named William Ellis witnessed the act of surfing and noted (in marked contrast to many of his clerical colleagues) that for one "to see fifty or a hundred persons riding on an immense billow, half immersed in spray and foam, for a distance of several hundreds yards together, is one of the most novel and interesting sports a foreigner can witness in the islands."
By the 1860s, even the famed American author Mark Twain had visited Hawaii and succumbed to the siren call of the surf. In Roughing It, a humorous collection of newspaper articles published in 1866, Twain described his first and last surfing experience. "I tried surf-bathing once, subsequently, but made a failure of it. I had the board placed right, and at the right moment, too; but missed the connection myself. The board struck the shore in three-quarters of a second, without any cargo, and I struck the bottom about the same time, with a couple of barrels of water in me."
Like most novice surfers, Twain was frustrated in his attempts to ride the waves, so he just watched in awe as a Hawaiian (or "heathen," as Twain called him) came "whizzing by like a bombshell! It did not seem that a lightning express train could shoot along at a more hair-lifting speed," Twain exclaimed.
Heenalu, The "Royal Sport"
During the 1800s, there also emerged a number of prominent Hawaiian scholars who began recording the many fast-fading Hawaiian chants. Among them were Kepelino Keauokalani, Samuel Manaikalani Kamakau (1815-1876), John Papa Ii (1800-1870) and David Malo (1793-1853). From their voluminous accounts and records of Hawaiian events, the subject of surfing —in both a practical and historical context—emerges time and time again. Ii even describes in great detail how and from which indigenous woods various ancient surfboards were made as well as how board designs differed, depending on what kind of wave a person wanted to ride.
A poignant beachside memorial to the much-admired Hawaiian surfer, Eddie Aikau, who tragically died at sea in 1978 while attempting to secure help for his fellow crewmen who'd been stranded aboard a traditional Hawaiian sailing canoe named the Hokulea.
Photo: Jeff Divine
In these accounts, the Hawaiian word that was most often used to describe surfing was heenalu (or wavesliding), and a surfboard was known as a papa heenalu (or wave-sliding board).
As historians, these four men contributed a great trove of information for surfing historians to draw from, but despite their efforts, it wasn't until the so-called "popular press" and internationally famous authors began to write about this unusual Hawaiian sport that surfing really began to attract the attention of the outside world. Indeed, surfing's greatest publicity coup probably took place in 1907, when the popular American author Jack London wrote a widely circulated story entitled A Royal Sport: Surfing at Waikiki.
London, who had attempted surfing during a holiday in Hawaii that summer, stood up on a moving surfboard, experienced what he described as "ecstatic bliss," and, in response to this waterborne euphoria, began to describe a Waikiki surfer as a "Brown Mercury" who emerged from an "invincible roar . . . not struggling frantically in that wild movement, not buried and crushed and buffeted by those mighty monsters, but standing above them all, calm and superb, poised on the giddy summit, his feet buried in the churning foam, the salt smoke rising to his knees . . ."
Early authors who wrote about surfing used to describe surfers as men who could "walk on water." Nowadays, a cooler thing to do is to "walk on air", as five-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater does here in a recent airsurfing demo on Oahu's famous North Shore. Photo: Jason Childs
London's colorful descriptions are often credited with stimulating an overseas interest in Hawaiian surfing. This new enthusiasm was heartily supported by a new Hawaiian industry—tourism—which began extolling the virtues of exotic Hawaii in propaganda distributed throughout the world. To attract more visitors to the islands, local businessmen and government leaders were promoting the islands' hula-dancing, music and surfing as part of a glamorous, Hawaiian-style vogue.
Walking On Water
As a result of London's popular surfing story Brown Mercury, many individual surfers began to make a name for themselves. An Irish-Hawaiian Waikiki beachboy named George Freeth (1883-1919) was invited to conduct the first ever surfing demonstrations on the US mainland at Southern California's Redondo Beach. Freeth's West Coast promoters introduced him as an "aquatic attraction" and as "the man who can walk on water" In the wake of this publicity. Freeth remained in California for some 10 year. While he was there, he taught numerous people how to ride the waves.
Sadly, Freeth died young "as" the result of exhaustion from strenuous rescue work'' he performed on California's busy beaches. On the plaque beneath the bronze bust erected in his honor the "First Surfer in the United States" and as a person—of Royal Hawaiian and Irish ancestry—who "as a" youngster revived the lost Polynesian art of surfing while standing on a board."
Freeth's pioneering accomplishments on behalf of his people and their favorite sport -were, as Lieutenant King had said more than one hundred years earlier, "astonishing." Rut only five years after Freeth had turned California onto surfing, another young and talented swimmer-surfer suddenly appeared big-time on the international watersports scene. This man was Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, and he carried Hawaiian surfing to even greater heights by popularizing it throughout the world. He surfed before rapt audiences in many parts of America, and, in 1915, achieved a special renown by becoming the first person to demonstrate surfing in now surf-crazy Australia. Much more is written about the legendary Duke later in this book.
—Leonard Lueras
Slater's antics at left are reminiscent, in a balletic way. of the figure in this ancient Hawaiian petroglyph from the island of Lanai.
Yet another surfing triptych, this one about three decidedly different Hawaiian surfing situations. A rude North Shore pause (Top) is followed by what may evolve into an even ruder late Pipeline scratch-over (Center). Both of these precarious waves make way for good fun on a playful little sandbar (Bottom). Top and center photos: Jason Childs; bottom photo: Jeff Divine
Sunset highlights the mood in these two pictures. Top photo: Brett Uprichard: bottom photo: Dana Edmunds
In the islands it's inevitable that sooner or later you're going to get burned. One person's stoke, you see, is sometimes another person's bummer. Photo: Jeff Divine
OAHU
Introducing Oahu
Surfing's "Gathering Place"
The island of Oahu is known as "The Gathering Place" because of its
