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telegraph : kahanamoku
tour, 1912
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Merman
:
Duke Paoa Kahanamoku -
Invitation to Tour Australia, 1912.
Extracts
from
Merman (W. F. C. Corbett): Wonderful
Hawaiian - Duke Paoa Kahanamoku.
The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 30th
October, 1912.
Introduction.
Initially reporting
on moves at the NSW Amateur Swimming Association to invite the current
Olympic 100 metres champion, Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, to tour Australia the
article also discusses Duke rise to prominace and swimming technique.
Duke's surfriding
skills are also noted.
Clearly the invitation presented administative and logistical difficulties,
and tour did not eventuate until two years later in December 1914.
This document was provided courtesy of Ray Moran at the Australian
Surfing Museum and Manly SLSC.
Page
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WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN
DUKE PAOA KAHANAMOKU
WORLD'S CHAMPION SPRINT
SWIMMER
(By MERMAN)
He is not really
a duke.
Duke is his christian
name.
He is the world's
champion sprint swimmer, and is wanted in Australia - in Sydney.
Duke Paoa Kahanamoku
is the greatest "speed merchant" the world has ever seen over 100 metres.
"We want the duke
(sic)," said delegates in chorus at last week's meeting of the Amateur
Swimming Association, when the question of inviting championship swimmers
from overseas was being discussed.
Mr. A.C.W. Hill.
manager of the Australian swimmers at the late Olympic Games, and late
hon. secretary of the local association, was in the chair.
He explaned how
when at Stockholm he had approached Kahanamoku, who entered the water for
America; G. Hodgson (Canada), who won the world's distance championships
at the games; and G. Hatfield (England), who has been clocked to do some
fine times in England recently.
Hodgson and Hatfield
could not ome to Australia, as already been explained in these columns.
But Kahanamoku
- yes; he was willing to come, indeed anxious to make the trip to Australia.
It was only necessary,
it seemed to him, to invite Kahanamoku, and he would come across.
Mr. "Cliff" Jones
(Rose Bay), and hon. treasurer of the association, ever with an eye to
the financial side of the question, pointed out that a flyer such as Kahanamoku
would be sure to prove a great draw, and on his motion they have decided
to ask Duke to pay us a call.
There is every
probability that the invitation will be accepted, and local swimming fans
can prepare themselves for the greatest swiming treat that has to date
been served up in the Domain Baths.
DUKE POETIC.
The home of Duke
is Honolulu.
He is Hawaiian
pure blooded.
Never did an
athlete have such a welcome home as Duke when he returned to Honolulu in
October.
His words, "This
is my own native land," made him the most popular man in all Hawaii.
He is only a
young man, barely out of his teens.
He is big built
and tall, he has a a very broad expanse of shoulders, and every inch of
his body and limbs show that rounded muscular development so characteristic
of a throughly-trained swimmer.
Yet withall he
is slim.
Naturally long
armed, he makes the best use of this feature of his build that nature has
accorded him.
"He has abnormally
big feet" - that is the impression he gave the Australian champion, W.
Longworth.
All the Hawaiians
swim.
They are fine
swimmers, too.
They are not
confined to baths, but swim far out into the Pacific.
They have no
fear of sharks.
The Hawaiians
are amoung the most accomplished surf-shooters in the world.
They have splendid
breakers off their coast.
Should Kahanamoku
come to Sydney (he is claimed to be the world champion sur-shooter in Honolulu),
he will surely astonish local surfers with is (sic, his) evolutions
in the breakers.
FIRST LEAP INTO
FAME
Kahanamoku's leap
into prominance was almost as sudden as that of Longworth's.
The first heard
concerning him outside Honolulu was when he was credited with covering
100yds. in 55 2-5sec., which equalled the world record of the American,
C. M. Daniel's.
Honolulu officials
immediately applied to the body that controls American swimming - the A.A.U.
- to have the record chronicled.
Doubts were cast
on the authenticity of the performance.
The watches were
wrong.
The measurements
of the course were incorrect.
Hawaii was highly
indignant.
The Games were
approaching.
A subscription
list opened which was readily responded to.
Sufficient funds
were quickly available to send Duke to the mainland to compete in the American
national championships and tests for representation at Olympia.
His first appearance
suprised swimming America, and the suprise grew to wonderment.
No longer was
his record doubted, for he equalled it, and beat it, though not under championship
conditions.
