PAE KA NALU: Catch the Wave
100 years ago Hawaiian great Duke Kahanamoku, the Olympic gold medalist and father of modern day surfing, called this stretch of Southern California coast his home away from home. During his years here he turned his California swimming peers into the first generation of California surfers, changing the complexion of California culture, and surfing. Duke taught Californians how to Pae Ka Nalu, catch the wave. But Duke embodied a surf culture that was over 1000 years old. Here, our aim is not only to celebrate where surfing came from, but to help the surfing world better understand what it inherited.
“Out of water, I am nothing.”
Where it all began.
Long before surfing reached California, he‘e nalu — wave sliding — was woven into Hawaiian life: a practice of skill, standing, and ceremony, ridden on boards shaped from native woods.
This exhibit follows that story from the ancient Hawaiian lineup to the watermen who carried it to the rest of the world.
There’s far more on the walls.
Photographs, boards, and stories fill the Exhibit Hall — much more than we can show here. Come walk the exhibit and see the pieces up close.
