Mythbusting the Duke
We are suckers for a story. Something with a beginning, a middle, an end and, if at all possible, a moral. We use them just as often to hide the truth as to reveal it. And so it is with the story of Duke Kahanamoku's visit to Australia 100 years ago. For a long time the story was that he introduced surfboard riding to Australia but, as it became clear that this was not true, it morphed into something more complex and a lot stranger. It became a myth and like all myths, the longer it survived the less it resembled anything approaching reality. This is not to underestimate the man or his considerable personal achievements, but only to question how we remember and interpret them.
These days the myth has two dimensions. Duke as populariser, and Duke as an ambassador of goodwill who left an indelible stamp on our surfing culture. The first probably has some truth in it if that popularity is restricted to the period immediately after his visit. The anecdotal reports clearly suggest that more people took up surfing in the immediate aftermath of his demonstrations. But it should be said that any connection to the later popularity of the sport seems unlikely.
Surfing was always going to thrive on Australia's east coast for reasons unconnected to Duke. Changing cultural attitudes, major population centres near ocean beaches, a favourable climate, a relatively constant supply of easy waves and the growth of the surf life saving movement, all played major roles in its early development. So while Duke probably had a short term impact it is hard to imagine that, beyond a decade, he was of any significance at all.
The second part of the story though is where it gets strange; the idea that Duke imparted a generalised sense of goodwill towards our fellow man that has gone on to characterise Australian surfing ever since. If nothing else this is a tribute to our powers of self-deception, as whatever else we may be collectively known for, it is not a generalised goodwill to that part of humanity seeking to share the waves with us. Australian surfing culture has traditionally been intensely competitive, elitist, male dominated, aggressive and self-absorbed. The point is not whether these characteristics are good or bad, but that they are very far from the romantic characteristics we are supposed to have inherited from Duke.
A more realistic trajectory for our attitudes can be traced, not from Duke, but from much later events. Surfboard riding, for several decades after Duke, was closely associated with surf life saving clubs and whatever values he suggested were soon forgotten in those bastions of conservative authoritarianism. In a very real sense then, the true antecedents of Australian surfing culture are not to be found 100 years ago but much more recently in the late 1950s and early 1960s when lightweight surfboards and cheaper cars allowed a completely new culture to arise that had nothing to do with surf life saving and, initially anyway, only the dimmest awareness that Duke Kahanamoku had ever set foot in the country.
This had its roots in developments in the United States where a distinctly rebellious youth culture, that would continue through to the end of the 1970s, was challenging traditional attitudes. It may be heretical to make the suggestion but there are strong arguments that, James Dean, Marlon Brando, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg, despite their never having set foot on a surfboard, have had a greater impact on our surfing culture than Duke. They might not have surfed but they pointed the way.
The same spirit that drove rock n' roll and the beats crossed over into surf culture and like those other groups surfers experienced the backlash. Being a surfer in Australia right through the sixties and seventies was to risk being characterised as a lazy, anti-social,drug taking, drop out. There was real hostility and police harassment in many coastal towns. The image changed in the 80s and 90s as the surfing industry and professional surfing grew. Money always talks, though what it says is usually just convenient bullshit. But if the image changed, the culture itself moved much more slowly
In Australia you still don't have to push too far below that glossy surface to find something very different. A darker, less conformist culture which so delights in being different that it dumped its own corporate icons when they became ubiquitous; a culture that values performance above generalised goodwill in the water; a culture that has no resemblance to that envisioned by the proponents of Duke as our founding father. This has been the core surfing culture for at least five decades. Other layers of more casual participants have developed over and around it so that it can be hard to find, but it is still there. This is what Duke's myth would have us deny
Like all myths, humanity is never enough. There must be monuments - it has always been so from the pyramids to the outsize images of the 20th century dictators. So now Duke stands there larger than life overlooking Freshwater Beach, projecting that mythic power and asserting the hierarchical nature of the culture that created the myth. For monumentalism is the opposite of self-effacement, it cannot exist without wide gulfs in status. The sub-text then is about us, not about Duke who was by all accounts a humble man. We erected a monument to what we are not. Not as an aspiration to become it, but as an emblem of our self-delusion. //blindboy
Comments
Right on. Well considered. Beat and it's interest in the east, I reckon created a path for surfing as a way of life, now much changed.
