Whitey and the Duke

Whitey Harrison at home in San Juan Capistrano with the first Hawaiian outrigger canoe used to surf in California. Photo: C. R. Stecyk

One day over on the Big Island of Hawai’i, Grubby Clark and I were driving around looking for a place to surf. Our first stop was at Kawaihae Harbor break wall, which catches the swell pretty good but is kind of a mushy wave. As we pulled up to the edge of the break wall and looked out at the waves we saw two surfers out and a set coming in. Jumping out of the car, we watched as one surfer paddled for the biggest wave of the set. His positioning was perfect and he caught the wave easily. As he stood up, we both recognized the familiar style; it was Lorrin ‘Whitey’ Harrison. He was probably in his early eighties, but his surfing was skillful and sure as he made his turn and trimmed across the long wall.

Seeing us on the break wall as he got to the end of the wave, he turned toward shore and rode the wave all the way in. Climbing out of the water, we exchanged greetings. He was wearing the coconut leaf hat that was his trademark. He wove them himself and wore them out surfing until they fell apart, then just made himself another one.

For one with so many years behind him, most of them spent surfing, he didn’t look like most eighty-year-olds, and in fact he fairly bubbled with health. There was a spring in his step as he climbed up the rocks to where we stood in the parking lot. The familiar twinkle in his blue eyes was more pronounced after his surf session, and he still had the broad shoulders and good muscle tone of an active surfer in spite of his advanced years.

“Lorrin, you’re surfing with your daughter again,” Grubby said, stating the obvious as all three of us turned to watch Lorrin’s daughter, Marion, catch a wave of her own and get a nice ride.

“Yes, she drives me down here because I always lose the car keys when I drive myself,” Lorrin answered.

“Gerry, I saw you in here and had a story I wanted to tell you,” he said turning to me. “I haven’t seen you in a long time and I’ve been wanting to tell you about this one time back in the ‘40s on the North Shore; you know every time I see a picture of you surfing out there, I think about this story and was hoping I was going to run into you so I could tell you about it.

“It was a long time ago when not many guys were surfing out there. You know, you would have to get a bunch of the fellows in Waikiki together to make a surfing trip, and sometimes it was hard just to find everyone. Then maybe they had something else to do, so it was hard to get a group all together to go surfing out there, and you didn’t want to go surfing by yourself especially when the waves were big. Well, I heard about the surf being up, but no one wanted to go so I just thought I would head out there with my wife … that was my first wife you know. I thought we would just take a drive out there and have a look at the big surf.

“So we got the car and drove out from Waikiki; it was a long drive back then—you had to go through Pearl City and take the back roads—they didn’t have any freeways then. But when we were driving down the hill from Wahiawa, through the pineapple fields, you could see all the whitewater down by Hale’iwa, and it looked so good.

“We got down by Jerry’s Sweet Shop across from the park where we could look out the channel: It was a big swell, and it was breaking best way out at Avalanche. There was so much ‘ehukai, or surf spray, in the air that it was hard to see, so I say to my wife, why don’t we paddle out tandem on my surfboard and we can sit in the channel and watch the waves from up close. Well she was a real go-getter so she said OK. I got the board out of the car—you know there wasn’t a soul around, it was just the two of us. So we got on that board together and paddled out the channel.

“We got out by the side of the Hale’iwa break when this big old set comes in and closes out the whole channel. Of course, it took the board away from us and we were left in the water. The rip running out the channel was real strong, and even being good swimmers we had no chance to swim against it. Swimming as hard as we could, we were still being slowly dragged out the channel.

“Pretty soon we’re way out by the channel buoy so I tell her to swim over and hold on to that. The current is so strong that the buoy is leaned way over sideways, but at least we can hold on to it. I can see the shore and there are people in there now looking out at us but none of them are surfers, so no one can come help us. Boy, I’m really in a fix because we can’t get in. My wife thinks it’s fun, which is a good thing, and she is just expecting me to figure out what we are going to do next.

“Well, I’m really starting to get worried when I happen to catch a glimpse of my surfboard way over on the other side of the channel; it’s caught in the rip too and heading out to sea. I tell my wife that I have to take a chance and swim for the surfboard because it’s our only chance. I say to her that I may not get it and then I will be swept out to sea for a while, so she should just keep hanging on to the buoy and someone will eventually come for her.

“So she says OK, and I kiss her goodbye and dive into the current to go find my surfboard. I swim and I swim, and it’s real choppy in that channel and hard to see, but after a long time I finally see my board. By now I’m way outside past Pua’ena Point, but I have my board so I’m not worried. I fight the rip in and get back to the buoy where my wife is waiting.

“She just says ‘I knew you would be back,’ and jumps on the board. We paddle back to the beach where all these local people are gathered because they saw what was happening, but no one could do anything. They didn’t have a fire department back in those days to call to go rescue people, so they were all worried because they thought we were going to be killed by the waves. But they are all relieved and even have some food so we all sit down and have a picnic right there on the beach.

“The next day when we were back in Waikiki, the Duke comes down and finds me at the beach and gives me a good scolding. He said I never should have taken my wife out there with me, and it was a good thing I made it back safely. He scolds me a little more, then gives me a hug and a big smile, and says he’s glad we are both OK.

“So that’s my story of the North Shore. I thought you might want to hear it,” says Lorrin as he grabs his surfboard and starts to head back out to the waves, where his daughter is still surfing.

“I’ll see you guys later, I have to get a few more waves before Marion wants to go home.” With that he paddles back out to the surf.

Grubby and I look at each other, kind of in shock. “He was scolded by the DUKE,” we both say at the same time, “Can you believe that?”