Fred Hemmings has a new book out called “Local Boy.” He stopped in the middle of speaking about it to the Honolulu Rotary Club recently and addressed me in the crowd.
He suggested I write a collection of the more interesting beachboy nicknames. No one had done it in one place, he said, and got back to his speech. I made a note.
The beachboys are a Waikiki treasure. They have acted as ambassadors of aloha for over 90 years. Countless visitors were greeted by them, taken out on outrigger canoe rides, taught to surf or serenaded by them. They are unique in all the world, Grady Timmons wrote in his book, “Waikiki Beachboy.”
And these lords of Waikiki frequently had colorful nicknames: Blue, Squeeze, Rabbit, Chick, Panama Dave, Turkey, Steamboat and Splash.
“To nearly every one of those permanent frequenters of the beach has been attached some sobriquet that has become part of his individuality. To many of their friends and family, their real names are unknown,” the Honolulu Star-Bulletin wrote in its regular 1930s feature On the Beach in Waikiki.
Here are some of their stories.
Alan ‘Turkey’ Love
Love had freckles that some thought looked like spots on a turkey egg. His sister, Winona Love, was a famed hula dancer and longtime girlfriend to golf great Francis I‘i Brown. Turkey had a brother known as “Porky” Love.
Turkey said his idol was Sam Kahanamoku. “I watched him all the time and learned everything from him.”
Albert ‘Rabbit’ Kekai
Kekai was fast, quick-footed and agile and got nicknamed “Little Jack Rabbit” by older beachboys. It shortened to “Rabbit” over time. Duke Kahanamoku took Kekai under his wing and showed him how to properly paddle a canoe past Waikiki reefs.
Rabbit taught Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas, Red Skelton and other celebrities to surf.
Like another former beachboy, Lex Brodie, Rabbit was still surfing at 80. Rabbit preferred longboards and was a sponsor of an annual longboard surfing contest in Costa Rica.
Kepoikai ‘Splash’ Lyons
Lyons was said to create a huge splash when he dived into the water. He played ukulele so well that entertainer Arthur Godfrey put him before his mainland audience.
Sammy ‘Steamboat’ Mokuahi Sr.
“The story was, my great- great-grandfather was born on a steamship coming to Hawaii. My grandmother translated the family name into Hawaiian, which is Mokuahi,” Steamboat said.
His relatives earned nicknames that riffed on his: Tugboat, Rowboat, Lifeboat and Sailboat.
Joseph ‘Scooter Boy’ Kaopuiki
His surfboard antics earned him the nickname “Scooter Boy.” He was famous for pushing one foot as if he was pushing the board to go faster.
Kaopuiki was also famous for adopting Sandy, a stray dog, and teaching him to surf. Photos of them surfing made them world famous. The poi dog also appeared on the TV show “You Asked for It.”
Alexander Hume ‘Pop’ Ford
Pop Ford came to Hawaii in 1907 and founded the Outrigger Canoe Club, between the Royal Hawaiian and Moana hotels. His mission was to revive the nearly forgotten sport of surfing.
George David ‘Dad’ Center
“He was a dad to all of us when we were kids on the beach,” said “Sally” Salisbury. Center worked with Pop Ford at the Outrigger Canoe Club and coached the 1920 U.S. Olympic swim team.
William Myron ‘Ox’ Keaulani
Pure-blooded Hawaiian, Ox was named for his size: 6 feet 1 inch, and 345 pounds. He began on the beach in 1927 and worked with Steamboat Mokuahi as a lifeguard. He also worked as a doorman at Queen’s Surf and the Moana hotel.
John ‘Squeeze’ Kamana
“Back when he was a little kid, my grandfather didn’t have money for lunch,” Kamana III said. “So the girls would share their food with him. He’d reciprocate with a hug. True story.”
His son and grandson all share the “Squeeze” appellation. Squeeze Sr. played football for USC in 1953 and 1954. He later was with the Honolulu Police Department and Navy Intelligence.
