He’s credited with inventing the flutter kick, but is best remembered for his efforts to popularize surfing — earning him the unofficial title, “father of international surfing.” Preferring old Hawaiian style boards, he often used a surfboard 16 feet long and weighing 114 pounds. He once rode a wave off Waikik Beach for nearly two miles.
When Duke Kahanamoku began his Olympic swimming, Hawaii was home to about 200-thousand people. Today, about 1.3-million call the island chain home.
You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau on the Web at www.census.gov.
