Remembering Duke Kahanamoku

His name is Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku.And he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 24, 1890.He had five brothers and three sisters, including Samuel Kahanamoku.

Simply call him  Duke Kahanamoku.He could swim like a fish!He could surf the deadliest waves!

He is known as the father of surfing.Some called him ''human fish" because of his adroit swimming and surfing tactics.

they had been planning to surf a certain water,(with his friends) during his active days when one of them noticed that a certain boat was in trouble because of the waves,obviously. The boat was actually a 40-foot, 5-ton yacht Thelma attempting to enter Newport Harbor through the churning breakers.

what then happened?This guy and his friends could not simply stay there while lives were been taken by the angry waves.

According to  Los Angeles Times,

" The sinking, said the newspaper, "resulted in the drowning of five passengers. Twelve others were pulled from
the sea in a spectacular rescue staged by Duke Kahanamoku, famous Hawaiian swimmer, and others who braved the heavy seas on surfboards......

In another first-person description of his role during the Thelma tragedy, Kahanamoku was quoted in a Honolulu newspaper several weeks later as stating, "Neither I or my pals were thinking heroics ... we were simply running ... me with my board and the others to get their boards ... and hoping to save lives. I hit the water very hard and with all the forward thrust I could generate I paddled until my arms begged for mercy"

"I reached the screaming and gagging victims and began grabbing at their frantic arms and legs. I brought one victim in on my board, then two on another trip, and possibly three on a third trip. Some victims we could not save at all, for they went under before we could get to them. Without the boards, we would probably not have been able to get to them."
Witnesses at the time said Kahanamoku was the first rescuer to reach the scene"


 On August 11, 1911, Kahanamoku was timed at 55.4 seconds in the 100 yards (91 m) freestyle, beating the existing world record by 4.6 seconds, in the salt water of Honolulu Harbor.  He also broke the record in the 220 yd (200 m) and equalled it in the 50 yd (46 m).

But the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), in disbelief, would not recognize these feats until many years later. The AAU initially claimed that the judges must have been using alarm clocks rather than stopwatches and later claimed that ocean currents aided Kahanamoku.

Kahanamoku easily qualified for the U.S. Olympic swimming team in 1912. At the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, he won a gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle, and a silver medal with the second-place U.S. team in the men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay.

During the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, he won gold medals both in the 100 meters (bettering fellow Hawaiian Pua Kealoha) and in the relay. He finished the 100 meters with a silver medal during the 1924 Olympics in Paris, with the gold going to Johnny Weissmuller and the bronze to Duke's brother, Samuel Kahanamoku.

At age 34, this was Kahanamoku's last Olympic medal^.He also was an alternate for the U.S. water polo team at the 1932 Summer Olympics.

He died of a heart attack on January 22,1968. On August 24,2015 his 125th birthday was honoured by Google Doodle.