Duke Kahanmoku and the birth of Modern Surfing

This 1931 clip of Hawaiian surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku and actor Douglas Fairbanks happened more than 25 years after surfing was brought back in Waikiki. 

Shortly after the year 1900, about the same time airplanes were being invented, a group of young guys in Waikiki, Hawaii decided to bring back the ancient sport of the Hawaiian kings.  George Freeth, Duke Kahanmoku, and some others built 14 foot long, hundred pound boards, and started surfing.  They were all accomplished swimmers as well.  In 1907, novelist and travel writer Jack London, best known for books like The Call of the Wild and White Fang, visited Hawaii.  He was amazed by the locals that seemed to be "walking on water" on big boards.  He wrote an article about the newly reborn sport of surfing for a women's magazine back in the United States.  One thing led to another, and both Freeth and Duke traveled to the U.S. to demonstrate their swimming, diving, and surfing skills.  George Freeth died in the great influenza outbreak of 1918. 

Duke became an Olympic swimming champion, appeared in many movies, and spread the sport of surfing to California, Australia and elsewhere.  He earned the title of "Father of Modern Surfing" along the way.  Most of today's action sports owe part of their history to surfing, even if they don't use boards.  The little scene in Waikiki, 110 years ago, brought surfing back into the world, and influenced action sports, music, movies, and clothing around the world in the century since.