It was the Monday before the Wednesday general election in 1990 and Fred Hemmings was on the phone, asking if I could come to his Kapiolani Boulevard campaign headquarters.

When I got there, Hemmings, the Hawaii Republican candidate for governor, closed the door to his office, saying he wanted to talk to me off the record.

Hemmings was running a “one chance in a million,” under-funded campaign against the incumbent Democrat, Gov. John Waihee, who was both popular and bristling with campaign cash.

Hemmings, then 44, quietly said he knew he was going to lose big, but he wanted to thank folks now before election night.

Hemmings went on to say that what he had learned from the race was that it was a tremendous opportunity and he planned on using it to build his own political brand in local politics.

When the votes were counted, Hemmings lost, getting just 39 percent of the vote.

Still on election night, Hemmings’ 15-year-old stepdaughter Kaui Hemmings said, “I was really proud of him. He was always optimistic, even if the polls were low. I think this really pulled our family together.”

Some of Hemmings’ conservative political views were not going to go far in a blue state such as Hawaii, but Hemmings was not done with politics. In 1994 he ran for lieutenant governor on a team with Pat Saiki and after that failed, won a state Senate seat, which he held until retiring in 2011.

All this is to say that Hemmings has written a new book, “Local Boy, A Memoir.” His “The Soul Of Surfing is Hawaiian” was written in 1997.

The new effort is just 120 pages, published by Legacy Isle. In today’s hyper-political world with daily political flashpoints, it is somewhat relaxing to read from one of the state’s politicians who can tuck politics into his life and not be consumed by it.

Hemmings is one of Hawaii’s most famous athletes, playing football in high school and becoming a globally recognized champion surfer.

Punahou School inducted him into the Athletic Hall of Fame, and he also was inducted into the International Surfing Hall of Fame, the Hawaii State Sport Hall of Fame and the Hawaii Waterman Hall of Fame.

More of the book is about Hemmings riding waves than making waves in politics.

He retired from competitive surfing in 1968 as the world champion and notes in his book: “When I arrived where I wanted to be, I stopped my quest and pursued different challenges.”

There is that sort of local-boy style to the book, as if you ran into Hemmings at a neighbor’s party and he had three really good stories he wanted to share.

Many of the jokes are about him, including his serious lawn-mowing accident that resulted in him losing three toes.

The injury was serious, complicated by Hemmings driving himself to the hospital and losing so much blood that he collapsed on the hospital’s front door. But the resulting humor was worse, with one friend calling him“Ajinomoto” as in “Ah-gee-no-more-toe.” Another suggested his new Portuguese name should be “Freddy Sans-toes.”

Asked why so many of his recollections are not about his decades in politics, Hemmings described himself as a “hard-headed Portuguese boy, and if I think I’m right I’m not going to back down.

“So if I say the Republican tax plan is right or something, in Hawaii all I’m going to get is criticism and I’m not going to back down and who needs all that.”

Hawaii may not be with Hemmings on taxes — but in this political year with all sides looking for a fight, some musing about politics and living in Hawaii from someone who became a legend in something besides vote-counting makes a good read.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.