Here’s another oldie–paddlers pose at the Natatorium in 1940.

This was only a year after my father, John Lind, arrived in Hawaii from Long Beach, California, and years before the Waikiki Surf Club was formed after the end of WWII.

The photo looks like it might have been a publicity shot for an upcoming race, and it provides evidence that two future WSC founders, Wally Froiseth and my dad, were already active together in paddleboard racing by 1940.

My father said it was paddling that led him to surfing back in California, and he remained active as a paddler after he came to Hawaii.

When I was a kid, I remember that big, long, hollow, canvas-covered paddleboard, a rather bright yellow, stored in the garage. During a particularly heavy rain, our yard flooded and my dad got out his board and floated around in the flood waters, but I think I just remember the story being told rather than the actual event.

Clippings in my dad’s collection show paddling was a popular sport back in the 1940s and 1950s.

I showed this second photo to my father recently, and he immediately recognized it as a 1942 race from Waikiki to the Diamond Head buoy and back.

He pointed to the paddler on the far right, closest to the camera. “That’s me,” he said. At least on this point, on this day, his memory was quite clear.

He recalls finishing the race “somewhere in the middle”.

Click on either photo for larger versions.