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Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

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advertising and surfing

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aerial

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Aipa, Ben

air-drop

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alaia board

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Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

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Anderson, Simon

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angle

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Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Beschen, Shane

High-octane promoter and entrepreneur from Honolulu, Hawaii; manager of Olympic swim champion and surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku from 1961 until Kahanamoku's death in 1968; founder of the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championships. Australian surf journalist Phil Jarratt wrote that McVay, a disc jockey in the late '50s, was, "in the nicest possible way, a hustler."

McVay's great-great- grandfather was a missionary to Hawaii and an official in King Kamehameha III's court, and his father was a Navy captain. McVay himself was born (1927) in Washington, D.C., but raised in Honolulu. He began promoting local singers in the late 1950s, and found early success with Robin Luke, whose "Susie Darlin'" went to #5 on the Billboard charts in 1958. In 1962, McVay signed popular nightclub act Don Ho, who went on to international fame.

As president of the 1961-formed Duke Kahanamoku Enterprises—a for-profit corporation, but also an altruistic project to help the nearly impoverished Kahanamoku—McVay opened Duke Kahanamoku's Restaurant in Waikiki's International Market Place, and later formed the Duke Kahanamoku Surf Club, with team members including top surfers Paul Strauch, Joey Cabell, Fred Hemmings, Jeff Hakman, Bruce Valluzzi, and Butch Van Artsdalen.

After attending the 1962 West Coast Championships in Huntington Beach with Kahanamoku, McVay had the idea for an elite made-for-TV surf contest at Sunset Beach; the resulting Duke Kahanamoku Invitational, which debuted in 1965, was the first major competition on Oahu's North Shore. It was McVay who came up with idea that the Duke trophies be nearly identical to those given out at the Oscars.

McVay gave the aging Duke a makeover, arranging to get him an all-white wardrobe, a boat, and a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud with surf racks. He also made deals to put Duke's name on skateboards, surfboards, shoes, and ukuleles, another other retail items. "McVay," as one writer later noted, "was everything that Duke was not—shrewd, glib, outgoing." Kahanamoku didn't get rich from McVay's efforts, but he lived in more material comfort than at any other point in his life. "People say I exploited him," McVay later said. "Ha! He loved it."

McVay died in 2001, of cancer, at age 73.

McVay, Kimo Wilder

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features