“The Duke Kahanamoku Surfing Classic: A Blow by Blow,” Roy Crump, 

On November 14, letters were sent out to the invitees of the Eighth Annual Duke Kahanamoku Surfing Classic. The first 18 places were based on a poll by the world’s top surfers. The remaining six places, for a total of 24 contestants, were various national champions and the world champion. The following invitees were unable to participate: Owl Chapman (hepatitis), Nat Young (in California), Jock Sutherland (missed his heat), Gordo Barreda (lovesick for his Peruvian girlfriend Eva), and Peers Pittard (cause unknown).

The judges were Andrew McKinnon of Australia, Del Cannon and Roy Crump of California, Ricardo Bouroncle of Peru, and Tiger Espere of Hawaii. Kimo Hollinger of Hawaii and Terry Baker of Australia switched between judging and interference refereeing in order to maintain a balanced international representation of judges. Kealoha Kaio and Mike Miller of California were the two permanent interference referees.

The contestants gathered at the Kuilima Hotel on Saturday morning, November 25, for the opening ceremonies. The Rev. Abraham Akaka gave a beautiful invocation in Hawaiian and English. Moroni Medeiros (better remembered as Ron Maury by his California friends) MC’d the introduction of dignitaries and contestants. The heats were then picked out of a hat by Hilo Hattie. The random picking of the heats resulted in a very controversial third heat. As we heard the names read, the audience groaned, and meet officials reflected that perhaps seeding would have been better.

Ten days, and two 20-foot swells later, the Kona and variable winds abated. Starting at two in the afternoon, the first two Duke heats were run off in difficult surf. The waves were 10- to 14-feet and still rough from the previous stormy weather.

Florida’s Jeff Crawford surfed very well backside and took first place, advancing directly to the finals. Mike Purpus and Ivo Hanza of Peru took second and third, moving them into the semi-main. Dotson, Aipa, and Fitzgerald all demonstrated that they had the ability to ride Sunset well, but fell victim to the junky surf, and spent much of their time swimming.

The second heat placed Tiger Makin in the finals, with Peru’s Oscar “Chino’’ Malpartida and Australia’s Peter Townend in the semi-main.

By the third heat the surf had cleaned up some, and if any heat was loaded, this was it: Jeff Hakman, Barry Kanaiaupuni, Gavin Rudolph, Clyde Aikau, Reno Abellira, and Billy Hamilton. Few mistakes were made in this heat, and the judges’ scores were consistently higher than those from the previous two heats. Abellira and Clyde Aikau would have both advanced in any other heat. Reno’s best ride was a large 12-foot late takeoff in which he faded deep into the eye of the wave. Turning without losing any speed, he made an impossible outside wall. He then turned back, dropping into the inside section and again made a forbidding wall. He trimmed impossibly high, went for it, and probably would have made it if his board hadn’t hit a chop and stopped dead, catapulting Reno into a time-consuming swim.

Kanaiaupuni received my highest score for the entire contest with his typical late takeoff, inimitable power turns, and climbing and dropping. BK puts himself in places on a Sunset wave that no one else can get to.

Hakman surfed confidently and consistently and displayed his ability to rip Sunset on large and small waves. Gavin Rudolph, last year’s Smirnoff Pro winner, put on a large-wave hotdogging show that left no questions with respect to last year’s victory. Gavin attacks Sunset as if he were riding five-foot Trestles—frequent turning off the lip, letting his board hang in the curl and then simultaneously dropping with it and turning back. Hamilton started slow, lost his board, and caught some small waves at the end of his heat that justified his reputation, but failed to advance.

Paul Neilsen of Australia dominated the fourth heat from beginning to end. He made six or seven unbelievably late takeoffs in a row, any one of which you would have had to attribute to luck, but six or seven in a row convinced everyone that he was in full control of what was happening. He followed those takeoffs with turns that were comparable to those by Rudolph, Kanaiaupuni, and Hakman. His speed was matched only by Kanaiaupuni and Abellira. Eddie Aikau and Booby Jones, both riding well, advanced to the semi-main.

The next day, Tuesday, the surf dropped to 4-5 foot. On Wednesday, the weather was beautiful, and the weather bureau had predicted waves for the afternoon, but too late in the day for the 

 crew to photograph the finals. It looked as if Thursday had to be the day since Friday’s weather was forecast as stormy.

Thursday turned out to be ideal—beautiful weather, water, and waves. The surf was a clean 8- to 13-feet, not gigantic but large enough to run the Duke. The wind was light and variable; the surface conditions were smooth and glassy.

