"Surf Champ Ignored Handicaps," by Bill Cook, ran in the February 2, 1964, edition of the Honolulu Advertiser, not long after Fred Hemmings' win in the Juniors division of the '63 Makaha International. The text below has been slightly edited.

Polio, pneumonia, a severe knee injury—none of these things prevented teenager Frederick Mathew Hemmings Jr. from becoming an international surfing champion.

The husky youth, son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Hemmings Sr. of 1336 Wilhelmina Rise, was the only local entry to win a first place in December's International Surfing Championship at Makaha. He took the title in the junior men’s division.

Fred, who was 18 on January 9, has been surfing half his life. His father gave him his first board when he was nine. “It was a 40 or 50-pound hollow board,” Fred recalled. “I could hardly carry it to the water.”

The soft-spoken, ruggedly handsome boy talks about surfing almost reverently. "It’s you against the wave," he said. "You’re out there to enjoy yourself. It’s not so much trying to out-do a competitor—you’re trying to outride that wave."

Fred has outridden a lot of waves since he got that first board, but it wouldn't have been surprising had he grown up lacking in athletic ability.

In 1952, when he was six, Fred, along with his brother and two sisters, all contracted polio at the same time. Fred was hospitalized for two months. Two days after his release, he was readmitted for treatment of pneumonia.

In 1962, Fred was a 16-year-old sophomore and first-team center on the Punahou High School football team. But last year during a scrimmage, he suffered a severe knee injury that required surgery and he missed the entire season. Fred expects to play football again in 1964.

Fred’s 1963 Makaha title was not his first in the junior men’s division of the international meet. In 1961, when he was 15, Fred won the crown. He placed fourth in 1962, and in 1958—when he was just 12—he was third.

Fred doesn’t take his accomplishment as a 12-year- old too seriously. “Surfing has exploded since I began," he said. “It has improved tremendously. When I was 12, I wouldn’t have gone out on the point waves we had last month.”

Much of the credit for Fred’s success must go to his father, a former football player at Roosevelt High School. “We always had our children compete over their heads.” Fred Sr. said. “When Fred was 10, we entered him in the 14-year-old age group in surfing. It makes them go harder.”

The elder Hemmings regards Fred as "a good boy" He said the only trouble they have with him is having “to restrain him from trying to cram too much into 24 hours.”

Hemmings Sr, a member of the Outrigger Canoe Club, said he made it a point to give his children the necessary equipment for sports activity.

While young Fred has gained the most fame, his brothers and sisters aren’t without athletic prowess. Cynthia, his oldest sister, is now married and has two children But she once was a top surfer and placed third two years in a row in the women's division of the Makaha meet.

Mark, a 23-year-old senior at the University of Hawaii, once won an 11-mile paddle race from Lanai to Lahaina.

Marie, 16. who almost died in 1952 from polio, has become a highly-rated modern dancer and has appeared in theatrical and musical performances.

Aka, 11, and Heidi, 7, who weren't born when polio struck the Hemings family, also seem to have acquired the family’s sports talents.

“Aka is a good little paddler and canoe steersman,” Fred said. “Heidi just got her first surfboard. Dad made it. We call it the ‘garage special'."

In addition to surfing and football, Fred also is adept at canoe paddling and steering. The crew Fred steers for the Outrigger Canoe Club has won the state championship the past four years.

But surfing holds the most attraction for the boy. He believes the sport is just beginning to grow, and hopes that someday it will become an Olympic event.

The caliber of surfing each year improves, he said. Fred believes even the treacherous Kaena Point surf may be ridden sometime in the future. "Kaena is like Mt. Everest," he said. "It couldn't be done until someone did it."

Fred has other strong convictions about surfing. He feels that if the annual Makaha meet is to be labeled an international event, then the judging should be international.

“We have international entries, but the judges all are from Hawaii,” he said. ‘The judges might be prejudiced in some of their decisions. I think the Australian beefs were sometimes justified.

Fred is irked at the “beach bum” public image of surfing. He blames this image on a few “longhaired, foul-mouthed, bad-breathed beach bums.”

He said the better surfers were doing their best to correct the erroneous image created by the few unsavory persons. “And I think we’re succeeding," he added.

The young surfer—5' 9" and 187 pounds—hopes to pet a football scholarship to help finance his college education. He plans to major in physical education. Fred wants to teach school, preferably at the 6th or 7th-grade level.

Since he is now 18. Fred no longer will be able to compete in the junior division. "I think I’ll be able to hold my own in the senior division," he said.

"SURF CHAMP IGNORED HANDICAPS," FRED HEMMINGS PROFILE IN HONOLULU ADVERTISER (1964)

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