Kahanamoku, fellow surfers came to rescue in California

Judge Ed Kubo spoke to my Rotary club recently, and one of his comments stuck with me. He said, referring to a criticism of the Veterans Treatment Court, that it was better to save some people than none at all.

It reminded me of something that happened 89 years ago in California involving Duke Kahanamoku, who was 34 at the time.

"Some surfing pals and I were on the beach at Corona del Mar, approximately 50 miles south of Los Angeles," Duke said. "It was a day when anything could happen — and did.

"Big green walls of water were sliding in from the horizon, building up to barnlike heights, then curling and crashing on the shore.

"Only a porpoise, a shark or a sea lion had any right to be out there."

From the shore, Duke could see a chartered fishing boat, the Thelma, near the breakers, trying to get to safe waters.

"Her rails were crowded with fishermen who, at the moment, certainly had other things in mind than fishing.

"Mine was the only board handy right then, and I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use it.

"In that instant my knees went to tallow," Duke said, "for a mountain of solid green water curled down upon the vessel."

The Thelma capsized and threw her passengers into the sea.

"Neither I nor my pals were thinking heroics; we were simply running — me with a board, and the others to get their boards — and hoping we could save lives."

Duke paddled his 114-pound redwood surfboard until his arms begged for mercy.

"I hoped my pals were already running toward the surf with their boards. Help would be at a premium.

"Don’t ask me how I made it, for it was just one long nightmare of trying to shove through what looked like a low Niagara Falls. The prospects for picking up victims looked impossible.

"Arm-weary, I got into that area of screaming, gagging victims and began grabbing at frantic hands and thrashing legs.

"I didn’t know what was going on with my friends and their boards. All I was sure of was that I brought one victim in on my board, then two on another trip, possibly three on another — then back to one.

"In a matter of a few minutes, all of us were making rescues. Some victims we could not save at all, for they went under before we could get to them.

"We lost count of the number of trips we made out to that tangle of drowning people. All we were sure of was that on each return trip we had a panicked passenger or two on our boards.

"Without the boards we would probably not have been able to rescue a single person."

Of the 29 people on the Thelma, 17 died and 12 were rescued. Of the 12, eight were rescued by the Duke using his surfboard.

It was on that day in 1925 when Duke accidentally introduced another kind of surfing to California: using a surfboard for lifesaving purposes.

Today lifesaving rescue boards are the norm for lifeguards worldwide and have accounted for millions of saves since that fateful day in Corona del Mar in 1925.

Bob Sigall, author of the “Companies We Keep” books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@yahoo.com.