Rabbit Kekai

Rab­bit Kekai is a leg­endary Hawai­ian surfer who grew up under the men­tor­ship of Duke Kahanamoku. A true Waikiki Beach Boy and expert water­man in his own right, Rab­bit excelled at com­pe­ti­tion and is often referred to as “The Orig­i­nal Hot­dog­ger” with his inno­v­a­tive maneu­vers. Now approach­ing his 90th birth­day, Rab­bit is a direct descen­dant from the early days of surfing.

What was life like grow­ing up?
I was born and raised in Dia­mond Head. I was a punky kid – a real ras­cal. My Hawai­ian name Kolohe – means ras­cal. I would get into any kine thing you could think of. The name “Rab­bit” came about because I had speed. I used to run in the nines in the 100 yard dash in track. That’s fast. My speed also comes from run­ning away from cops! (laughs)

How impor­tant is it to be Hawai­ian?
When I was grow­ing up, I went to school with a mix­ture of races – Japan­ese, Ger­mans, and Hawai­ians. If you men­tioned you were Hawai­ian, peo­ple looked down on you – like a lower caste. It was racial prej­u­dice. The Hawai­ian cul­ture, espe­cially from the olden days is now lifted up.

I was brought up with the Hawai­ian lan­guage. I didn’t know Eng­lish. So I would sit there in school like a dummy. Every­body would just look at me and they would tease me and taunt me. One day, I heard my teacher say some­thing in Hawai­ian and my ears went up! I told her to trans­late the Eng­lish into Hawai­ian so I could under­stand. Mrs. Pa, she was a kind lady and she would teach me Eng­lish after school.

Tell us about your first board
You wouldn’t believe it. It was a 16 foot board, solid red­wood, about 100 pounds. It was what you would call a double-ender. If you lose your board or flip over, you could just ride it back­wards. As a lit­tle kid, I would ride it all the way in. When you get in, you don’t turn the board around – you turn your­self around!

Also, I grew up on short boards like the paipo. The paipo boards were mostly flat back then, but mine had a vee-tail. I used to stand up and ride ‘em. They were short – about 5 feet. We would stand up and do spin­ners on them.

Tell us about being a “Beach Boy”
The term “beach boy” is an overused word. Some guys claim to be beach boys but they were not. A beach boy is what we called “earn­ing your money” or your liv­ing down by the water.

Tell us about your rela­tion­ship with Duke Kahanamoku
Duke is my inspi­ra­tion. When I hung around with him, he was much older than I was. By then, he was already an Olympic cham­pion. When we would have races from the seashore to the buoy and back, I used to beat every­body. And I was a water­man – swim­ming, body surf­ing, surf­ing – every­thing. Because swim­ming was his forté, I got his attention.

Duke took me under his wing. He did every­thing for me and would take me inside the club and we would sit and eat in the din­ing area. Duke was the only “out­side” nation­al­ity to get in the club. It was all haole, or white at the time. One time, Duke’s wife Nadine took me there to eat and I was the only Hawai­ian at the table. I was sur­rounded by all of the old “hens” – with their noses in the air. They had to tol­er­ate me because I was asso­ci­ated with The Duke!

What about  Don­ald Takayama?
I actu­ally taught the guy how to surf! (laughs) He was a real hot­dog­ger and we used to surf a place called Kuna’s. When it gets about 8 feet, you get these long tubes – he used to like that. Also, his favoriteplace that he used to surf was called Magic Island. I used to put him in con­tests with peo­ple like Gerry Lopez and he kicked ass and beat every­one! He’s still num­ber one. (laughs) Nobody drops in on Don­ald. He’s treated like royalty.

Tell us about your surf­ing
When I was a kid, I was a con­sid­ered a “hot­dog­ger”, the best around. I used to shape my own boards. They were about 5 feet in length. Hot­dog­gin’ is about doing every­thing. I would do spin­ners on a wave, and slap the wave and do off-the-lips. Nobody was smack­ing the lip of the wave. Every­body else was surf­ing what I call “society-type” surf­ing – just stand­ing there. I used to whip my board up the wave and come back down. I would even surf switch stance and ride back down backwards.

I was inspired by trial and error. One time I got wipe­out and I was still on the board like that. That’s how I learned. That is why every­body copied me – to this day. That’s why they call me “The Orig­i­nal Hotdogger.”

In surf­ing, they also called me “The Inno­va­tor.” Moves that I do – guys copy. I was so far ahead of every­body. I used to do spin­ners and guys would say “What the hell you going?” (laughs) They never did see any­thing like that. They would also see me crack the lip and come back down.

