The ukulele came to mainland USA from Hawaii; so did surfing. Since July 2025 one of our ukulele books has been on display in a show at The Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz. The show, titled "Princes of Surf 2025: Heʻe Nalu Santa Cruz," celebrates the genesis of surfing in California, when in 1885 three Hawaiian princes visited family friends in Santa Cruz, had surfboards constructed out of local redwood, and surfed the waves at the San Lorenzo River mouth.
Our ukulele book was in the lobby welcoming people to the show. The book is titled "Ukulele Series Book #17: The Duke Uke," and was one in a series of 24 artists' books we made between 1996 and 2003. All books in this series had a ukulele as the key element of the binding structure, and each riffed on a different aspect of the book, from bookshelf to forage painting, flip book to fan book. Information about this series can be found on our website at http://www.baymoon.com/~ukulelebooks/uke.htm. If you click on this link you may get a warning saying that the site may not be safe to visit. You can ignore that. It is appearing because the site was created in 2003 and I don't have any way of updating it.
Although these three princes may have been the first Hawaiians to surf mainland America, the most famous early Hawaiian surfer was Duke Kahanamoku, who also visited Santa Cruz to exhibit his waterman prowess.
His surfboard became iconic; its image often used to represent boards from that time before the mainland popularization of surf culture. There was a replica of his board in the show, along with other replica boards. There were also examples of more modern boards, representing the work of surfboard makers in Santa Cruz County since the 1950s.
As a Santa Cruz surfer, it was an honor to have our art work included in this show.
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