current observation, common - two guys sitting just wide of me a couple of days ago at bondi. one just back from trip"yeah really good, everyone really cool, no hassling", next wave comes he scratches like crazy to paddle across and under me as I'm paddling into it. aloha is selective, to some.
"Like all myths, humanity is never enough. There must be monuments - it has always been so from the pyramids to the outsize images of the 20th century dictators. So now Duke stands there larger than life overlooking Freshwater Beach, projecting that mythic power and asserting the hierarchical nature of the culture that created the myth. For monumentalism is the opposite of self-effacement, it cannot exist without wide gulfs in status. The sub-text then is about us, not about Duke who was by all accounts a humble man. We erected a monument to what we are not. Not as an aspiration to become it, but as an emblem of our self-delusion."
Your take on the Aussie surf culture is interesting BB. So even in the beginning, when surfers were a rare breed with plenty of uncrowded waves, surfers were still intensely competitive, aggressive & elitist? I find that strange & hard to believe. I think with time & popularity it has become this way but I can't understand why it would of started out that way. Just because it was considered rebellious & frowned upon? Maybe........if so the early surfing pioneers sound like a bunch of wankers.
It's too late now but maybe we should of adopted a "Duke" like approach to our surfing culture earlier on. One that was more humble, like the man himself. Maybe the line-ups of today would be a friendlier place to be even with growing crowds....
Yes
The problem is we have too often made idols of jerks, not the good guys
Yes
The problem is we have too often made idols of jerks, not the good guys
Rabbits my own experience is that there was hassling from at least the mid -sixties whenever there was any sort of crowd. And yes it was elitist, but wankers? No more so than the generations that followed. If anything things are less competitive now because the composition of the crowd is so different. Right through the seventies it was rare to see a 40 year old or a woman in the water. It was a young man's game so there was more aggro. As for what we should have done I'm not so sure I agree. The culture I was brought up into was to go hard in the water particularly against your own mates so that you pushed each other to higher performance. There were limits to that but taking it in turns was never really on. For better or worse that was the culture that bred the generation of surfers that went on to dominate international competition for a decade or more. Go hard or go in is still a common attitude in serious waves. I wouldn't want to see it lost completely.
Your experience sounds interesting, thanks for sharing. I find it strange that you never shared waves with your mates (no taking turns), definitely elitist & aggressive. My experience in terms of "going hard" has always been about improving my own surfing, not requiring others input, never about not sharing waves with my mates or others. Sure, your way would be perfectly suited to competative surfing. Me & my mates have never competed, for whatever reasons & our mission has always been to find uncrowded quality waves to share between us & whoever we came across. Made some great lifelong friendships meeting likeminded souls. Each to there own but to imply that going hard might be lost because surfers aren't being greedy & arrogant is just bullshit. How many surfers these days go hard but wouldn't have a competative bone in their body? Plenty I would suggest & I reckon I'd rather share a few beers with them than some arrogant selfish wankers that thought they had more right to waves than anyone else, even over his own mates. I'm a male & my experience was completely different, different era granted, but me & my mates didn't swallow the previous culture that was on offer apparently......
Straw man there rabbits, who said anything about being greedy or arrogant? It was highly competitive and there wasn't much choice. You played the game that was on offer unless you preferred a close out bank. Personally I always preferred those whose weakness was a greed for waves over those, much more numerous cases, of greed for money and or power. How's the view from up there on the high moral ground?
