This varnished balsa and redwood board was reportedly owned by or loaned to Hollywood actor George O’Brien when he visited Waikiki in 1931 and stayed at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on a vacation with the great Hollywood film director John Ford. While here, according to a newspaper report, O’Brien learned “the genuine art of Hawaiian surfing” under instruction from “none other than Duke Kahanamoku, a warm personal friend while at Hollywood.” The newspaper did not say how O’Brien fared in the waves, but it noted: “what a booster he is going to be for the sport!”

O’Brien was a big star in Hollywood in the 20's and 30's, making the transition from silent pictures to “talkies” and appearing in more than 85 movies. He starred in several films directed by John Ford, including the classic “Fort Apache.” O’Brien was also an great athlete and had been welterweight boxing champion of the Pacific Fleet as a younger man in the Navy.

The fact that Kahanamoku was the “go to” surf instructor for O’Brien is no surprise. As a multiple gold medalist and world record-breaking Olympic swimmer, Kahanamoku was well known in Hollywood and he appeared in more than a dozen films himself. He also spent time working as a lifeguard during the 1920's at the exclusive Santa Monica Swimming Club, where several actors, directors and producers were members. Another of the club’s lifeguards was Tom Blake, inventor of the hollow board, also a sometime Hollywood actor and stuntman.

This board is inscribed “Moloa” in the Hawaiian tradition of giving boards a spirit name. The meaning connotes laid-back, happy times, or even “lazy”—a perfect motto for the beach boy lifestyle. The board is similar to those produced by Pacific System Homes in the early 1930's, but it does not bear that company’s mark, so whether it was made in Hawaii or on the mainland remains a mystery. The shallow wooden fin is almost certainly a later addition.