Chapter: 2
Gliding Return
- A Fine Little Revival
- Jack London Loves Purple
- California: The New Frontier
- Beachboy Life
- Duke Kahanamoku
- Surf Shooting Down Under
- The Bronzed Islander Shows How
- Surfing in the Jazz Age
- Tom Blake Redesigns the Sport
- What Depression?
- When Clubbies Ruled Australia
- Surfboard as Woodcraft
- Palos Verdes Surfing Club
- San Onofre: the Nearest Faraway Place
- Riding the Hot Curl
- Enter Makaha
- Death at Waimea
- The Overwhelming North Shore
Beachboy Life
David Kahanamoku
Dad Center, right
Beachboy, 1927
Waikiki, around 1910
Chick Daniels. Photo: Jim McMahon
Riding waves was as important to these barefoot troubadours as their sexed-up, easygoing, empty-pocket deviancy. By combining the two, beachboys laid a foundation for what would later be called the surfing lifestyle.
While Freeth spread the surfing gospel in California, Waikiki became packed with true believers. By 1910, the huge aquamarine field of surf breaks spread out between Honolulu Harbor and Diamond Head had been mapped and named, starting with the nearshore spots like Queen’s Surf and Canoes, moving on to Cunha Surf, Public Baths, and Papa Nui, and then out to Castle Break, Waikiki’s most distant surf...
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