Google doodle for dad surf – The Republic

The sense of Duke for the ocean: unmistakable. It was intended to water, Duke Kahanamoku : swimmer medaled at the Olympics, the famous “father of surfing”, a Hollywood actor often in the role of a surfer and then, continuing the family tradition, cop. It is dedicated to him, the Google doodle today, to celebrate 125 years after his birth.

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola, known to all as “The Big Kahuna” (the “great shaman in the language of the place”) , born August 24, 1890 in Honolulu. Dad, policeman, named Duke in honor of the Duke of Edinburgh, who was on an official visit to Hawaii just the year of his birth, in 1869. He decided that his son will be called so and maybe it will be the name to bring luck.

has five brothers, three sisters and dozens of cousins. To deal with them, can not finish the school, the destiny wants, it is next to the ocean. Just can plunges and always carries his board, he calls Pope Nua. The boards of the time are very long and cumbersome, and he is interested in the techniques to build a more manageable and practical to use. His talent, combined with his sense of the water, does not remain unknown for long: in 1912 he qualified for the Olympic team of American swimming and the Olympic Games in Stockholm wins the gold medal in the 100 meter freestyle and the d ‘ silver in the 4×200 meters relay, always freestyle. After beating the world record, he won again in 1920 in Antwerp and Paris is still gold in 1924 finished second behind Johnny Weissmuller and in front of his brother Samuel. Yet participating in the Olympics in 1932 in Los Angeles as a reserve of the water polo team. And then, just like that.

“Eat, sleep, swim is all I can do, “said the young champion Michael Phelps , nicknamed” the shark of Baltimore. ” Even Duke, which instead is called “The king of all swimmers” can not do anything else, at least until he retires from competitive swimming and became the most famous surfer in the world with his surfboard under his arm always, as soon as touches the water takes a miracle that he gives to the spectators during the events around the world. Ride the waves and tamed as no one, to the point that he was dedicated to the most important international competition of surfing.

His reputation is also due to the a bailout in 1925, when in Newport Beach manages to rescue eight people with his board. 17 people die, but his speech is providential. And then comes the cinema, to bring to the screen his prowess in the water: it was the star of more than fifteen Hollywood films, including one directed by John Ford with Henry Fonda. Reciting in front of the camera has made famous the sport before him little known and rarely practiced. Registered in the “Hall of Fame” of the swimming and surfing, from the thirties to the sixties he worked as sheriff for the county of Honolulu. In 1968 a heart attack if you take him away, to 77 years, but his ashes there, where he wanted to always be: on the water. Scattered in the ocean.

Arguments:

surfing

Swimming

Olympics

ocean

waves

Hawaii

windsurfers

surfboard

Starring:

Michael Phelps

Duke Kahanamoku