The condominium in Wailea where we’ve been staying with friends for several days has a poster displayed in the kitchen. It shows a man on a surfboard riding a wave, with the text, “Maui Surf Club”.

It’s a nice decorative addition to the kitchen. And it reminded me of something I first posted here back in August 2010, when I was sorting through my dad’s boxes of papers just two months before his death.

At the bottom of one of the boxes I found a copy of the program for the First Annual Lahaina Invitational Surfboard Paddling Races sponsored by the Maui Surf Club, Puunene, Maui, and held on June 18, 1960. It’s in poor condition because the color from the red cover leached through the interior pages. So cover ink plus normal aging let you know that this was 50 years old at the time.

There was also a handwritten cover letter from the event’s general chairman, Teruo Uchimura, to my father, John M. Lind, founder of the Waikiki Surf Club.

Just click on the cover photo to view the rest of the program, as well as Uchimura’s letter.

Inside the program is a brief history of surfing on Maui, tracing its modern history to the Hookipa Surfriders Club formed in 1935. The club held monthly meetings at Hookipa Park, and the county built surfboard lockers to hold 50 boards. Surfboard paddling races were held in Kahului Harbor on Kamehameha Day in 1939. Surfing apparently died out after WWII, but was revived when the Meheula family moved to Maui from Oahu and formed a new “Hookipa Surfriders Club” in January 1959. A year later, members voted to change the group’s name to the Maui Surf Club.

The program includes advertisements for Maui businesses that supported the event, including a surprising number that are still in business!

There’s a photo of Kitty Reamer, queen of the surfing meet, a photo of a group of Maui surfers, and a list of trophy donors, led by Warden Alfred O. Souza and the Olinda Prison Inmates. The Olinda Prison Camp operated from 1926 to 1973, when it was closed.

In any case, it’s an interesting little find that says a bit about Maui in 1960.