Wow surprised you've stooped to pitching morality. Just because my experience was different to yours doesn't mean mine didn't exist. Or are you accusing me of lying?? We weren't all like you BB, but still scored epic waves & became very good surfers, some better than others. Just like you stated in the thread about Michael Thompson in regards to the suggestion that "cocain was unavoidable " but apparently that wasn't your reality. Well in regard to this topic your reality wasn't mine or that of my mates. If anyone is standing high in the hill of moral ground it would be those that suggest there reality was the only reality. Sound familiar??
You were the one making value judgements all over the place rabbits implying some sort of moral disapproval. You are welcome to your reality just don't assume it is superior to the other versions .
Listen to yourself BB re value judgments & whose implying what. Have you proof read your own article? Happy for you point out where I said or implied my reality was superior. Are your threads up for discussion or are they just a love-in for those who agree with everything you say??
You can accuse Swellnet of lots of things but the comments have never been an echo chamber. No offence meant, just robust discussion.
Cooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!
Cynical revisionism? Sweeping generalisations?
In Hawaii the spirit of aloha and the black shorts both coexist.
Byron has both happy hippies and nasty ferals and drug culture
Surf clubs have stuffed shirts and mateship under one roof.
You don't balance a record by tearing down the real and good.
Going on the accounts of those who were there the Duke made an enormous positive impact and did kick start surfing in Australia
bb ,
Your not outing yourself as a Skeptic , are you ! ?
I must say that most of the known " glamour " surrounding the Duke should be recognised in the category of Waterman ........
Without the Olympic success , he would just be another local legend .
Crossing boundaries / dual - multi disciplinary success sees athletes transcend both individual genre's and almost immortalises them for doing so .
On his current trajectory , i'm sure Jamie Mitchell will be treated as such in years to come .
My wife at the time used to constantly laugh, that in a town with only 200 people, there could be so many feuds and arguments... and relentless competition, status. Maybe a dozen or so surfers lived there, and that was the most amusing of all. Guys that got to surf deluxe waves day in and day out would be at war up and down the coast, 99% sure of why. That 1%. Yet their lives were filled with constant angst, depression... who ripped most... who wasn't... who surfed most... were the hordes coming... the wind was a degree out... bec lost camslessless's plastic fin wedge, made from an ice cream container... lifty ate another egg... oh the horrors!
'So now Duke stands there larger than life overlooking Freshwater Beach, projecting that mythic power and asserting the hierarchical nature of the culture that created the myth.'
Yeh, well, get used to it, soon there will be one with r/abs, bro's, arm in arm... two savvy, core surfees, casting a caring eye over Manly.
Then, the real legend, the super monument, will arise. Bad boys Owfred Ooow and 'eavy liftin' hocko, resplendent in their fongs too, in a preserved paradise, both sneering at a trampled twinnie underfoot... whilst together holding aloft the greatest 'scientifical' surfboard ever seen!!! Real ozzies, just a sharin' and carin' the ride, two worlds united by the waves... as one... bra!!!
We know they are out there... why won't they contact us, why won't they come!!! We have so much to offer them!!! Just think... the resources, the trees, mining, water, an endless, massive myriad of industry, production, energy, people, pollution... culminating in...
'Not really sure why I posted this comment...'
They're never coming are they...
Not to mention the 10, that suddenly became 11.
Them 11 commandments...
Wasn't Duke Kahanamoku the first hired surfing salesman?
...or the first pro surfer?
I think that's more the flavour of your article BB. It seems to be about how Aussie surf culture created the "competative surfer"?!? Do you have to have a competative nature to be a surfer that "goes hard"?? Can a surfer display genuine Aloha & still "go hard"?? Did the Duke "go hard"??
Good article, BB.
Raises another question: is it wrong to use an idealised image of the Duke to help spread aloha spirit for which he stood?
If we all believe the myth it might just work.
Of course, it doesn't leave much room for damn truth-loving types like yourself...
You're becoming the resident iconoclast Blindboy, and what bigger icon to go after than Duke Paoa. Is it worth it?
