Tim DelaVega of Hanapepe, editor and contributing co-author of “200 Years of Surfing Literature,” has been invited to speak at the Moana Outrigger Hotel tomorrow, Saturday, Aug. 21, from 11 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., as
Tim DelaVega of Hanapepe, editor and contributing co-author of “200 Years of Surfing Literature,” has been invited to speak at the Moana Outrigger Hotel tomorrow, Saturday, Aug. 21, from 11 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., as part of the Duke Kahanamoku birthday celebration being held in Waikiki this weekend.
DelaVega is going to read selections from his book, including references to Native Hawaiian surfing chants and myths.
Later in the day, in what has become one of Waikiki’s most colorful and fragrant traditions, Duke Kahanamoku’s statue on Kuhio Beach will be decorated with fresh flower lei at 5 p.m.
Preceding the lei-draping will be a unique “surfboard lei parade” starting a 4:30 p.m. that will proceed along Kalakaua Avenue.
Kahanamoku is considered the leading figure in the rebirth of surfing in Hawai‘i in the modern era.
He was also an Olympic swimming champion.
The “Duke” enjoyed visiting the Nawiliwili era, and he made trips spanning a number of eras during the 20th century.
He joined author Jack London in 1916 at a lu‘au held in the Nawiliwili era, and challenged, and defeated, a top Kaua‘i swimmer in a handicapped swim match across the Hule‘ia River.
In the 1930s, Kalapaki surfer and kama‘aina Hobey Goodale was given a custom-made redwood surfboard sent over to Kaua‘i by the Duke as a favor to Goodale’s relative, Charles Rice. Rice was a leading figure in the state Legislature and well known in Honolulu as well as on Kaua‘i. Prior to his death in 1967, Kahanamoku enjoyed stays at the Coco Palms Resort, where a coconut tree still bears his name on a plaque, and at the Kauai Surf Hotel, where he surfed off Kalapaki Beach. Kahanamoku was a friend of the late Percy Kinimaka, who was the beach captain in those days at Kalapaki. Kaua‘i bigwave rider and internationally known surfer Titus Kinimaka was impressed and inspired when he met the Duke when he was a boy and the Waikiki surfer was elderly.
