Secret Hawaii: An epic way to experience Honolulu's famed Waikiki Beach

Billy Pratt has tears in his eyes. He is less than an hour away from paddling into the water for his heat in a surfing invitational, something he has done so many times before. So why the tears?

"We're all here because of him," Pratt says, nodding towards the bronzed giant before him.

There stands the statue of Duke Kahanamoku on Waikiki Beach, the lasting link between Hawaii and Australia, the 6'2" Hawaiian who once walked across Sydney's Freshwater Beach, dropped a surfboard shaped from sugar pine into the ocean and walked on water.

You take a moment to picture Duke on his surfboard, walking from end to end with effortless grace.

So you figure you need to hire a board of your own and do the same - even if you haven't been on the board for a while, or ever.

You head down to the beach, hand over $20 and start paddling across Waikiki Beach. Glance over your left shoulder and you'll see Diamond Head mountain. Suddenly every other view seems insignificant.

Your prowess on the waves matters not. You feel like you could sit on this board until the sun sets, catching a glimpse of the Hawaiian green sea turtles - the largest hard-shelled sea turtles in the world - every time they go by.

Because when the sun sets on Waikiki Beach, you'd be hard pressed to find somewhere you'd rather be. Sure, the captain on your sunset catamaran cruise might laugh while he crashes into waves and has you holding on for dear life, and the rain might start hammering down with no cover in sight.

But when the rainbow emerges across Diamond Head and the sky is painted in blazing orange by the sunset, you fall silent. This is the Hawaii you'd dreamed of.

You might have been a touch apprehensive before boarding a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Sydney to Honolulu. Maui has just been engulfed by flames and you start to wonder if you're truly welcome.

A shuttle bus takes you towards the Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort, and on your way you see "Pray for Maui" written on a sign outside the Hawaiian Rent-All.

It is soon made clear people want you here. The island has as many stunning resorts as it does ageing villas. Hawaii relies on tourism to survive, it's blue water and palm trees as far as the eye can see adding to its beauty.

Then you start to see the name on signs outside restaurants. The same face on photos adorning the walls of hotels.

People had already told you to visit Duke's Waikiki restaurant, if not for the banquet then the cocktails. You allow venue general manager Andrew Crocker to pick his favourites off the menu, and it doesn't disappoint. Locals love it here - so much so there was a hour-and-a-half wait on the day the restaurant re-opened in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As if they wouldn't celebrate a place named after the island's greatest icon.

It was 109 years ago Duke took the hand of 15-year-old schoolgirl Isabel Letham for a taste of tandem surfing, which was written in the next day's newspapers and Australian surfing history.

With size 14 feet and "massive paws", Duke is a Hawaiian icon who brought surfing to life in Australia. He was born in 1890, and today Duke's doctrine of aloha is gospel in Hawaii - long after his death in 1968.

While we're talking legacy, factor in his three swimming gold medals at the Olympic Games and his standing for some time as the greatest freestyler in the world. This man, in Pratt's words, was a combination of Michael Phelps and Kelly Slater. Sure, Michael Jordan is good at golf, but he isn't Tiger Woods. That's what Duke was.

"This guy is a god," Pratt says.

Yet relatively few outside Hawai'i know the full extent of his influence on sports, lifesaving and fighting prejudice.

He is the reason so many have gathered around his statue, with people lining up to drape a lei over his neck or arms, on the morning of August 24. It would have been Duke's 133rd birthday.

Duke statues stand at Waikiki Beach, Freshwater Beach in Sydney, and California's Huntington Beach. Christchurch is home to replica surfboard, giving New Zealand a Duke monument of its own.

"I don't know of any US presidents or other people in history who have that many [monuments] of celebration," Pratt says.

At least, he jokes, outside of a dictatorship.

"It's most certainly something to be celebrated. It serves as a reminder for all of us to look at his athletic achievements, but more importantly, look at his character, his humility, and the way he treated people," Pratt says.

"That's the real gift he gave us, and for us, that is the gift we have been able to share. It's what we refer to as 'the aloha spirit'. It's the gift we can give the entire world, because god knows the world could use more aloha."

So, how do you define the aloha spirit?

You hear it every morning when you head to the breakfast buffet, every evening when you ask for the cocktail of the day and everywhere in between.

Most people understand the word as a salutation, as a greeting of hello or a greeting of love. But Pratt says it is something more, which goes some way to explaining Duke's legacy.

"To break down the word 'aloha', 'ha' is your breath. The 'aloha' comes from your na'au, your inner-most centrebelly of your life, and you're sharing and expressing that," Pratt says.

"In a way as a Hawaiian, if you don't have 'aloha', perhaps you're not alive. It's something you should share, and it should be a positive feeling. In our sense, although it's a Hawaiian word, you don't need to be Hawaiian to share aloha with one another.