Your argument relies heavily upon symbolism so you'll find there are multiple counter points to the argument - as many angles as there are people who've thought about it. On the one hand I agree with your premise that Aust surfing culture for most of the 20th century didn't reflect the Duke's idylls. Yes Rabbit68, I can vouch that even when the waves were uncrowded surfers were "intensely competitive, aggressive & elitist". Don't be surprised, that's how all Aust sportspeople are reared, not only surfers.
On the other hand, does it matter that our reality didn't match the Duke's ideal? So what. Let the people aspire to be something better, even in the surf. In those moments when rage takes hold, when a surfer paddles inside them for the umpteenth time and the red mist descends, let the 'symbolic words' of the Duke resonate. If the morality is sound does it matter that the Duke's symbolism doesn't match the reality??
I plead guilty to the charge of iconoclastic tendencies. There is something particularly tempting in your average icon. Perhaps it's the way they tend to divert our attention from reality. Is it worth it? Well I obviously think so. I tend to believe it is safer to see the world through plain glass than the rose coloured spectacles of our commonly shared delusions. So yes it does matter that our reality differs so much from the idealised self-image the myth of Duke creates. Better to know who you really are even if it is not as nice as the illusion. Morality? In the surf? Hardly worth thinking about really is it?
'Better to know who you really are'
My God!!! The second coming!!!
'Who Am I?
Sri Ramana summarized his method in a pamphlet called "Who Am I?" which was for years his most widely disseminated writing. The title has probably contributed to the widespread but mistaken impression that the method consists of questions.
Actually, the main significance of the title is that the method is a technique for finding the answer.
'Sri Ramana didn't intend the question to be mysterious. Early editions of the pamphlet began with the sentence "Who am I?" The next sentence supplied the answer: "Consciousness [arivu] itself is I."[1]'
'
Mind you, you could take the 'scientific' slant, who you really are. But then, they are forced to admit reluctantly, despite crystal clear lenses, they haven't got a fucking clue.
Wait a minute... cunning, I see where this is heading!!!!
Fuck the duke...
"SURFEE SOLVES AGE OLD RIDDLE"
(therms and oooweee will love it)
Yeh uppy I am trying for a Ph.D on the subject of " The Superficial Variability Of Identity Constructs In Post-Andropausal Surfers". I am counting on you to take the survey when I post it. There really aren't too many embarrassing questions once you get through the section on the urinary tract.
'I am counting on you to take the survey when I post it.'
I'll just deadlift the cunt. As long as it weighs over 50kg, or I can't be fucked. Its too boring.
We all need a hero. Why? I'm comfortable with Duke as my surfing hero because his values appeal to me. Sure the media may have twisted fact and fiction. But you could compare him to Jesus Christ, who is a hero to Christians. And there's plenty of myths about that long haired bloke who cruized in sandals and a dress, sharing fish and chips with total strangers. The legacy is the value system many aspire too.
The parallel with Jesus did occur to me Andrew. They both preached values honoured more by lip service than in practise. I have nothing but respect for anyone who genuinely tries to live by Christian values but I can't say I've met too many over the years. Lots of hypocrites, conformists and sad individuals who think they are going somewhere after they die but real Christians? Maybe one or two.
oooooww...you need to come with met Hawaii or maybe search out different environment's......
interesting that a black man came to Australia and was accepted .......when Australia clearly still regarded its own back people as not human enough to recognize their humanity .....
I wonder if he hadn't won an Olympic medal would they have let him in?
A couple of red wines right now wouldn't go astray;)
Its a complex playing field. The world of the mythical, surfing legend. Look at when a squad of mythical legends was assembled to represent the crow eaters, at margarets. Newspaper items, legendary stories abounded. The myths trained their arses off, at triggs, ysteps, the hump, dribs, the trough, 3 poles... even waits, and they were ready!!! Specialty bunny hopper mark k3's, glassed with s glass, using blue blanks, were built, tested and perfected, and away they went.
