He is the reason a binder of surfing postcards exists in my house at all.
The binder is green, pebbled like old leather, with black corners and a black spine. Down the middle runs a ZSURF panel, a red Z over a wave with a surfer cut into it, and under that a monkey in a red and white striped suit riding a yellow board. Three stickers sit around it. Two Beach Beagles, one where Snoopy stands beside his board on the sand, one where he is already up on a wave under a striped sunset. The third is Aloha, the same dog driving a blue car through the palms with two boards behind him.
When I started collecting any ephemera about Duke, I thought that will be it. But then it expanded to looking for memorabilia that is not just made of paper, as I do have now.
I found the shirt on Poshmark while I was browsing for Duke Kahanamoku. It came in a lot of five Hawaiian shirts, different brands, for ten dollars, so I bought them all. When I got it, I gave one to the mailman. I showed all five to Adrian, but he only chose one. Adrian is more than a mailman because not only that he is pleasant to talk to, but I also gifted toys and things to his daughter and purses to his wife. I kept the shirt with Duke’s name on it, and I donated the rest.
And when I thought that I don’t wanna collect more, I got an idea one day that I would love to collect surfing postcards. I don’t know why at first, but I figure by collecting the surfing postcards, I will be able to get to know other surfers and as well the type of boards they’ve been using. I actually learned the word pipeline in the process. From Fred Hemmings. I found him because he posted pictures of him and Duke and those surfers of their eras. And also because every year when it is Duke’s birthday, he will write a post about him, greeting him a happy birthday.
Fred Hemmings had posted in the past on Duke’s birthday, which prompted me to check his IG right now. His latest pinned post video, it was Duke talking. In the black and white footage they are paddling on their surfboard following Duke. The video also showed Duke was already old, and by watching I can tell how attentive they were around him, making sure he was safe. In the video it was Fred, Butch, Henry, and Paul. Fred Hemmings, Butch Van Artsdalen, Henry Ayau, and Paul Strauch Jr. They were great surfers of their time.
And these surfing postcards grew as well, and this is my blog for today.
