There is a new episode in PBS’s “American Masters” series coming out, “Waterman – Duke, Ambassador of Aloha.” Kind of a long title really, but it hits the nail on the head all the way around.
Obviously it is about the life of the legendary Duke Kahanamoku. Well, I guess “obviously” to everybody over a certain age.
The younger crowd coming up in surfing, and in life, know who Kelly Slater and Kai Lenny are, but most likely not much from before what is fairly current. So, even though Duke is one of the biggest, most famous and certainly most respected names in not only surfing, but in sports period, he might not be as known to your average surf kid on the beach.
The title of the series and this episode sort of says it all. “American Masters:” Duke is certainly a master. “Waterman:” A surfer of legendary status, Duke was also an Olympic swimmer with five gold medals and was an all-around waterman of incredible skills. “Ambassador of Aloha:” This is the real bottom line of his story, this guy lived the spirit of Aloha and took it around the world with him.
This episode goes into depth showing what an amazing person he was along with all of his accolades and accomplishments. He was one of those rare people who are just bigger than life and as genuine as they come.
I first met Duke in the early 1960s when they added the “Duke Kahanamohu All Around Best Surfer” award at the United States Surfing Championships in Huntington Beach. Duke was there to present the award and many of us who were in the event got to meet him.
It was pretty cool, kinda like meeting Elvis or something like that. Mike Doyle won the award its first year and I won it five times in a row between 1966 and 1970.
Then there were the “Duke Invitational” events held in Hawaii beginning in the mid ’60s. The top 24 surfers in the world were invited to compete, and for the first time were flown to Hawaii and taken care of with hotel and food and such.
We always got to say hi and all that, had our photos taken with him a bunch of times. I was fortunate to get invited to the first seven “Duke meets,” and consider those to be at the top of the highlights of my competitive surfing years.
There were dinners at Duke’s Waikiki nightclub where he would be there and Don Ho would do a show.
They gave all of the competitors these beautiful gold trophies of Duke standing in front of board – an image that became very famous and is now the subject of many statues around the world.
Duke would hand them out to all of us and always thanked us by name when he gave us our “Duke.” It was like “Thank you so much for coming over Corky, aloha.” I always felt like he meant it.
It is amazing just what a tranquil and sweet person Duke was out of the limelight.
My best personal memory of Duke comes from one day when I was invited to ride out to the North Shore with him, Paul Strauch and Freddy Hemmings in Duke’s personal Rolls-Royce. I think Freddy drove.
They loved him so much in Hawaii that no matter where he went for a meal it was always “on the house.” Cool side benefit of hanging out with Duke was it always meant free lunch.
“Waterman: Duke – Ambassador of Aloha” premiers at 6 p.m. on May 10 on PBS. The documentary has narration by Jason Momoa and features comments from some of today’s surfing greats such as Slater, Laird Hamilton and Lenny. It is a great film and should be required viewing by every serious surfer. A beautiful and well done tribute.
