Editing Duke Kahanamoku (section)

==Early years==

Growing up on the outskirts of Waikiki, Kahanamoku spent much of his youth at the beach, where he developed his surfing and swimming skills. In his youth, Kahanamoku preferred a traditional surf board, which he called his ''"papa nui"'', constructed after the fashion of ancient Hawaiian [[olo board]]s. Made from the wood of a [[koa]] tree, it was {{convert|16|ft|m}} long and weighed {{convert|114|lb|kg}}. The board was without a [[Skeg#Surfing|skeg]], which had yet to be invented. In his later surfing career, he would often use smaller boards but always preferred those made of wood.

Kahanamoku was a powerful swimmer. On August 11, 1911, he was timed at 55.4 seconds in the {{convert|100|yd|m}} [[freestyle swimming|freestyle]], beating the existing world record by 4.6 seconds, in the salt water of Honolulu Harbor. He broke the record in the {{convert|220|yd|m|abbr=on}} and equaled it in the {{convert|50|yd|m|abbr=on}}. But the [[Amateur Athletic Union]] (AAU), in disbelief, would not recognize these feats until many years later. The AAU initially claimed that the judges must have been using alarm clocks rather than stopwatches and later claimed that ocean currents aided Kahanamoku.<ref>[http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC "Duke Kahanamoku", in ''Notable Asian Americans''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200525223620/https://galeapps.gale.com/apps/auth?userGroupName=&origURL=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.gale.com%2Fps%2Fstart.do%3Fp%3DBIC&u=&prodId=BIC |date=May 25, 2020 }} Gale Research, 1995. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.</ref>