2019
"Statistically speaking, I think you should have been able to catch at least one wave by now," Anthony said as Nikau came up from the water.
I wasn't an expert on Nikau Reed's behavior, but if I had to guess, I would say he was about two seconds away from attempting to drown Anthony and I wasn't sure if I would have stopped him.
"Bro, I will end you."
(Yeah.) (Two seconds and counting.)
Although Anthony was undoubtedly the best at surfing out of all of us, he was also sometimes a little bit of a shit, which meant surf lessons could either go superbly or horribly. And considering how close he was to Nikau, the latter was an unsurprising outcome. Kanani would have probably been a slightly better instructor if she hadn't been coaxed out of the water by Keali'i so they could find something to eat, dragging Leimomi and Micah along with them. I would have gone with them but Nikau would have been left by himself with Anthony and I probably would have felt guilty the entire time. Even if I wasn't offering any educational value, I could be used as a shield when Anthony got too annoying.
It wasn't even real surfing, according to Anthony. And he was right. We went to Waikiki Beach—groan—or, as Nicki Minaj had so eloquently and accurately described, the islands of Waikiki for the sake of having easy, small waves for Nikau. We couldn't technically even call it surfing at this point because he wasn't able to just stand on the board for more than two seconds without holding onto one of us.
"Anthony?" I said.
"Yes?"
"Have you considered being nice?"
Nikau sighed. "Thank you."
"No, I have not."
"Fuck you."
"How about you take five, yeah?" Without waiting for an answer, I shoved Anthony toward the shore. He swam away laughing and muttering something under his breath while I turned back to Nikau who was hanging onto his board with more disdain than I had ever seen someone direct at an inanimate object. "Okay, so your technique isn't bad at all."
"Which is why I keep falling off."
"You just need to get in the right mind space. Nobody wants to admit this but any sport is about twenty percent physical and eighty percent mental. Don't listen to that loser and his statistics. There are no statistics out here. There's you and the wave. Take your time. Trust your gut. Feel your mana. It'll carry you the rest of the way. And if you miss a wave then no big deal. Let the other guy go and catch another one."
Look, I wasn't a teacher by any means, and I probably could have spent more time making sure he understood his technique and why it worked for him, but I was of the belief that mental hindrances were the worst to overcome. If Anthony felt differently, he could help him correct his form later on. Right now, he had to stop thinking about how many times he had fallen and realize there were still so many more opportunities to keep standing.
He looked at me funny.
"What?"
"Nothing." He shook his head. "You just... you give a good pep talk."
"I more or less stole that from Duke Kahanamoku. Don't give me too much credit."
"Who?"
My mouth fell open. "Did you ask who?"
"I—I don't know who that is. Sorry."
I turned around and pointed toward the statue on the beach that I had never seen without a handful of leis hanging from each bronzed, outstretched hand. "Duke Kahanamoku. The father of modern surfing. One of the greatest Watermen to ever live."
"Oh, wait. They have a couple of monuments back home for him. I remember now."
I nodded. "He was incredible. If there's anyone that can make you believe in yourself, believe that anyone can surf if they truly want to, it's him."
Being able to think straight meant not paying attention to how closely the two of us had drifted together now that we were the only ones in the water. Up until now, it had been easy to not focus on him shirtless, but now it was getting a little harder.
Nikau didn't seem to notice. Or if he did, he didn't let on. He gripped his board tighter and smiled at me. "Maybe we can pretend I finally stood up on this damn board and you can tell me about him instead."
As much as I knew Anthony was likely watching us and would be able to see us not doing the thing we were supposed to be doing, Nikau hit the sweet spot. While there weren't many things I enjoyed about high school, I had occasionally managed to be tasked with writing an essay about something (or someone) that I enjoyed. And when I actually wrote about something I liked, I wouldn't shut up.
Hence my unnecessarily long essay about Duke Kahanamoku for history class.
(Unnecessary, as my teacher had vaguely suggested.) (I found every word of it very necessary.)
While Polynesians tended to get the most recognition out of all the Pacific Islander groups, which was something that required necessary change to fix, we were still underrepresented in almost every facet of life when it came to a global scale. It was one thing to get a few seats at the table every once in a while; it was a whole separate thing to feel like you were never invited in the first place. That was what it felt like to be a Pacific Islander. Growing up, it exacerbated the sense of isolation I felt just by the nature of living on an island. I was disconnected from the world in more ways than one.
So when I heard about a Native Hawaiian man who made history by becoming one of the most recognizable names in sports, falling in love with his legacy was inevitable.
When Duke Kahanamoku first broke multiple world records in swimming, the Amateur Athletic Union refused to recognize them as they believed judges had used incorrect stopwatches and that the currents had aided him. After participating in other swimming events, including some stumbles along the way as he had to adjust from swimming in the ocean to indoor pools, he eventually went on to the Olympics where he won three gold medals and two silver. Due to his celebrity, he even starred in quite a few Hollywood films in various small roles, though they pretty much amounted to the exotic side character stereotype.
Olympic medals were nothing to laugh about, but they were also the least impressive part of his story to me. Duke was a man that stood as a testament to the adversity so many of us faced.
Born less than three years before the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, he lived to see Hawai'i become a state—"state"—and had officially become a US citizen. And despite the trauma of growing up and watching his home stripped of her sovereignty, he had gone on to win Olympic medals under their flag. As much as I had many heavy thoughts about Hawai'i and its current statehood, I knew my understanding of it was completely different than it was of someone like him. He embraced it enough to compete for them. But I knew, I knew, it hadn't been easy. Not only because of the internal struggles but the external ones as well. Being that Duke was a brown man from an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean who traveled to the mainland and won all of their competitions, it presented its own set of issues. Duke had to navigate this social and political landscape shielding himself from many attempts to bring him down during a time of overt systemic racism. And despite his considerable amount of fame and success, he spent most of his life poor.
