Milestones in Surf History Part Two (#05 - #08)
Milestones in
Surf History Part Two (#05 - #08)
#05 : 1778-1779 The
first reports of Hawaiian surfboards : There are a number
of descriptions of surfing and surfboards written by members of James Cook’s
crew on two visits to Hawaii in 1778 and 1779. Charles Clerke, Captain of the Resolution, records: “...a thin piece of board
about two feet broad and six or eight (feet) long, exactly in the shape of one
of our bone paper cutters; upon this they get astride with their legs, then
laying their breasts along upon it, they paddle with their hands and steer with
their feet, and gain such way thro(ugh) the water, that they would fairly go
round the best going boats we had in the two ships, in spite of every exertion
of the crew, in the space of a very few minutes." An eighteenth century
bone paper cutter was a thin straight blade with bevelled edges and rounded at
both ends. A second report describing boards used for paddling is by William
Ellis, Surgeon's Mate on the Discovery, at Waimea, Kauai, in January 1778.
“Besides these (canoes), they have another mode of conveying themselves in the
water, upon very light flat pieces of boards, which we called sharkboards.” The
“very light” boards may have been built from willi willi or breadfruit (ulu).
In February 1779 George Gilbert, midshipman of the Resolution, observed
Hawaiians paddling boards as an alternative to canoes at Kealakekua Bay: “…upon
a piece of wood nearly in the form of a blade of an oar, which is about six
feet in length, sixteen inches in breadth at one end and about nine at the
other, and is four or five inches thick, in the middle, tapering down to an
inch at the sides.” The account later implies that members of the crew
attempted to paddle the boards, without success… “These pieces of wood are so
nicely balanced that the most expert of our people at swimming could not keep
upon them half a minute without rolling off.” Cook's artist, John Webber in “A
View of Kara Kakooa in Owyhee” provides the first drawing of a surfboard at
Kealakekua Bay on the 17th of January 1779. This is an engraving (cropped on
the surfer) by W Byrne, based on the original drawing and printed in the
official account of the voyage, published in 1784.
#05 : 1778-1779 The first reports of
Hawaiian surfboards : The earliest written evidence of Hawaiian waveriding is
by David Samwell, Surgeon's Mate on the Discovery, at Kealakekua Bay, January
the 22nd 1779: “…we saw a number of boys and young girls playing in the surf,
which broke very high on the beach as there was a great swell rolling into the
bay. In the first place they provide themselves with a thin board about six or
seven foot long and about two broad. On these they swim offshore to meet the
surf. As soon as they see one coming they get themselves in readiness and turn
their sides to it. They suffer themselves to be involved in it and then manage
so as to get just before it or rather on the slant or declivity of the surf,
and thus they lie with their hands lower than their heels laying hold of the
fore part of the board which receives the force of the water on its under side,
and by that means keeps before the wave which drives it along with an
incredible swiftness to the shore. The motion is so rapid for near the space of
a stones throw that they seem to fly on the water, the flight of a bird being
hardly quicker than theirs… Thus these people find one of their chief
amusements in that which to us presented nothing but horror and destruction,
and we saw with astonishment young boys and girls about nine or ten years of
age playing amid such tempestuous waves that the hardiest of our seamen would
have trembled to face, as to be involved in them among the rocks, on which they
broke with a tremendous noise, they could look upon as no other than certain
death. So true it is that many seeming difficulties are easily overcome by dexterity
and perseverance.” This sketch of a Hawaiian paipo rider is from the 1890s.
#05 : 1778-1779 The first reports of
Hawaiian surfboards : Despite more descriptions of Hawaiian surfing by James
Cook and Joseph Banks, these reports provide a limited perspective. They only
indicate prone surfing, however, board design and riding styles were far more
advanced in Hawaii than those observed. The ships of Cook's third expedition
were anchored in Hawaii for 49 days. The longest stay was at Kealakekua Bay,
but much of the return visit would have been preoccupied with Cook's death.
Most observations were at Kealakekua Bay. There are no reports from Hilo Bay on
Hawaii or Waikiki on Oahu, the two major centres of ancient Hawaiian surfing.
