Carl Herrman designed a 20-stamp sheet honoring Hawaiian surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku, inspired by his own days as a 1950s lifeguard. Working with surf historian Ken Oster and artist Michael Dees, he created a portrait capturing Kahanamoku as Olympic swimmer, surfer, and canoe paddler against Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach.
I think my favorite assignment of all the stamps that I've done was doing the stamp for Duke Ahanamoku because he was my hero when I was a lifeguard back in, in the '50s. When I prepared to do the Duke stamp, I did a lot of research, took a look at some of the early posters of the Duke. As a surfer, I had a real opportunity to show off the sport. I met with Ken Oster in Laguna Beach, and we put together a sheet of 20 stamps. We had shooting the pier, we had hot-dogging. The more I looked at different things, the more I realized that we had to put something together that respected his background as a swimmer, as an Olympic champion, as the person who introduced He was surfing around the world and an outrigger canoe paddler. He was everything in the ocean that you could ever want to be. I realized we were putting together more of a portrait, so I assembled the pieces so you could see him in the tank suit, could be a swimmer, a surfer, or a paddler, and combine that with some surfers coming in on a wave on the right-hand side and have a background of his beloved Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach. I ended up going to Michael Dees, who was the greatest portrait artist that I know. And I knew he would do a great job. You try not to show something that's been seen many times before, but you try to combine the elements of a person's life and show it in a proper way. And I think it did true honor to one of my early boyhood heroes.
