I love painting surf culture and the nostalgia that goes along with it. I particularly enjoy painting the Duke Kahanamoku because of his contributions to surfing, swimming, (breaking world swim records -the freestyle 100-meter in 1911) along with breaking racial boundaries and showing the world the beautiful culture of Hawaii and the meaning of Aloha.

In this painting, he is surrounded by friends at San Onofre beach, and these friends were our surfing forefathers and mothers from the 40’s and 50’s. I included the iconic palm-frond covered surf shack that still exists at San Onofre beach to this day, even though the roads to San-O beach have washed out.. I can only identify one gentleman in the painting and that is Barry who stands behind the Duke and was the founder of the San Onofre surf club.

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