GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM The statue of Duke Kahanamoku was adorned with 112 leis Friday afternoon in a ceremony honoring him at Waikiki Beach.

Mix-up leads
to cleanup of
Duke’s leis

Leis had been put on the waterman's
statue for his 112th birthday

Duke's day

---

By Craig Gima
cgima@starbulletin.com

Just after 112 leis were placed on the Duke Kahanamoku statue in Waikiki to mark his 112th birthday and issuance of a U.S. postage stamp with his likeness, city crews who maintain the statue removed the leis and gave them to tourists.

The leis included a 15-foot long, 5-inch-thick maile lei gathered and strung together by inmates at the Kulani Correctional Facility on the Big Island as a hookupu or tribute to Kahanamoku.

"It was the thickest maile lei I'd ever seen," said David Allaire, who was at the ceremony at 4 p.m. Friday afternoon to place the leis on the statue.

Allaire said he was surprised and upset when he saw the statue without the leis in a live weather segment during a 6 p.m. newscast that afternoon.

"It's almost unbelievable," he said.

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM After the ceremony on Friday, city crews who maintain the statue removed most of the leis and gave them to tourists. This was the statue yesterday.

Beach boys Ala Makanani and John Kaleopua said a few minutes after people left the ceremony, they saw city maintenance workers using broomsticks to take the leis off the statue and then hand them out to tourists.

"I was like, 'What are you doing?'" Makanani said.

They said a woman then started yelling at the workers and asking people to return the leis. About a dozen plumeria, orchid and ti-leaf leis were on the statue yesterday.

City workers around the statue Friday night referred questions about what happened to the leis to their supervisors, who would be available on Monday.

A man who helped organize the lei ceremony said he received a call from the city apologizing for the removal. The city official said no one told the workers not to remove the leis.

"At least we had the ceremony," said the organizer, who asked not to be identified. Yesterday, the man said he talked about the incident with one of Kahanamoku's relatives, who shrugged it off and said Kahanamoku probably would have given the leis away anyway.