We were saddened to hear the news on Friday, May 13, 2016 that legendary Hawaiian surfing icon Rabbit Kekai has died, according to Surfer Magazine. He was 95.
Born in 1920 in Honolulu, the young Rabbit quickly earned a reputation as one of the city’s most gifted natural athletes; he was reportedly as fast on land as he was adept in the water, which caught the attention of Duke Kahanamoku during Rabbit’s formative years as a beachboy, a vocation he continued for decades. Throughout his life, Rabbit worked a myriad of maritime jobs. During the Second World War, he served in the Navy as a UDT swimmer, the precursor for the modern-day Navy SEALs, helping to clear beaches of Japanese defenses in Micronesia. After the war, he worked construction and as a longshoremen in Honolulu. Through it all, his passion for surfing remained.
We will miss seeing him with his ready smile and unending aloha where ever there was surf. Our thoughts are with the entire Kekai family.
[Link: Surfer Mag]