You are cred­ited with being the first on the nose. Tell us more about that
Nobody used to do noserid­ing. Most peo­ple do the Cheater Five, but I used to get ten over. They called it a Hang Ten. Nobody used to do that.

Describe a per­fect wave
You can never say “per­fect wave.” It’s the hard­est thing to judge. Once and a while some­thing comes by you. Like, the wave’s going to defeat you. It’s like down at Makaha. I took off on the biggest waves you can ever see and whole walls are like com­ing over. You can never make it but some­how I made it – I cut down and was in the tube all the way – they thought I was smashed! Then I came out on the other end.

Every­body likes to ride the tube. What I like about it is the chal­lenge of get­ting’ out! That’s it! (laughs) Some­times you gotta stick your hands in the wave just to hold your­self into it. Cause if you don’t, you lose your grab and slide slip. Now, every­body is doing that. Even some of the top rid­ers like Kelly Slater.

Kelly is also a good friend of mine. Kelly used to sit down with me at the big con­tests. The tube at Pipeline is so long that you can never make it. At this par­tic­u­lar con­test, nobody could make that long tube. One time, I was watch­ing the wave and Kelly was with me dur­ing the finals. I told him “Kelly – the back­door is open.” He looked at me and said “No way.” I said “You gotta do it. Try it.” The first wave he went down, he got cov­ered for so long, every­body thought he got smashed. He came out by the end and they saw him flip up off the top and saw him put both arms up in the sky. He had won the con­test. When he got back on the beach, they were car­ry­ing him and then Kelly went back and lifted me up and took me right up to stand with him! Nobody knew why.

A lot of guys will come sit next to me at con­tests. Guys like Bru­cie and Andy Irons. Like I am some guru. I tell them to do what I ask them to do. They ask me, “Why you telling me to do that?” I tell them that the waves are chang­ing. You gotta change. The waves are never the same way twice. It changes and so does the tide.

What was your most mem­o­rable con­test?
The Makaha World Surf­ing Cham­pi­onships in the mid-fifties. I won the first two – in a row. Big waves. 10–12 foot out­side and we were mak­ing every one of them. Me and Buf­falo (Keaulana) sat on the out­side while every­one was hot­dog­gin’ on the inside. In the end, it was so close between Buff and I.

What Cal­i­for­nia surfers impressed you?
Corky Car­roll was one. He was the #1 guy down here at the time. I still beat him in con­tests, one of them was in Hunt­ing­ton. Dewey and “No Pants Lance (Car­son)” were also a great ones. I also really liked Phil Edwards. He didn’t com­pete or enter con­tests, but he was a hell of a surfer – the style! He was admired and guys put him above all the rest.

How impor­tant is the water for you?
Water sports and every­thing in the ocean are my lifestyle. We lived close to the ocean and it was my play­ground. Every­day you can’t get me out of the water. Body­board­ing, body­surf­ing, swim­ming, and surf­ing. You can never miss a day down by the water. We walk by, waves good – we jump in. I believe in respect­ing the ocean – it gives us every­thing – mana, and our food.

What’s the “golden rule” that you live by?
Do unto oth­ers as they do unto you. How they treat you – you treat them back. You punch me, I’m gonna whack you back! You don’t like that? Then don’t do that to me. If some­one is get­ting picked on, I will stand up for them – and every­body. You treat me good, I’ll treat you the same.

What kind of music do you lis­ten to?
Any­thing. Any­thing that is good. I like Hawai­ian music, though. Nowa­days, every­body is going to see Hawai­ian music. I like any kine – even the long-hair stuff. I lis­ten to them and some­times I like it.

What kind of board are you rid­ing these days?
Long­boards mostly. Don­ald (Takayama) shapes all my boards. Sin­glefins. For short­boards, I surf twin fin fish.

What’s you favorite meal?
The way I look at it, food is food. What­ever you serve in front of me, I eat. Good you like, bad – well, you don’t eat. I eat every­thing: Japan­ese, Chi­nese, Por­tuguese, Chi­nese, and all of that. I learned to eat those kinds of food because they were the peo­ple I was with. What­ever they give you – you eat. Poi is my favorite, though.

How old are you? What is your secret to longevity?
This year I will be 90. My secret to longevity is to do what I wanna do. Relax and just take life as it goes. Just live it. I don’t feel old or anything.

What are you most grate­ful for?
Living.

To learn more about Rab­bit Kekai, check out his pro­file at the Toes on The Nose web­site. If you are in the Waikiki area, Rab­bit will be host­ing the Toes on The Nose/Rabbit Kekai Long­board Clas­sic, August 24 to 27, 2010. Pho­tographs cour­tesy of Lynn Kekai and are under copy­right by their respec­tive own­ers. Por­trait of Rab­bit Kekai by Glenn Sakamoto.