The day before the 1968 Duke Classic began, Fred Van Dyke and Larry Lindberg hosted a competitor's meeting at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel in Waikiki. The surfers were not given any heads-up beforehand as to what the meeting was about. Lindberg, a TV producer and the force behind nearly all of the American network-created surfing presentations of the 1960s and '70s, ABC's Wide World of Sports included,

The article below is excerpted from "Duke Classic," by Craig Lockwood, and ran in the May 1969 issue of Surfing. Lockwood offers a short prelude to the Hilton meeting. “We’re having a meeting tonight that may lead surfing into a whole new era,” Duke meet director Fred Van Dkye tells the surfers on the beach at Sunset after the first afternoon of competition. But Van Dyke won't say anything else, leaving everybody wondering what's up.

We're all inside the imposing tower of the Hilton Hawaiian Village near Ala Moana. Van Dyke’s room is crowded, as the contestants and the press wait for the meeting to start. At one end of the room the huge perpetual Duke Kahanamoku Trophy sits impressively on the top of a TV set. You study it for a moment, thinking about the unintentional symbolism.

Larry Lindberg stands up; he’s chairing the informal meeting. “I feel that, basically, we’re really blowing this whole thing with surfing. The sport is being run by people other than surfers. We’re foundering without direction or legitimacy.”

What it boils down to is that Lindberg feels the contest scene doesn’t give the surfer very much. A lot of money could be made off contests but it isn’t, and what money is made goes to people other than surfers.

“So here we are, and now something is happening in the TV world. The networks are in a significant transitional phase, and surfing is also. But the sport lacks any kind of national following. It is still relatively unknown, but it has a lot of potential as far growth. I doubt if last year we could have suggested something like this, and who knows—next year we might not be able to do it. But now I think we can.”

First, all the assembled surfers would form, under the direction of Fred Van Dyke, a professional surfer’s association.

Second, the association would then approach television executives and try to interest a network in a series of professional surfing contests that would be held in various countries, much in the way pro golf or tennis meets are conducted.

Third, the surfers themselves would get sponsors who would foot the bill for the new pros to enter the series. In exchange, the sponsors would realize a great deal of publicity.

“But who would sponsor something like that?” Jock Sutherland asks. “No surfboard manufacturer has that kind of money!”

“It doesn’t have to be a surfboard manufacturer," Lindberg replies. "It could be IBM, Pan Am, United Airlines, or Coca-Cola. Any big firm, looking for publicity and television exposure, could sponsor a surfer.” The contest series, he says, would offer a cash prize of X dollars for each contest, and a final large cash prize for the winner of the series.

“How many contests would be held?” asks Felipe Pomar, the former world champ from Peru. “Thirteen contests, one each week for a quarter.” Lindberg explains that TV is programed in quarters, like many colleges and universities.

Many of the surfers appear skeptical, but Lindberg goes on, hammering home point after point. “You guys have the equivalent of a PhD in surfing. You’re the tops and you’re not using it. There’s money to be made if you are willing to take the chance, and you aren’t really taking any kind of chance.”

“I think it’s a damn good idea,” says Fred Hemmings.

“But you’re selling out the sport, man," Jock Sutherland snaps back. "Surfing isn’t a commercial product, you don’t try and prostitute your art form.”

“For some of us surfing is a living,” Corky Carroll says. “And a pretty good one. But if we could make more than just a living, why not do it? We spend all of our time getting good, and then get paid peanuts for it.”

“Because you’re ruining something that is beautiful," Sutherland replies. "And I can say for myself that I don’t want any part of it.” Without waiting for the meeting to adjourn, he gets up, says goodbye, and leaves.

The meeting finally dissolves, with little groups going off down the hall to discuss the pros and cons of Lindberg's idea, and agreeing to meet the following evening to take further action.

The next evening, after a day of rain, Kimo McVay gives the surfers a few of the dollars-and-cents figures. “I’ve invested $162,000 in the Duke Contest so far. And I wouldn’t call it the best investment for the money. As a commercial venture, it's been pretty mediocre. I started it, however, to perpetuate the Duke’s name, not to make money, so I didn’t care. But I think that to get the ball rolling I’m going to change all that.”

McVay looks around the room and then drops a bomb.

“I’m going to change the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational tonight. It will be known hereafter as the Duke Kahanamoku Classic. The first prize, winner take all, is $1,000 cash!”

1968: GOING PRO AT THE HILTON HAWAIIAN VILLAGE

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