When was Rockaway Beach discovered by surfers? One charming, if perhaps apocryphal, story claims that the first person to paddle out was none other than Duke Kahanamoku, in 1912. Undisputed: the father of modern surfing passed through Queens on his way home to Hawaii, after winning a gold medal, in swimming, at the Stockholm Olympics. It’s also true that, a hundred and ten years later, the surf break off the Rockaways is the only legal spot in New York City to catch a wave.