The first order of business was the eight-man semi-main event that would eliminate four surfers and send four to the eight-man finals. Prior to the contest, the surfers themselves voted on the strict enforcement of an interference ruling. In order to have one man on each wave, the interfering surfer had his score for the interfering ride halved and that particular ride had to count toward his final score. The surfers also voted to be scored on the top three of nine rides.

The first interference of the day was called on Booby Jones, the second on Barry Kanaiaupuni, and the third on Eddie Aikau. In a contest like the Duke, the surfers are nearly all excellent riders, and the scoring is usually very close. Advancing or being eliminated is often a matter of one good wave. To have one score cut in half is disastrous and usually ends up in moving the surfer to the bottom of the heat.

After Booby’s interference was reviewed by the interference referees and changed to a non-interfering wave, officials decided to advance five of the semi-man surfers into the finals instead of four, since the meet directors didn’t think it fair to go back and eliminate anyone.

In addition to his interference call, Barry was plagued with waves that offered nothing after the initial turn. Eddie Aikau rode well, and would have been a finalist if the interference rule hadn’t been applied.

The clear and uncontested winner of the semi-main was Gavin Rudolph, followed by qualifiers Booby Jones, Oscar Malpartida, Peter Townend, and Mike Purpus.

The finals were made up of two one-hour heats. During the first, Crawford swam several times, and at mid-point, stood at ninth. Neilsen was moved from third to eighth, after being assessed an interference for taking off behind Crawford. The reason for the call was that Crawford stood up first, thus taking possession of the wave. The call was hotly contested between the officials, and the issue required 20 minutes and several votes to resolve. The interference judges stuck to their original decision and the ruling stood. Makin, Purpus, and Hakman made the most of the smaller waves they caught, but finished 6th, 5th, and 4th, respectively.

Malpartida of Peru put on a marvelous show of backside surfing. His takeoffs were critical and usually followed by an explosive backside turn. As soon as he came around a section, Malpartida would be turning off of the lip. When the wave let up, he would immediately turn back and set himself up for the next hollow section.

Rudolph’s surfing was a repeat show of his earlier aggressive attack during the prelims. He was rebounding off the lip, reentering the breaking sections, roller-coastering over the white water and then climbing straight back up the wave, once around the broken section.

Townend and Jones both were smooth, catching the largest waves, judging them perfectly and making few mistakes. Jones caught a couple of big hollow one and rode high, fast, and critical; no spectacular moves but fantastic judgment, speed, and positioning. This was not straight-line surfing, but required the drawing out of his turns and turnbacks in order to place himself in the critical slot.

The second one-hour final saw the same action with minor variations. Hakman caught larger waves this time, however, and captured first. Jones took second and Malpartida third. Peter Townend kept weaving beautiful patterns around, across, and through the excellent waves he caught. Purpus, who required six stitches in his face the day before, distinguished himself on one large, forbidding wave. Coming through the back door, he drove across a mountain of white water, climbed back up high in the pocket and rode the wave in a confident, aggressive manner that reminded one of such experienced Sunset riders as Aikau or Hakman. Tiger Makin moved up two places. Generally, throughout the contest, Tiger performed hot. He was marked down, though, by his inability to catch the big waves.

Crawford, who broke his eardrum the day before the finals, ripped a couple of rights apart; he then went left twice, got tubed twice and swam twice. Neilsen, irritated by his earlier interference wave ruling, swam on his first wave and caught poor waves in an effort to catch up.

The contest was made possible by a host of sponsors who gave generously of their time and money. The following were especially notable: ABC-TV, the Kuilima Hotel, and Nancy Katin of Kanvas by Katin. The official host was the City and County of Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation, represented by Moroni Medeiros, Sid Quintal, and Chuck Shipman. These three men were the real workhorses who made the ’72 Duke a reality.

FIRST FINAL HOUR: 1st James Jones, 2nd Peter Townend, 3rd Gavin Rudolph, 4th Oscar Malpartida, 5th Jeff Hakman, 6th Mike Purpus, 7th Tiger Makin, 8th Paul Neilsen, 9th Jeff Crawford

SECOND FINAL HOUR: 1st Jeff Hakman, 2nd James Jones, 3rd Oscar Malpartida, 4th Peter Townend, 5th Mike Purpus, 6th Tiger Makin, 7th Gavin Rudolph, 8th Jeff Crawford, 9th Paul Neilsen

COMBINED FINAL RESULTS: 1st James Jones ($2,000), 2nd Jeff Hakman ($1,200), 3rd Oscar Malpartida ($800), 4th Peter Townend ($650), 5th Gavin Rudolph, 6th Mike Purpus, 7th Tiger Makin, 8th Jeff Crawford, 9th Paul Neilsen

1972 Duke Kahanamoku Surfing Classic

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