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Waterman - The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku (Hardcover)
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Waterman - The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku (Hardcover)
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Waterman is the first comprehensive biography of Duke Kahanamoku
(1890-1968): swimmer, surfer, Olympic gold medalist, Hawaiian icon,
waterman. Long before Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz made their
splashes in the pool, Kahanamoku emerged from the backwaters of
Waikiki to become America's first superstar Olympic swimmer. The
original "human fish" set dozens of world records and topped the
world rankings for more than a decade; his rivalry with Johnny
Weissmuller transformed competitive swimming from an insignificant
sideshow into a headliner event. Kahanamoku used his Olympic renown
to introduce the sport of "surf-riding," an activity unknown beyond
the Hawaiian Islands, to the world. Standing proudly on his
traditional wooden longboard, he spread surfing from Australia to
the Hollywood crowd in California to New Jersey. No American
athlete has influenced two sports as profoundly as Kahanamoku did,
and yet he remains an enigmatic and underappreciated figure: a
dark-skinned Pacific Islander who encountered and overcame racism
and ignorance long before the likes of Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, and
Jackie Robinson. Kahanamoku's connection to his homeland was
equally important. He was born when Hawaii was an independent
kingdom; he served as the sheriff of Honolulu during Pearl Harbor
and World War II and as a globetrotting "Ambassador of Aloha"
afterward; he died not long after Hawaii attained statehood. As one
sportswriter put it, Duke was "Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey combined
down here." In Waterman, award-winning journalist David Davis
examines the remarkable life of Duke Kahanamoku, in and out of the
water.
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