Surfing legend’s former home for sale

Duke Kahanamoku perhaps wouldn’t recognize it if he were alive, but the home where the Hawaii surfing legend once lived has been put on the market by a former Nike Inc. executive who remodeled the house in 2002.

The property at 114 Royal Circle between Black Point and Kahala with stairs leading down to the ocean is listed for $8.875 million by Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties for owner Gordon Thompson III.

Thompson bought the home, which was built in 1937, for $1.35 million in 2000 while he was on a six-week sabbatical surfing in Hawaii, according to property records and Coldwell Banker.

Coldwell Banker said Kahanamoku once owned the house, though Thompson bought the property from Kamehameha Schools.

Kahanamoku died in 1968 at the age of 77. His wife, Nadine, died in 1997 at the age of 92.

Thompson, who has a degree in architecture and was once a design vice president and creative director for Nike, made extensive renovations to the once-modest house while retaining the original foundation. The city regards the home as effectively being built in 2002.

Along with luxurious modern interior finishes, Thompson made the first level of the home taller, added glass windows and doors to the entire facade facing the ocean, and extended the yard to add an infinity pool overlooking the ocean. The renovations, based on building-permit values, cost about $700,000.

The city, for property tax purposes, values the home, which is on a 14,266-square-foot lot and has 3,935 square feet of living space with four bedrooms and 4-1/2 bathrooms, at $4.5 million.

Though Kahanamoku had long since lived in the home, Coldwell Banker said his hand prints are fixed in stone in the yard along with a tree that the former emperor of Japan gave to the Olympic gold-medal swimmer.

“The surf legend’s spirit is present,” the company said in an announcement.