Wooden boards

Before foam, before fibreglass.

Hawaiian surfboards were cut from a single piece of wood and carried down the beach on a shoulder. These are the shapes Duke Kahanamoku grew up on. Three of them carry his name, and no two are the same.

What they are

Before foam, before fibreglass

Surfing is heʻe nalu. It is Native Hawaiian and centuries older than Duke Kahanamoku. Long before foam, before fibreglass and before the leash, a Hawaiian surfboard was cut from a single piece of wood and carried down the beach on a shoulder.

Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku was born on 24 August 1890 at Haleʻākala in Honolulu, in what was then the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. He grew up on shapes like these, and he carried surfing from Waikīkī to the world.

On 24 December 1914 at Freshwater Beach in Sydney he shaped a board from local sugar pine and paddled out on it. Australia dates its surfing to that afternoon.

The three

The three boards

Our own photographs, taken outdoors with each board standing on its tail. Nothing has been added to them.

A wooden surfboard standing upright on its tail in mown grass, pale golden brown with a long straight grain and a rounded nose. Two small butterfly keys are set into the deck near the nose. Breadfruit trees and a ridge under low cloud behind it. — Two butterfly keys are set into the deck near the nose, left in plain sight rather than filled and painted over.

A wooden surfboard standing upright on its tail in mown grass, honey brown with a narrow oval nose and a few dark knots. The name DUKE is inlaid near the nose in a pale wood. Breadfruit trees behind it. — His name is inlaid near the nose in a paler wood. On the face you can see here, it is the only mark.

A wooden surfboard standing upright on its tail in mown grass, dark reddish brown, with figure curling across the width and several dark knots low on the board. A green ridge under cloud behind it. — The darkest of the three, the figure curling across the width, the knots left where they fell.

We hold a written record that describes three boards, with the wood, the length, the width, the thickness and the weight of each. It does not say which description belongs to which photograph. Until somebody stands in front of them with a tape measure, this page prints no dimensions and names no wood. A number we cannot attach to an object is worse than no number.

Plainly

What these are not

They are display pieces. They stand in a room and they are looked at. They are not surf equipment, they are not offered as surf equipment, and nobody should put one in the water.

Nothing on this page is for sale. There is no price here, no basket and no checkout, and this site takes no payment and collects no personal information.

To see them, the room is the gallery at the Moana Surfrider, 2365 Kalākaua Avenue in Waikīkī.

Elsewhere

The goods that carry his name

The hats and goods that carry Duke Kahanamoku’s name are a separate thing from the boards, and they are shipped from Honolulu.

Visit dukekahanamoku.shop