Richard ‘Buffalo’ Keaulana
The 1960 Makaha surf champ and retired lifeguard was given his nickname by his mother, who thought the child looked look a water buffalo. Keaulana also created Buffalo’s Big Board Surfing Classic in Makaha. His friends call him Buff.
Alfred ‘Molokai’ Horner
Horner was from Molokai, hence the nickname. He recalled carrying a wheelchair- bound man into the water over the course of several days.
Every time he did something for him, the man tipped him a dime. Before leaving, he asked whether Molokai still had those dimes and replaced each one with a $5 bill — a couple hundred dollars in all. When the visitor left Waikiki, it was with a cane, not a wheelchair.
Alberto ‘Toots’ Minvielle
The beachboy-turned- businessman said “Toots” was his mother’s pet name for him. Toots grew up in Hilo but moved to Oahu and attended McKinley High School. He was a co-founder of the Molokai-to-Oahu canoe race in 1952. He also helped start a canoe race to Catalina, Calif., in 1959.
Gene ‘Tarzan’ Smith
Smith had muscles that “spoke for themselves,” and he looked like Tarzan, whose movies were popular. In 1945, Grady Timmons says, he became the first to paddle a surfboard across all the channels connecting the major Hawaiian Islands.
Louis Reid ‘Sally’ Hale
“Sally” Salisbury moved to Hawaii as a child in 1907 and began as a beachboy in 1932. Sally learned to surf at 7 years old and owned his own canoe at 10.
A few years later he was captain of the Outrigger Canoe Club Beach Patrol. He changed his last name from Salisbury to Hale. He employed 16 people in 1937. He said they could earn $200 to $300 a month in the summer.
Baldwin Kaleipokii ‘Blue’ Makua
Blue learned to surf at age 6 on his mother’s wooden ironing board. He co-founded the Waikiki Surf Club and won the Molokai-to-Oahu canoe race six times in a row with the Waikiki Surf Club from 1958-63. James “Jama” Keanu gave him the nickname “Blue Boy” because the cold water made his lips blue.
The famous Waikiki Tavern — about where Duke’s statue is — had a blue room named for Makua.
Eddie ‘Midnight’ Bush
Bush earned his nickname for his dark suntan. Midnight was an ukulele virtuoso and had appearances on the “Tonight Show With Johnny Carson” and “The Mike Douglas Show.”
John ‘Hawkshaw’ Paia
If you’ve ever seen a photo of a guy sitting in a chair, strumming an ukulele on a surfboard, it was probably Hawkshaw Paia. He got his nickname for his strong jaw, which looked like that of a comic strip character from the 1920s.
Charles Kalei ‘Panama Dave’ Baptiste and William ‘Chick’ Daniels
They don’t know how they got their nicknames.
Panama Dave was famous for his malaprops and odd sayings. To sum things up, he liked to say, “Dat’s the whole kettle of fish in a nutshell.” He once picked up a phone and, hearing no dial tone, said, “Dis phone been empty.” A common invitation to his friends: “Be my host!”
Chick was born on Kauai in 1918 and learned to surf in 1927 when the Royal Hawaiian opened. “No one calls me Willie, always Chick,” he told columnist William Drury in 1960. “The name’s legal. I applied for a passport to go to the Orient. I didn’t have a birth certificate, so I had to go to the governor’s office to get one. They said everybody knew me as Chick, so they put that on the birth certificate.”
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Fred Hemmings was a beachboy one summer in 1961. “The beachboys I knew were very wise men. They were a special breed. Most were pure Hawaiian. They were a band of merry men, bon vivants who did what they wanted to do, in this case taking people surfing and canoeing.”
They also were nappers, Hemmings says. “After lunch or late in the afternoon, you could often find them sprawled under the hau tree in front of the Moana. Duke Kahanamoku was a famous napper. He could nod off at the dinner table.
“Duke and the beachboys were full of aloha. They were always positive. I never heard them say anything negative. And they were all characters. A special group of guys in a special time.”
Bob Sigall’s “The Companies We Keep 5” book contains stories from the last three years of Rearview Mirror. “The Companies We Keep 1 and 2” are also back in print. Email Sigall at Sigall@yahoo.com.
