newyork non-godfather John Hannon explains:
The purpose of this column is only incidentally related to surfing. The point to be made is what is printed as factual actually isn’t.
1. 1912. Duke Kahanamit is said to have visited New York and introduced “standup surfing.” It also called him the father of modern surfing. Perhaps he is. There were others back in Hawaii at the time that might question this.
2. 1934. Tom Blake came to Jones Beach. The first surfboards I ever saw were the Blake boards used by the Jones Beach lifeguards. Today we would call these paddleboards. Back then they were not only state-of-the art but had a high-tech outer coating way ahead of its time. No fault found with this part.
3. 1960. “After successfully selling surfboards out of his mother’s garage for a long time, Long Island’s John Hannon opens the area’s first surf shop – Hannon Surfboards – near Gilgo.” Well what’s wrong with that?
a. Never sold surfboards out of my mother’s garage. I was in Great Neck where I had my workshop on East Shore Road. The first boards were sold exclusively in White Mountain Ski Shop in Great Neck.
b. Way down the road I had a surf school and rental show at Gilgo Beach, which is on Long Island’s south shore. Great neck is on the north shore.
c. “… later Hannon is dubbed the, ‘father of New York surfing.’” Some more nonsense. First of all, surfing, I believe, had an immaculate conception – in New York and anywhere else, it just didn’t have to be sired. However, if a paternity suit had to be filed, I’d be at the end of a long line. The names Bill Coleman, Bobby Knapp and Tom Hevil I can recall. I’m sure there were many, many more. Case closed!
At this point, I’m going to throw in the towel. There are four more paragraphs that are either incomplete, inaccurate or both. I think I’ve made my point. Don’t believe all you read, kiddies!
rest of the article:
http://www.vailtrail.com/article/20060726/OPINION/60726003
Nice rebuttal, but I don't know if anyone can really argue with Duke Kahanamoku being the father of modern surfing. Well, drop out the subjective "modern surfing" bit, what does that refer to exactly? But I am not sure if the is anyone that questions his absolute primacy (Blake being the technological grandfather) in introducing surfing to the mainland. That goes far enough in establishing his credentials right there.
ReplyDeleteBut that is for other, more learned people to write about and for me to only paraphrase.
Nice blog.