The result? Its better forgotten forever. But how can it be? At least they surfed parts of the area never before surfed, although out of view of the judges and fans, frantically bunny hopping lumps of reform at the beach's edge. One guy bucked the trend, and did actually charge. But, all he got for his trouble was rocks hurled at him from the cliff in his home state, by another legend.
I watched a famous, an ever growing, an enforcing legend, dismantle another, on the cliffs edge too. Camsless and his cobber had just got back from the NW, and were lamenting what a geek another reclusive, golden aged legend was. I tried to defend that legend too (you can't defend them all though), citing age, and illness in his defense... but to no avail, his pulling back and getting in the way was dismantled with ruthless, vicious cackling and guffawing.
Then that ruthless, mythical legend ended up enforcing the shots hiding under a table at Gland, peering out at another legend, gleefully doing his mopping up for him. That legend did do some legendary stuff, until he was waxered badly too.
I'm sure the books will get it right though. Or the film. Maybe surfers journal could do another burly hulk article, to clear it all up? Thank God for deadlifts. Simple but elegant.
Probably the thing that it all highlights most, is that surfees are the greatest, most elite athletes that the planet, the galaxy, the universe, in fact the cosmos has ever seen.
It may sound a bit mythical... perhaps, but I don't even know why I posted that.
Maybe just because I can... and it was there.
But you weren't there so you really don't know if this really happened . 2nd or 3rd hand tales by the sound of it Micky
But really I wish your story made sense . But its way too cryptic Micky
... fibs?
Sometimes I wish I wasn't on that cliff... the cliff of legends.
Cant wait until im back there on the cliff this summer
See but, some proper 'legends' reckon its shit...
Wtf ?
You wish you were there like true legends mick T ,reevso , pete T , heydar , paulo , jervis , & co , dont ya ?
They'd all pick on me... especially wordy
They never used to, I don't know what happened... fuck'n 'eavy bags I reckon...
No heavy bags around these days mate .maybe down in Lincoln , but not up here I can assure you
.
Jervis brings his down...
So all this time u been critical of jerv ? Just cos he smashes the bag ? Obviously u have no idea how much of a hard core low key surfer he is . Not many ppl do
Thats what I mean its tricky all this legendary stuff. Its not my fault, its them really privy, really old cunts and stuff... an the islanders and stuff, and it even depends on the make and model of the vehicle... don't blame me, I love the place.
Whats this thread about ? Oh the duke . Legend of legends !
They reckon he's fucked.
Myth busting the uplift !
Some guys don't even know why they are on the threads anyway... that's kinda cool, almost Dora like...
What was the make, model & colour of the car ?
Nothing worse than a fuckin' thread fucker... they reckon...
Old holden station wagon on tour to sheringa hey ?
Not me though... you may have noticed I've threaded the odd thread... at least I've gone on em anyway...
They were new models once, those holdens. You remember.
If you're gonna paddle for it you may as well go even if u wipe out ! Nothing worse than a pullback
That's true... maybe knowing you'll just charge too hard but...
More meaningless words Micky . Its just occurred to me that all this time u been dribbling on about eavy bags n shit you think that its jervs that your talking to , you are so far off track . He would never waste his time on here talking shit . That guy is way too busy minding his own business & chasing surfs . He is a legend amongst legends but so low key that no one even realizes. Definitely not the guy who's got time to be on these forums
Has Tim Baker started the new book on yet caml?
Eh? You up all night fibbin again... you said there was no heavy bags... gave ya wordy!!! Jervis does bring it to Lincoln? Don't you know that? You got a new table somehwere? You're being all clean, healthy living again, looking out of those lenses? Penfolds or yalumba? Legendary stuff! Mythical. Remember to shit in the dunny. You're shitting everywhere again.
Remember the nissan? I took it over west a few times, once, just especially to catch up with bad boy you. Saw ya jibbering mates in your little hide out, but you were always gone! Poor little buggers. Never saw you for a while then. Summer's coming anyway. Pay back herro, they reckon you've been up to your old tricks, myth. I know all your tricks, remember. That's all they are. Have fun on the net. The book will be a classic.
