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New museum exhibit ‘Duke’s Dream’ spotlights Hawaiian surfer’s Olympic vision

March 25, 2024

Back when modern-day wave riding was still in its infancy, a young Hawaiian surfer had a dream that one day his beloved sport would be included as part of the Olympic Games.

Duke Kahanamoku had won an Olympic gold medal for swimming in the 1912 Stockholm games and his vision was for surfers standing on the winners podium as well. Unlikely at the time, considering only a handful of people knew how to surf.

But more than 100 years later, the International Huntington Beach Surfing Museum has unveiled a new exhibit, “Duke’s Dream Came True: Surfing’s Road to the Olympics,” that’s an ode to the man considered to be the father of modern-day surfing, who spread surfing and the aloha spirit around the world, and whose influence is still ever-present today.

The extensive exhibit features 18 renowned surf artists depicting the Hawaiian surfer and showcases 16 panels highlighting Kahanamoku’s various life chapters – from his younger years teaching tourists to surf in Waikiki, to his Olympic accolades, his stint as a Hollywood actor, countless surfing exhibitions around the world, appearances in Huntington Beach and a lifesaving boat rescue off Corona del Mar in 1925.

Then, there were his older years, when he was top sheriff in Honolulu and an “Ambassador of Aloha” for his home in Hawaii. He was also master of ceremonies when Hawaii was declared a state.

The exhibit tells an important story in surf history and heritage, said surf artist Rick Blake, who helped curate the collection along with fellow artist Dave Reynolds and Peter “PT” Townend, the museum’s executive director.

Surfer Brett Simpson and Peter ‘PT’ Townend stand inside cutouts at the International Surf Museum in Huntington Beach, CA on Thursday, March 21, 2024. Their new exhibit highlights Duke Kahanamoku and his efforts to get surfing into the Olympics. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A new exhibit at the International Surf Museum highlights Duke Kahanamoku and his efforts to get surfing into the Olympics in Huntington Beach, CA on Thursday, March 21, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Surfer Brett Simpson checks out artwork at the International Surf Museum in Huntington Beach, CA on Thursday, March 21, 2024. Their new exhibit highlights Duke Kahanamoku and his efforts to get surfing into the Olympics. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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“This is telling the story not just of surfing, but the Olympics, Duke’s life and all of the cultural things that go with it,” Blake said. “The kids will come in here and they will learn so much. There’s so much information in this one exhibit, it’s really incredible.”

Many younger generations don’t know Kahanamoku’s important story, how his life intertwined with the growing popularity of the sport and how he and others do surfing exhibitions in places like Huntington Beach, helped grow coastal towns as developers sought to sell plots of land.

Townend pointed out a few of his own memorabilia pieces that he brought in for the exhibit, including his “Duke” jacket and trophy from when he competed in the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship, the premiere surfing contest in Hawaii in the ’60s.

A photo shows Kahanamoku with aviator Amelia Earhart, who he taught to surf before she went missing a year later.

The featured artists showcased in the exhibit were asked to capture different chapters of Kahanamoku’s life, some detailing his younger years, others showing the iconic surfer as his hair grayed and face aged. Among the artists are Sandow Birk, Robb Havassy, Colleen Gnos, Courtney Conlogue and Joshua Paskowitz, to name a few.

A portrait painted with deep blue acrylic on three surfboards by Victoria White has a price of $20,000, a piece she painted live at last year’s U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach.

Blake painted a tribute to the Duke Invitational surf contests, depicting some of the early winners with Sunset Beach, where the contest was held, in the backdrop.

Blake said he was honored to feature work alongside all of his idols.

The artwork by Birk depicts Kahanamoku doing a surfing exhibit from the Huntington Beach Pier, oil rigs and crowds watching from the sand in the backdrop.

Well-known surf artist Phil Roberts did several portrait pieces, including two side-by-side depictions of the Hawaiian surfer, one in his younger years and the other as he grew older, his salt-and-pepper hair framing his aging face, capturing both his strength and grace.

“The whole entire premise of the show is really a beautiful story,” said Roberts. “We all truly, greatly, deeply admire who Duke was and the tremendous leader he was – the philosophy, his spirit for life and aloha. He was a visionary.”

Roberts called Kahanamoku a “grandfather of us all in this great family of surfing, this tribe.”

“Anything any of us can do to portray and tell this man’s story, and what it means to us, is a gift,” Roberts said.

The exhibit focuses not just on Kahanamoku, but on his legacy that lived on with the 2020 Olympics, where the first-ever crop of surfers joined the games in Tokyo.

A segment is dedicated to the gold medal winners, Hawaii’s Carissa Moore and Brazil’s Italo Ferreira, as well as showcasing surfboards ridden by USA Surfing team members Kolohe Andino, of San Clemente, two-time world champion John John Florence and Caroline Marks, a Florida surfer who now calls San Clemente home.

There’s also a spot for two-time U.S. Open of Surfing winner Kanoa Igarashi, who earned the silver medal for Japan, but was raised surfing the Huntington Beach pier.

There’s also a place honoring Fernando Aguerre, president of the International Surfing Association, who tirelessly fought for decades for the sport to be included in the Olympics.

Townend talked about how much has changed since he was crowned the first pro surfing champ in 1976, back when competitive surfers would only dream of making a million dollars.

“You barely made enough money to scrape by,” he said with a chuckle.

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Now, while still not as lucrative as other professional sports, surfing is a career path that people can strive toward rather than just a lifestyle pastime – and since 2020, a sport they can aspire for an Olympic medal.

The timing isn’t coincidental, Townend noted, with surfing in the Olympics this July, and Huntington Beach making a bid to host the surfing competition when the games come to Los Angeles in 2028.

“We’re in the Olympics year and we’re going to have two new champions,” he said. “For that reason, we’re going to keep this up all year.”

For more information on the exhibit and the museum, visit huntingtonbeachsurfingmuseum.org

Orange County Register

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New museum exhibit ‘Duke’s Dream’ spotlights Hawaiian surfer’s Olympic vision

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