"I think that's why Duke tried to make this his message around the world. This man touched the entire world given the significance of his athleticism, but for him it was important to express to people that 'I'm going to treat every person this way'.

"What's remarkable about his era, keep in mind he lived during the period of 1890 to 1968, so during that period he witnessed the overthrow of the monarchy of Hawaii. He also witnessed the statehood of Hawaii, he witnessed World War I, World War II, oppression, the inequality of rights between men and women, and countless bouts of racism.

"Navigating such waters like that, he always had the foundational block of aloha. He cared about people regardless of what colour you were, what race you were, or what gender you were.

"That message, sadly, is something we still need to express today because racism still exists. We need to remind people of the aloha spirit and share that."

Duke's birthday ceremony is the centrepiece of an eight-day celebration of his legacy. Included is the Outrigger Resorts and Hotels Legends Surfing Invitational, which Pratt is about to paddle into the water for.

The event started from humble beginnings, when two men named Jim Fulton and Chris Colgate decided they needed a way to celebrate the creation of a United States stamp with Duke's picture on it in 2002.

"They decided to collaborate that momentous occasion with a couple of sporting events, a canoe race, a swim and a tug-of-war event," Pratt says.

"Twenty-two years later, here we are with eight days of water sports events celebrating the camaraderie of sportsmanship and the light Duke put on so many, as we call them, 'Duke sports' - swimming surfing, water polo, beach volleyball, tandem surfing, and all the offshoots that have come because of the popularising of many of these sports Duke has led us to.

"It is just a massive tribute, and it's not just about fundraising. It's really about an opportunity to bring all people together to either participate in sport or to witness, and to share on the beaches of Waikiki, the same shores Duke frolicked in throughout his entire life."

Chances are you will be greeted by a sea turtle soon after you dive into the ocean. You might even find one on your way back to shore after a surf.

If you want another look at them, you can book a turtle snorkel with Hawaii Nautical in Hawaii's azure waters at Turtle Canyon to see fish and green sea turtles at play off the Waikiki coast. Just remember, you can look but you can't touch.

And still, Hawai'i has more to offer. A stall selling shaved ice - a dessert made from pillowy shards of ice and ice cream - is the perfect refresher. Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory will fill you for the day - but you have to find room for the best salmon you're ever likely to eat at dinner.

Just make sure your stomach has settled before you hang onto the back of a jet ski which takes you crashing straight through waves at what feels like 100 kilometres an hour.

You can spend a morning canoe surfing with celebrated waterman Marc Haine on Old Man's break. His father Tom's ashes are out here, along with so many others. You can sense what it means when he talks about it being a chance to connect with his late dad.

You reach the point at which Duke once caught a wave which took him all the way into the sand, and wonder how he could have done it.

You're met by a man when you come back and enter the Outrigger Canoe Club. He tells you he has been a member since 1967 and used to spend a bit of time out on the water.

"I used to surf quite a lot," the man says. "Been there done that kind of thing."

It's Fred Hemmings, a former world champion credited as the father of professional surfing.

Before Hemmings, there was Duke.

Which is why the Amateur Athletic Union - a storied association boasting more than 700,000 members - used Duke's birthday to present his family with the Gussie Crawford Lifetime Achievement Award.

It is a prize reserved for those who transcend sport, so it seems fitting Duke would join boxing legend Muhammad Ali and baseball trailblazer Jackie Robinson among the recipients.

Most would know their stories. But Duke? He had slipped through the cracks for so many, until the AAU arrived in Honolulu to present surfing star Carissa Moore with a Sullivan Award for high performing athletes.

"We were looking at his legacy going 'wow, we've skipped this guy'. 1912 was a long time ago," AAU president Joe Mirza says.

"The Duke took the spirit of aloha beyond Hawaii. People know surfing, why? People know about aloha, why? You come to Hawai'i and what do you see? Him on a surfboard, he is an ambassador for it.

"His contribution is much greater than what he did at the Olympics, the medals he won at the Olympics and the world records he set. That's the difference."

Read more on Explore:

Getting there: Hawaiian Airlines flies from Sydney to Honolulu five times a week from $997. See hawaiianairlines.com.au

Staying there: The Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort in Honolulu has newly renovated guestrooms and premium suites offer a modern Hawaii residential feel with a mix of ocean views and resort views. Available from $US290 ($440) per night. See outrigger.com/hawaii

Duke Kahanamoku Ocean Festival: The festival this year is on from August 17 to 25, including events such as Duke's Waikiki Ocean Mile Swim, surfboard water polo, beach volleyball challenge and the Hawaii Tandem Surfing Challenge. See dukekahanamokuoceanfestival.org

Explore more: gohawaii.com

The writer travelled coutesy of Hawaiian Airlines, Outrigger Hotels and Resorts and Hawaii Tourism

Pictures: Getty Images; Hawaii Tourism/Ben Ono; supplied