‘American Masters’ recalls a giant

Jason Momoa (“Game of Thrones”) narrates “American Masters: Waterman — Duke: Ambassador of Aloha” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings). That’s entirely fitting, since its subject is literally larger than life.

This documentary makes the strong case that Duke Kahanamoku is right up there with Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson, sports legends who excelled in their fields while carrying the burden of breaking racial barriers.

The film, and its subtitle, also argues that Kahanamoku embodied the spirit of the Hawaiian people, a notion of “aloha,” an openness to strangers that extended to a personal responsibility for the well-being of others.

Born in 1890, Kahanamoku would study and continue the tradition of being a “waterman,” a person most at home in the ocean, fishing, swimming and surfing. His enormous size and giant hands and feet made Duke a natural swimmer. American competitors were astounded by his speed and the ease with which he broke world records.

But the coming of Americanization brought notions of racial segregation to the islands, and he was barred from some local clubs and competitions. Despite that, he would compete in many of the Olympic Games of the first three decades of the 20th century.

After he aged out of his Olympics glory, he would popularize surfing among Hawaiian tourists and gain fame as the founding father of the sport. Almost incidental to his surfing prowess, he made headlines for life-saving. One day, when a boat capsized off Newport Beach, he saved eight passengers from drowning and then hid from the press, so as not to draw attention to himself. His use of a surfboard in life-saving would be adopted by beach rescue crews from that day forward.

During the 1920s, his island fame and Olympic stature would bring him to Hollywood, where his size, easygoing manner and brawn might have made him a natural star (think Momoa or Dwayne Johnson), but his dark skin kept him in bit parts or subservient roles. In a twist of irony, he would see his 1924 Olympic rival Johnny Weissmuller achieve the fame that he was denied, starring in countless “Tarzan” movies as the white man turned noble savage.

Kahanamoku would also see his beloved sport of surfing co-opted by the Beach Boys, “Gidget” and others in the 1950s and ’60s. He held no bitterness for his many imitators, even as he faced the prospect of old age without much money in the bank.

Much of the footage for this informative biography comes from a 1957 episode of “This Is Your Life,” hosted by Ralph Edwards. There, Kahanamoku encounters some of his teammates and opponents from Olympics dating back to 1912, shakes hands with some of the men he saved from drowning and embraces Weissmuller like a brother.

A heart attack would claim his life some 10 years later. He was given a royal beachside memorial service, covered in a TV special hosted by longtime radio and TV star Arthur Godfrey. It was seen as a fitting sendoff for a man considered the father of surfing and Hawaii’s unofficial ambassador.

The fact that his memory has fallen into subsequent obscurity is curious — an oversight this “American Masters” hopes to correct.