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The Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship is named in honor of the "Father of Modern Surfing", Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku. The contest began in 1965 by invitation only at Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oʻahu until it was replaced by the Billabong Pro in 1985. The championship was the first surfing event to be broadcast on a regular basis by ABC's Wide World of Sports.[1]
Two dozen of the best surfers in the world attended the first championship with big-wave surfers like Greg Noll and Fred Hemmings as competitors. Surfer Jeff Hakman was only seventeen when he claimed his first title.[2] Noll's streamlined, Semigun surfboard design became the board of choice for contestants riding the Sunset Beach waves, with Ricky Grigg riding a Semigun to victory.[1] Duke Kahanamoku handed out golden "Duke" statues to the winners for the first three years before he died on January 22, 1968.[2]
The first native Hawaiian to win the championship was Clyde Aikau, in 1973, followed in 1977 by his older brother, Eddie Aikau.
Awards from 1965 to 1984:[3]
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