He went to Stockholm
the hope of America.
America did not
draw the colour line in this instance.
Duke is a coloured
boy.
America wanted
him, and shut her eyes to that fact.
A MASTER OF STYLE
Everyone in Sydney
knows the Australian crawl - the regular arm work and neat, deliberate
movement of the legs, which "plomp, plomp" in and out of the water in a
vertical direction, sychronising with the arm movements.
But few have
seen the American crawl - the Daniels crawl.
It is a stroke
similar in many respects to the local style when mastered, but when seen
for the first time rather unusual.
Here is seen
the rapid double kick, and this is the great difference.
This double kick
is very hard to master, and the majority of the front rank Americans have
adopted its use.
But of them all
Kahanamoku is the "king pin" of style.
High out of the
water he swims and his legs twinkle up and down under the surface at an
astonishing rate.
His is a continuous
rapid vertical movement whish is quite independent of his arm action and
as for his arms he moves them in a comparatively deliberate and leisurely
manner, and he makes his stroke by slipping the arms into the water with
the hands turned sideways.
He glides along
the surface at a speed that is said to be amazing, but as sustained action
of this kind is very exhausting is seen to slow down considerably after
negotiating 50 yards or more.
LIKE AN EEL.
Kahamamoku's arm
action is perhaps the most noticeable variation from the Cavill crawl to
the close student of the art of swimming.
In the Cavill
method the arms are brought over with with a snap, bent at the elbow.
In the "ducal"
style the arms are brought over more slowly and extended practically to
their limit for their plough through the water.
Then he changes
his arms with a slower roll than did the cavills.
Once under way,
the duke (sic) rushes through the water at a great clip, slashing the brine
into a turmoil and shovelling it back of him into a conglomeration of suds.
His leg action
is the Cavill style down to the minutest detail, though if anything, the
leg chop is closer to the surface.
The legs are
worked fast, and he gets about twice as much action out of them as he does
out of the arms.
He has acquired
the art of turning nicely, and sneaks around the ends of the tank like
an eel.
WELL EDUCATED
A well-educated young
fellow is Kahanamoku.
He has been through
the college course at Honolulu and he can speak several languages.
In manner he
is free, easy and companionable, reminding me of Alex. Wickham.
He is of modest
disposition.
With his great
reputation he would, without doubt, draw great crowds to all the baths
here in which he appeared.
WHO IS GOING TO
TEST HIM.
The proposal is to
get Kahanamoku here in time to compete in the State championship carnivals.
The question
now arises, Will there be any swimmer in Australia capable of giving him
anything like a race?
It looks as if
there will be a dearth of real first-class sprinters this year.
A visit of a
champion swimmer is just what is needed here to make the sport boom, and
all swimmers will echo the sentiment expressed at the championship meeting
of the association, "We want the duke (sic)."
...
The council concluded
the meeting with a discussion on the question of inviting a foreign swimmer
to Australia during the season, and as the only swimmer likely to accept
an invitation was the 100 metres Olympic champion, Duke Paoa Kahanamoku,
it was decided to invite him.
The control of
international visits, however, is in the hands of the Australian Swimming
Union with power to delegate same, and the hon. secretary was accordingly
instructed to ask the union for power to extend the invitation.
If it is desired
to have Duke here in time for the State championship, no time should be
wasted, as the consent of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States
will have to be obtained.
His presence
would undoubtedly prove a great attraction, and stimulate public interest
in swimming in the achievements of this human flying fish.
The returned Olympic
swimmers report that, in addition to being a phenomeon in the water, Kahanamoku,
like the majority of Americans, is a fine fellow.
Besides being
a marvellous performer over the shorter distances, the Hawaiian was also
the fastest of the American team over 200 metres, and in salt water, with
the long lap, would be on equal terms with our swimmers over that distance.
Image right:
"DUKE"
KAHANAMOKU
The Hawaiian
Swimmer
World record
holder 100 metres,
Time 1 min. 2
3/5 secs.
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Merman (W. F. C. Corbett):
Wonderful
Hawaiian - Duke Paoa Kahanamoku.
The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 30th
October, 1912.
surfresearch.com.au
Geoff Cater (2008) : Merman ( W.
F. C. Corbett) : Kahanamoku Tour Invitation, 1912.
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1912_Telegraph_Duke_30_Oct.html