While writing the cover stories for the July-August issue of Hawaii Sport Magazine, I found myself compulsively reading every scrap of biographical material I could find on Duke Kahanamoku. I had known that Duke was a legendary athlete, and while that is true, his enduring legacy is as a branding visionary who single-highhandedly created both surfing as a modern, international sport; and constructed the image of Hawaii that is now pictured by the outside world, in the process building Hawaii’s tourism industry.

Check out my bio of Duke and story on Duke’s OceanFest (below) and see if you agree.