Page 336 - French Polynesia

uke was on the road constantly, giving late 1940’s to move to Oahu to surf the big
D swimming exhibitions around Europe,
the United States and the world. He also be-
came a favorite of Hollywood casting direc-
tors, playing Aztec chiefs, Hindu thieves and
Arab princes. On weekends he would take
his Hollywood friends surfing, and every-
where he could Duke used his fame to intro-
duce the world to the sport of surfing, which
would forever change the history of surfing
in Hawaii. By 1915 the Hawaii Outrigger Ca-
noe Club had a membership of 1200 and a
few hundred more on waiting lists. Waikiki
Beach was once again full of surfers. After
Duke’s visits to California, surfing took off.
Everybody wanted to try to “catch a wave”.
D uring the 1940’s, a lot of American sol-
diers stationed at Pearl Harbor were
introduced to surfing. The number of peo-
ple interested in the sport continued to
grow. People began quit their jobs in the
with rounded rails (the sides of the board)
waves of Makaha Beach, Sunset Beach and
Waimea Beach. By the late 1950’s, more pho-
tographers and filmmakers were becoming
interested in surfing. After Hawaii became a
state in 1959 more and more visitors came
to Hawaii and wanted to learn to surf. The
Australians and Californians wanted to
come to Hawaii to surf the big waves at the
best surfing beaches on Oahu. During the
1960’s, Movies like the “Beach Party” mov-
ies and “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” continued to
popularize the sport of surfing and surfing
as an established sport never looked back.
A nd so by the 1960s the “surf craze” was
on. The array of shapes and sizes in surf-
boards made it easier to accommodate the
surfer, the surfer’s skill level, and surf condi- newer style of stand-up paddle surfing.
tions. Boards could be made with a pointy
nose making it easier to “duck dive” under a
big wave. Or they could have a rounded nose
for nose-riding and “hanging ten” on smaller
days. Boards of many designs became popu-
lar including concave design to allow water
to flow across or under it in a specific man-
ner. There are boards with one fin, two fins,
and three, four, up to five fins. The “stand up”
paddle board, or SUP, is the latest take off of
surf board styles and the boards made for
them. SUP’s, like other surfboards, come in
many shapes and sizes, depending on what
kind of activity you prefer. Some are long
and wide to provide speed and stability.
Some are shorter, thinner and more narrow
– better for surfing waves. With an SUP you
stand on the board and use a paddle that is
a lot like a canoe paddle, only longer. Some
surfers like the speed and buoyancy of this