This brief description of the founding of the Hawaii Surfing Association and the Waikiki Surf Club was written by my father, John M. Lind, a founder of both organizations. It was found, along with other notes, among his papers after he moved into a nursing home in 2008.

After he retired from his business at the end of 1998, at age 85, my dad spent a considerable amount of time writing down his recollections of specific events, trying to assure that these bits of history would not be lost.

When I arrived in Hawaii in May 1939, there appeared to be little aquatic competition with only a limited number of participants.

I joined the Honolulu Junior Chamber of Commerce. I had been active in the Long Beach Junior Chamber and, a year before being assigned to Hawaii, had successfully engineered the first National Surfing Championship, sponsored by the JCC during the running of the “Salute to the States” program of the City of Long Beach. I served as general chairman of the surfing portion of the event. It took the help of the Long Beach Surf Club and hundreds of other people, and it was there that I learned that one cannot do things alone, but one can guide many.

A few weeks following my arrival in the islands, I met Arthur Pollison, who was serving as director of the city’s parks and recreation department.

He had a weekly Saturday program on KGU radio. The station was located in the Advertiser Building. I appeared on his program a few times, resulting in the start of the Hawaii Surfing Association.

We followed the pattern as in Long Beach, tying the strength of the Jr. Chamber of Commerce into the promotion of water sports events. It wasn’t difficult encouraging the many guys on the beach to get involved in competition and many projects were sponsored by the combined groups beginning in 1939 and through the war period until 1947.

In 1943, the Surfing Association put on one of the biggest crowd pleasers at Waikiki, with the Hawaii Surfing Championships and the Miss Waikiki Beauty Contest co-sponsored by the JCs.

Rudy Choy had called me a few days following our initial meeting and said he liked the idea of a club, and gave me permission to use the area above the Waikiki Tavern for a meeting room. Locker room facilities already in place were suitable for men’s and women’s sections. Permission was obtained to move surfboard lockers from the Diamond Head side of the building next to Kuhio Beach to the space adjoining the locker rooms.

This happened a few weeks after the early meeting and development of membership. In 1948, the Waikiki Surf Club was officially registered with the State of Hawaii. One of our original directors, Herbert Choy, prepared all the paper work through his firm, Fong, Miho, and Choy.

WIthin a very short time, over five hundred members had been signed up.

Gene Smith, noted surf board paddler, served as our first beach attendant and maintained the beach. The area was fitted with yellow and red umbrellas and beach chairs.

One of our new members, Elmer Lee, made his personal six-man koa surfing canoe available for canoe surfing for the membership. The surfing and canoeing was handled by a committee headed by Wally Froiseth, assisted by George Downing. Many committes of the news organiation had their assignments and the chairman was responsible for controlling the activity of each committee.

It wasn’t long after it was organized that the new Waikiki Surf Club was a leading competitor in beach activity and the sports of surfing and canoe racing.

We used to have a lot of support from Lorrin Thurston of the Honolulu Advertiser, Riley Allen from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, legendary coach Julian Yates, and Andy Anderson, Pam Anderson’s father, who was president of Von Ham Young Co and the Alexander Young Hotel.