1971 Duke Classic Invite List, SURFER, February 1972 [published in late 1971, prior to the Duke event]

This is the Duke's first year under the new regime of Moroni Medeiros, Henry Ayau and Chuck Shipman. In the last six years, under the dedicated hand of director Fred Van Dyke, the Duke became perhaps the most prestigious event in the surfing world. Even the usual contest grumblings couldn’t overshadow the excitement of so many great surfers at a wave like Sunset.

For this year’s Classic, Medeiros, Ayau and Shipman have, through a poll of 100 top surfers, put together a more contemporary invite list than in the past. Although some very able surfers from other segments of the competition scene were omitted, every surfer invited to the 1971 Duke has a reputation for riding Sunset. The event will again be covered by ABC Wide World of Sports.

“The Duke Kahanamoku Classic, or How to Take a Blind Drop While Being Judged,” by Daniel Calahan, 

The ’71 Duke will probably be best remembered for two things: the year Jeff won his third Duke, and the year of the WIND.

After perfect 10- and 12-foot surf early in the morning before the start of the contest, fickle old Mother Nature turned around and let us have it with absurdly heavy winds and rain squalls, making the waves very difficult to catch and ride.

As the wind increased, some competitors were reluctant to surf for cash in such adverse conditions and began calling for a halt to the event in order to wait for better conditions. But meet director Chuck Shipman, who had been following all weather and swell forecasts, announced that it was surf that day or not at all. Things were going to get a lot worse before they became better. The swell was going to drop by the next day, with no new ones in the immediate future (his prediction proved true), and the weather was due to remain bad for the rest of the Duke's allotted time frame.

So amid windblown strains of the Hawaiian Anthem (played by the Royal Hawaiian Aloha Band) and an invocation by the Reverend Akaka, lifeguards Jerry Aikau and Dave Gardner led the first heat out to the windblown combers.

For years now, the Duke contest was formatted with four do-or-die preliminary heats, with the first- and second-place finishers from each eat moving directly to the finals. The surfers weren’t too keen on this setup, especially since most thought the matchups were often a bit unbalanced anyway (heats were picked by drawing names from a hat). So this year a new system was devised with first place going to the finals, while second and third went into a semifinal, from which the top four would move into the finals. This seemed to meet everyone’s approval.

As is usual with the Duke, the name of the game was experience. The surfers with experience in both competitive surfing and Sunset Beach proved to have the advantage and were difficult to beat.

Though at times the judging seemed a bit more erratic than in past Duke events, it can probably be blamed more on the adverse conditions rather than the judges themselves. This was a man-versus-elements situation, especially early in the contest, rather than a competitive surfing situation.

Many of the contestants were focused on simply making the waves, without getting blown over the top or catching an edge in the chop, and were not able to rip the way they normally would. Catching and taking off on a 

 Sunset Beach wave is no easy thing; with 35 knots of wind-driven spray in your face, it’s particularly heavy.

Most heats ended with pre-contest favorites moving on to the finals. Eddie Aikau surfed well in the first heat and won easily. In the second heat, Jeff Hakman demonstrated he was going to be difficult to beat, and Billy Hamilton did the same in the third.

North Shore local Jackie Baxter surfed extremely well, and was on his way to winning the fourth heat, but lamed out and took off in front of Mike Doyle and Corky “Never Give A Sucker An Even Break” Carroll, who naturally protested and cost Jackie the victory.

As usual, there were other disappointments and upsets throughout the day. Barry Kanaiaupuni failed to place in the difficult first heat, much to his and most everyone else’s surprise. Jock Sutherland, fresh out of the Army and definitely a bit rusty, surfed well during the morning warmup, but couldn’t put it together in his heat.

Sammy Hawk and Tiger Makin both seemed to have had the first-Duke butterflies, and both should have gotten a special award for going over the falls so rudely and heading back out for more.

The semifinals produced an hour of fierce competition to get into the finals. The severe conditions hadn’t let up much, but the competitors seemed to be getting used to the wind, and the surfing was more intense.

The heartbreaker of the day occurred when Jimmy Jones, well in contention during most of the heat, lost his board. After stroking like a fiend for the beach to retrieve his stick, Jones arrived to find that some well-meaning but not-too-bright lizard had taken his board and paddled off into the rip to retrieve Terry Fitzgerald’s board (Terry went on to win the heat). Jimmy found himself stuck without a board, and by the time he had gotten another one and paddled back to the lineup, it was too late and he was eliminated.

The finals got underway and Jeff Hakman wasted no time in getting it on. In fact, he had two or three waves under this belt before most other competitors had ridden their first wave. Jeff's consistency and stamina were amazing; the whole time he seemed to be either riding a wave or on his knees paddling for position. By the halfway point, Jeff had all first place all but sewn up, and the real contest was for second and third.

Mike Doyle started out strong but ran out of gas in the second half of the final. Eddie Aikau surfed consistently, but took a long swim and couldn’t ever get back above third, where he finished. One of these Dukes, Eddie’s gonna get his kind of surf (15- to 25-feet), and then watch out.

Corky Carroll was the only goofyfoot to make the finals, slightly amazing many people who had him pegged as a California contest surfer. But he truly proved to everyone that he was capable of drawing some clean backside lines at Sunset Beach. Many people thought it was the best they’d ever seen him surf.

But possibly the most remarkable feat of the finals was Bill Hamilton’s comeback from dead last to runner-up. Billy started the final with a wipeout and a long swim, and took another wipeout shortly after getting back to the lineup, but luckily didn’t have to go far to retrieve his board. But after that he was mistake-free and ripped his way to second place, and was the only surfer to come close to threatening Jeff’s first-place position.

1971 Duke Kahanamoku Surfing Classic

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