No matter what happened to him, Duke always remained the face of aloha for all the world to see. Sometimes at his expense, as many exploited him for their own personal or financial gain. But he did it. He showed the world and his people what it meant to stand strong in the face of adversity. His heart was pure and he remained true to his culture. Hawai'i's hearts collectively broke the day he passed away.
Until the very end, Duke Kahanamoku was a Hawaiian man through and through.
I smiled thinking about him. Although his legacy left a lasting impact on me, I hadn't thought of him in a while. "I could talk all day about him but you'd be better off reading the essay I wrote. It'll tell the story better."
"Is that your invitation to read it then?"
"Sure." I wasn't sure if there was some implication in my offer, but he made it sound like there was. Maybe there was and I just didn't realize it myself. "But we need to get you up on this board first before you kill Anthony."
"Before I kill Anthony or before Anthony kills me?" Nikau laughed.
"If you don't get it today, he's not letting you live it down. Which means you'll have to kill him."
He nodded, filled to the brim with determination. "Right. Got it."
I couldn't help it. I laughed and splashed water on his face. For someone who screamed confidence in nearly every aspect of his personality and physique, he sure had a way of folding next to someone like Anthony. And his smile could be slightly dopey when you could tell he was having the time of his life.
...
Nikau stood up on the board.
He fell very quickly after but he did the damn thing and everyone else on the beach cheered for him like he was a young child who learned how to doggy paddle for the first time. When he did it for the second and third time, the peanut gallery jumped to their feet, all except Kanani who had started laying down with her arms shielding her face about half an hour ago. The boba she had gotten while walking around with Keali'i sat in the sand next to her.
"I knew you could do it!" Anthony exclaimed. "I'm a miracle worker."
And there it was. Nikau rolled his eyes but otherwise smiled. They slapped their hands together with a loud squelch, water lapping up against Nikau's board as we stood not far from where the crystalline waves crashed against the shore.
I didn't want to take more credit than deserved, but Nikau did infinitely better after my so-called pep talk. After our short conversation, we only had a few minutes of practicing before Anthony had rejoined us. We hadn't managed to get him up on the board by then, but he made it slightly further than he had in all of the previous attempts. Once Anthony was back and behaving, Nikau was ready for success.
Waikiki Beach was always crowded, but the numbers had grown even more by then so we were all itching to leave. Nikau's next surf lesson was going to happen at a beach much more secluded than this one. Or, at the very least, occupied by far fewer tourists. (Nikau was a tourist too, but he had enough local associations so it was okay.)
I let the two of them walk ahead of me as we made our way to the rest of our group, salt clinging to our skin as water dripped down our overworked bodies. Micah tossed me a dry beach towel as soon as we got close while the guys picked up their own that were placed next to Keali'i.
"Did she fall asleep?" I asked.
Keali'i was better than me. I wanted to squeeze out my hair over her face to wake her up, but he smoothed a hand over her hair. Since she didn't stir under his touch, I got my answer. That, or she was still playing dead so she didn't have to get dragged back into the water.
"Yeah, she wasn't feeling so good earlier."
"Oh, that sucks." I eyed her drink. "Wouldn't want that to go to waste."
Keali'i shook his head. "Hoku."
"What? Small kine sip."
"Don't—" He sighed, watching as I bent over to grab the sand-covered cup. "Fine. Your funeral."
I took a sip. Delicious. "Can't catch me if she's sick."
"And your legs are twice as long," Leimomi pointed out.
"That too."
Kanani groaned and all our eyes flew over to her. Shifting her arms slightly, she peeked at me through the crack between them looking tired as hell, but she didn't say anything else.
Ever the doting boyfriend, Keali'i attempts to rouse her awake was met with resistance. While Anthony and Nikau went to shower off before we packed up our things and headed home, my sister begrudgingly sat up and glared at all of us.
"Can't a girl just sleep for five minutes?"
Keali'i rubbed her thigh. "It's been more than five minutes, babe."
"That's beside the point."
Irritable Kanani wasn't uncommon, but seeing her like this at the beach was. Maybe it was because we forced her to come to Waikiki. "We're about to leave if you—"
"Thank god." Without another word, she quickly started gathering her things. For a brief moment, she pressed her hand to her mouth and closed her eyes before continuing. Since Micah was nicer than all of us combined, she helped her. "Tell them to hurry up. I'm tired."
She was too busy to see everyone collectively stare at each other. Noted. Tropical Storm Kanani was about to turn into a category 4 hurricane. Keali'i didn't waste any time hopping to his feet to warn the other two while the rest of us followed suit with collecting our belongings. My slippers were the last things I put on.
Walking over to the rest of them still drying off by the showers, I held Nikau's backpack out to him and he grabbed it from me.
"Thanks," he said. I might have been a little sad when he pulled out a t-shirt and slipped it over his head. "So, when am I allowed to cash in on that offer?"
Ignoring the eyes I felt on me that were definitely trying not to be obvious, I shrugged. "Whenever. Preferably not after a day I work, though."
"Do I get to know your schedule or should I just text every day until I get the green light?"
I laughed and watched as the rest of our group started walking in the direction of where we parked our cars. "Whichever works best for you, I guess."
Nikau placed his hand on the small of my back, nudging me along. "Sounds good."