Duke Kahanamoku: The Hawaiian Olympian Who Took Surfing Around The World – The surfing icon was born on this day in 1890
It can be hard to pinpoint the moment a sport enters the zeitgeist. Yes you have the rule makers – your James Naismiths, Webb Ellis’, and Alexander Cartrights – and your playing pioneers like W. G. Grace and Walter Camp, but each have their own detractors, questioned responsibilities and legacies.
There are no such quibbles in the world of modern surfing however; the patriarch can only be Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku, ‘The Big Kahuna’, the first person to be inducted into both the International Swimming Hall of Fame and Surfing Halls of Fame, the man who once declared, “Out of the water, I am nothing.” He was, in short, the sport’s greatest ambassador … More