past Kalia Roadwhere Kahanamoku’s ancestral home had been before the Hilton Hawaiian Village was built.

All four of the main radio stations — KGMB-590, KORL-650, KGU-760 and KHVH-1040 — aired the beachside services live. The rain returned about then, mixing in with the tears of the thousands who crowded the shoreline from the Royal Hawaiian to the Natatorium.

The Kamehameha School for Boys choir sang. (Kahanamoku had attended until 11th grade, dropping out to go to work to help support the family.)

“Black clouds were thick over Diamond Head as the Rev. Abraham K. Akaka, pastor of Kawaiahao Church, began the beachboy serv­ices at 4:30 p.m.,” the article read.

“Paoa was a man of aloha,” Akaka said, using Duke’s middle name — the name by which he was known to his closest friends. “God gave him to us as a gift from the sea, and now we give him back from whence he came.”

“Akaka sprinkled a few grains of Waikiki sand on the top of the urn containing Duke’s ashes as beachboys sang, concluding with the Hawaiian song of farewell, ‘Aloha Oe.’ Duke’s ashes were carried to the outrigger canoe that would take them out to sea.”

An estimated 100 surfboards and canoes, including some of the most renowned koa racers of the day, also were on the beach, joining in the paddle-out.

“The beach was full from ‘Walls’ to the Royal Hawaiian,” legendary waterman Nappy Napoleon told the Star-Advertiser. “They put him in the canoe, and we paddled out.

“We knew everyone was going to race back in (a beachboy funeral tradition). I had a movie camera, and we started back in early so we could be in front. I took movies of everyone on waves racing back.”

The ocean was different that day, Hemmings recalled.

“The ocean has a personality,” he said. “That day the water was churning, kind of boiling, like a signal that something was happening.

“It felt like the ocean was crying.”

It was time for the waters in which Kahanamoku had played, surfed and swum for nearly eight decades to mourn.

A WONDERFUL LIFE

Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku

>> Aug. 24, 1890: Born at Hale’akala, Honolulu home of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop.

>> 1911: Co-founds Hui Nalu Surf Club.

>> Aug. 11, 1911: Breaks freestyle world records at 100 and 220 yards in Honolulu Harbor, recognized years later by the AAU.

>> 1912: Hawaii’s first Olympian. Wins gold (100 free record) and silver (4×200 free relay) at Stockholm Games; popularizes surfing during swimming and surfing exhibitions on both coasts of the mainland.

>> Dec. 24, 1914: Gives surfing exhibition at Sydney’s Freshwater Beach, widely regarded as a seminal event in the development of surfing in Australia. Surfboard, made of Australian pine, remains at the Freshwater Surf Club.

>> 1916: Favored to win a second consecutive 100-free gold, but Olympics canceled due to World War I.

>> 1920: Wins two golds (100 free and 4×200 free relay, both records) at Antwerp games.

>> 1924: Wins silver (100 free) at Paris games.

>> Aug. 24, 1927: As a capacity crowd of 7,000 watches, celebrates 37th birthday with first swim in the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium.

>> 1932: Alternate on water polo team that won bronze at Los Angeles games.

>> 1934-1960: Elected for 13 consecutive terms as sheriff of Honolulu.

>> Aug. 2, 1940: Marries Nadine Alexander in Kailua-Kona.

>> 1960: Appointed “Ambassador of Aloha” after his sheriff’s position was eliminated upon statehood.

>> 1965: Inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

>> 1966: First inductee in the International Surfing Hall of Fame, becoming the first to be inducted into both the swimming and surfing halls of fame.

>> May 1966: Shows England’s queen mother how to hula during her visit to Hawaii.

>> December. 1966: Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championships telecast on CBS, with an estimated 50 million viewers making it the largest audience to watch a surfing competition.

>> Jan. 22, 1968: Dies in Honolulu after suffering heart attack at Waikiki Yacht Club.

>> Jan. 27, 1968: Ashes scattered off “First Break” in beachboy funeral attended by thousands on Waikiki Beach.

>> 1978: Inducted as part of the inaugural class of the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame; Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex opens at the University of Hawaii.

>> 1984: Inducted into the U.S. Olympic Committee Hall of Fame.

>> Aug. 24, 1990: Statue dedicated at Kuhio Beach as part of 100th-birthday celebration.

>> Aug. 24, 2002: U.S. Postal Service issues the Duke Kahanamoku 37-cent stamp.

>> 2010: Inducted as part of the inaugural class of the Hawaii Waterman Hall of Fame.