The beach where it began

Thanks to a legendary local Hawaiian, Longboards have been a constant feature at Waikiki Beach for over 90 years. The great Duke Kahanamoku, father of modern surfing and Olympic Gold Medalist, paddled his handcrafted wooden board—a whopping 16 feet long and weighing 114 pounds—out into the surf to ride the waves off Waikiki. This behemoth was dubbed a longboard and thus the ancient Polynesian sport of surfing was reborn. Today, in the shadow of Diamond Head, Waikiki Beach is still the spot to learn the tradition of longboard surfing. Here you can catch set after set of rolling waves until the sun fades below the horizon, and then it’s time for a Longboard Lager.