Draped in lei, the statue in front of you honors Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku, the most celebrated athlete in Hawaiian history and the man more responsible than anyone else for spreading surfing to the world. Duke was born in Honolulu on August 24, 1890, and he learned to swim and surf in these very waters as a child. In 1911, he shattered the world record for the 100-yard freestyle swim at a meet in Honolulu — by so much that the Amateur Athletic Union initially refused to believe the times were accurate.
He went on to win gold medals at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics and the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, and silver at the 1924 Paris Olympics, all in freestyle swimming. But his lasting cultural legacy was as a surfer and ambassador of wave-riding. When he gave surfing demonstrations in Sydney, Australia in 1914 and in California throughout his career, he introduced the ancient Hawaiian art to audiences who had never seen anything like it.
In 1925, he used a surfboard to rescue eight men from a capsized boat off Newport Beach, California. Duke died in 1968, and his ashes were scattered in these waters. The lei that visitors drape over this statue every day are a living offering of aloha.