Mankind needs gods. Why not the Duke. Does he not have the ideals to aspire to ? What culture we have now is not relevant, just as in many religions on this planet.
Great article. I am currently writing an article/book? that will suggest that philosophy that underpins the sport was already fully formed by the late 1930s. The surfing boom that occurred in the 50s and 60s inherited a movement that already had the dropouts, the sportspeople, the travelers and the breakthrough designers already entwined into it. (Now if I can just get off my bum and complete it!)
Pay back herro ? Wattya mean dickhead ? Me & herro are best mates
Caml...if you don't read uppity's comments as I now do.....ya won't get sucked in by his rants and trolling.....as I did with his Cortina rant about me and Wayne...
you have cred.....because you actually surf....haha...just ignore it!
Well, well, well... well, what's all this, while I've been busy elsewhere, it seems I've missed all this!
Look down. Look away bruteusless, do the resurrection shuffle, its good you've been Bourned again brutuseless. You used to gleefully rant on, and on, and on... and on... how much you used to love stirring, and fishing for everyone! That was before the revised, the 11 commandments, the Genesis fig tree days but... no more loaves and fishes for you!
Dickhead? Dickhead? That's funny! That's gonna be funnier!
Ok then, you win bruteuseless, you went off, you shredded at the poxy little washaway! See camsless, no need for summer cliffs, them funny cliffs, what are you thinking, listen to brutuseless, its just useless there, not for you!
Myths, legends, oh what a tangle!
Mh
Who needs under the big top, when under the table top myth is struttin his stuff! You bad under that table. Yalumba tonite?
Are you still surfing much uplift? Obviously your still fit enough.
Nah, fuck all, working heaps. Summer's coming though.
Uplift Good plan mate. Was in your area for a mates wedding last year and surfed that left you speak of for the first time in probably ten years. Geez the level of charging especially from the local grommets has gone through the roof. Ten years ago it I surfed with a cool local crew and was even getting called into some sets had an awesome surf. Last time there was a definate change in the vibe and way more crowded with travellers and locals all hassling for the sets.
Do the old boys still get shown the respect they deserve out there?
pertinent to the actual story?
http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/eos-blog/wally-froiseth-big-wave-pionee...
Duke was real, as was his influence on the first generation of surfers in Australia. There have been ongoing efforts to debunk the Duke "myth" by journalists such as John Morecombe and a more studied approach by Dr Gary Osmond "Myth making in Australian sports history". They are right in claiming that Aussies were surfing before Duke arrived here, there was a cadre of surfers (Tommy Walker, Jack Reynolds, Isma Amor and others) documented to have been surfing pre Duke's visit. In promoting others in order to diminish Duke's importance they have, in a way, just reinforced his position. Osric Notely (the bloke who is credited as taking the oldest known photo of anyone surfing in Australia (Tommy Walker at Yamba in the summer of 1911)) wrote a detailed description of Tommy's boards arrival in Australia from Hawaii (you can see where this is headed right?) and it being transported north. Guess who he wrote the boards were sourced from? A Hawaiian bloke called Duke. There is no doubt that there are two very distinct eras in Australian surfing, the era of timber boards and then the pop culture boom and adoption of foam and fibreglass in the early 60s and all that has evolved since. Dukes influence on that second era is obviously not as pronounced or celebrated but for some he was still a respected part of the surfing pantheon. Australia's first Surfing Hall of Fame inductee Charles Justin 'Snowy' McAlister (multiple Australian Surfing Champion in the late 20s) celebrated Duke as a huge influence on early surfing in OZ.
Interesting that here we are 100 years down the track still talking about the bloke and discussing his merits. I wonder how many figures from that second 50 year period people will still be talking about in 100 years time? Maybe Swellnet will be running a story on "the Slater myth"?
Cheers!
Eddie didn't even get invited to the first Duke Contest...!
Just Californian Haole's....(