Outrigger Canoe Club was a premiere swimming club in its early history with many Olympic and AAU champions among its members. So it isn’t surprising that the oldest competitive event that the Club sponsored and continues to sponsor was in swimming. The Castle Swim, first held in 1917, was part of a month-long aquatic carnival that the Club sponsored. There was surfboard competition, canoe races, and various swimming contests.
The driving force behind the Regatta was W. S. Beach who took the initiative in promoting the water carnival. Beach came to Waikiki in 1915 and was an enthusiastic swimmer and patron of all aquatic sports. He believed that the only way to discover the talent possessed by the Outrigger members would be to hold a water carnival in which all the members would be able to enter and compete. With the help of Club Captain “Dad” Center, the water carnival became reality.
The Blue Ribbon event of the water carnival was the Castle Swim. In fact, the Castle Swim was held twice in 1917: on the first weekend of the regatta, and on the final weekend, a month later. The 1917 Castle Swim was from Castle Point at Diamond Head to the OCC Diving Platform at Waikiki Beach, a distance of 1.25 miles. The first race was for Outrigger members only but the second Castle Swim was open to the public.
Duke Kahanamoku won the first race on November 3, 1917 at the beginning of the carnival, and the event was won by Harold “Stubby” Kruger on December 1, 1917 at the end of the carnival. Interestingly enough, OCC Olympian Mariechen Wehselau Jackson competed with the men in the first Castle Swim race. She was the only woman to swim that distance. There were also swimming races for men, women and children of various distances in addition to the Castle Swim on the various weekends inbetween.
Castle Point was named for Harold P. Castle whose family estate was located at the site. The site would later be sold to the Elks Club, and half of the site leased to the Outrigger Canoe Club. Mr. Castle donated the perpetual trophy of the Castle Swim and presented it annually to the winner.
In the 1917 races, a starting board was built on the OCC diving stand directly in front of the Pavilion and the course was toward the Heine’s Tavern. Spectators were stationed in canoes all along the course, as well as on the beach and on the Moana Pier. Events started on the weekend of November 3, 1917 and continued through December 1, 1917, culminating in a Monster Chowder dinner and dance on the Club beach. The public was invited to watch the races and according to the Honolulu newspapers there were many spectators.
The swim was revived in 1922 by the Club and known as the Thanksgiving Day Roughwater Swim. The Castle Swim was the blue ribbon event which featured five other swimming races: the Star Bulletin Cup for Women, the Dawkins Benny Co. Cup for Boys Under 18, the Alexander Hume Ford Cup for Novice Girls, the Boys Under 16 race, and the Men Over 30 race. The races were only open to Outrigger members.
When the swims were revived in 1922 the starting points for the races were at Castle Point, Public Baths, Cunha’s Surf and Canoe Surf. The contestants were ferried out in canoes to the starting line of each race and then dove into the water from the gunwale of the canoe to start the race. The finish line was at a rope stretched from the diving stand to a canoe anchored on the mauka side of the stand. They were allowed to body surf when waves were available.
Records for the race were not kept because the swim start and finish were not always exactly the same.
Interest in competitive swimming was waning at the Outrigger in the early 1930s. In 1932, the Outrigger added an open race for the same distance as the Castle Swim which was mostly entered by University of Hawaii students who’s swimming coach was OCC’s Gay Harris. In 1933 the University of Hawaii started a parallel swim that was open to university swimmers on Thanksgiving Day. The UH racers competed at the same time as the Outrigger swimmers but had their own set of winners.
By 1934, the University took over the Thanksgiving Day races and opened them up to the public. The Castle Swim continued to be the blue ribbon event. The Thanksgiving Day races became a team event for men and women and Team 40 and 8 won the men’s title and Outrigger the women’s for most points scored. The last race in Waikiki was in 1935. In 1936 the venue was changed to the Ala Moana Channel and the Castle Swim was put on hiatus.
The Thanksgiving Day/Castle Swim was revived by Gay Harris in 1945 as an open swim. However, an incident that occurred earlier that month in which swimmer Keo Nakama was barred from eating lunch at the Club because of his ethnicity, saw most swimming clubs withdraw from the competition, and only swimmers from Punahou Aquatics and Outrigger competed.
In 1952, with Toots Minvielle Jr. serving as chair of the OCC Swimming Committee, and Dad Center, as advisor, members began urging the Club to restart the Castle Swim, but it wasn’t until 1953 that the swim happened. On Thanksgiving Day, a variety of races were held in both open and OCC member-only categories for boys and girls 12 and under, boys and girls 16 and under, a 1,500-yard women’s open, and the Castle Swim (from Castle Point to the Club) for men both open and members only.
Toots Minvielle won the first revival of the Castle Swim, after winning it four times two decades earlier. The Boys 12 and under for members was won by Fred Hemmings Jr., and the Boys 16 and under for members was won by Gil Halpern.
The event was again held in 1955 (John T. Moore, winner) and 1956 (Eagle Rawson, winner).
The Castle Swim was cancelled in 1957 due to lack of interest from swimmers. There was an attempt at a revival in 1960 but it failed.
Another revival attempt was made in 1973 and that was won by Bruce Ames.
In 1975, the OCC Swim Committee chaired by Gerry DeBenedetti with members Cline Mann and Fred Hemmings Jr., put on what they called the “Second Annual Revival of the Castle Swim” on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It was a race for members only, with a change of course. Now members would swim from the old Club site in Waikiki, to the present Club site at Diamond Head, a basic reversal of the original 1.25 mile course. And instead of different events, the Castle Swim was to be one distance, with prizes to the first place winners in age categories every five years. Nineteen members entered the Castle Swim in 1975 and it has been held every year since on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
The most winning swimmers in the Castle are Jimmy Dean and Chris Moore who each have nine wins. Jimmy won from 1975 to 1983, and also holds the record for the swim of 27 minutes and 47 seconds set in 1982. Chris won from 1992-1998 and 2001-2002. Another frequent winner was Ian Emberson, 1984-1987 and 1990-1991.
Kristi Torkildson was the first female winner and the youngest ever to win. She captured the race from 2003-2006.