Also, at this time of the year due to winter north swells, the anchorages are
all on the southern coasts. The southern coasts best swells are from the south
during the summer. Therefore, the local surf crew might have said to these
first European visitors: “You guys really missed it. You should have been here
six months ago!” Illustration by Bill Penarosa of Hawaiian swell directions.
The first account of stand up Polynesian surfing is from James Morrison in
Tahiti, 1788, coming tomorrow…
#06 : 1788 Tahiti :
The first European written account of Polynesian stand up surfing : James
Morrison was boatswain’s mate on The Bounty (and one of the mutineers. Recall
HMS Bounty was on a botanical mission to acquire breadfruit and transport it to
the West Indies. On the 28th of April 1789 disaffected crewmen, led by Fletcher
Christian seized control of the ship from their captain William Bligh and set
him and 18 loyalists adrift in the ship's open launch. The mutineers settled on
Tahiti or Pitcarin Island. Bligh completed a voyage of more than 3,500 nautical
miles in the launch to reach safety). James Morrison’s highly detailed account
of ancient Tahitian culture was enhanced by his extended stay in Tahiti from
1788 to 1791. During a large swell, Morrison wrote: “This diversion took place
during the time the Bounty lay in Maatavye (Matavai) Bay when the surf from the
Dolphin Bank ran so high as to break over her, and we were forced to secure the
hatches expecting the ship to go on shore every minute.” Morrison then delivers
the first European written account of a stand up ride in Polynesia: “they get
pieces of board of any length with which they swim out to the back of the surf,
when they watch the rise of a surf sometimes a mile from the shore and laying
their breast on the board, keep themselves poised on the surf so as to come in
on the top of it, with amazing rapidity watching the time that it breaks, when
they turn with great activity and diving under the surge swim out again towing
their plank with them ... Some are so expert as to stand on their board till
the surf breaks.” Riding in a standing position (although certainly practiced
for a long time, and recall the notes of swell seasons that would cause
Europeans to miss surf session by being on the wrong coast at the wrong time)
was not noted by members of Cook's third Pacific voyage and does not appear to
be confirmed in accounts from Hawaii until 1825 by Reverend William Ellis.
#06 : 1788 Tahiti :
The first European written account of Polynesian stand up surfing : Following a
reference to stand up surfing, James Morrison notes the arrival of large swell
as a significant community event practiced by both sexes and all ages. “When
the Westerly Winds prevail they have a heavy surf constantly running to a
prodigious height on the shore ... The part they choose for their sport is
where the surf breaks with most violence ... They watch the rise of a surf
sometimes a mile from the shore… at this diversion both sexes are excellent.”
Further, he comments on the the selection of suitable (“smaller”) conditions
for youngsters: “the children also take their sport in the smaller surfs and as
most learn to swim as soon as walk few or no accidents happen from drowning.
They resort to this sport in great numbers and keep at it for several hours.”
The number of riders is noted (a crowded line up): “as they often encounter
each other in their passage out and in they require the greatest skill in
swimming to keep from running foul of each other…which they sometimes cannot
avoid in which case both are violently dashed on shore where they are thrown
neck and heels and often find very coarse landing, which however they take
little notice of and recovering themselves regain their boards and return to
their sport.” This cartoonish version of Hawaiian surfers was etched by Wallis
Mackay and appeared in Charles William Stoddard’s ‘Summer Cruising in the South
Seas’ in 1874.
#06 : 1788 Tahiti : The first European
written account of Polynesian stand up surfing : James Morrison's account notes
the expert skills of the Tahitian ruling class, consistent with Polynesian
legends but not recorded in the earliest accounts from Hawaii by Europeans.
“The Chiefs are in general best at this as well as all other diversions, nor
are their women behind hand at it. Eddea is one of the best among the Society
Islands and able to hold it with the best of the men swimmers.” Eddea (Iddeah)
and her husband Tu (also known as Otoo, named as Tinah by William Bligh) formed
a good relationship with the Europeans. On one particular big swell, Bligh’s notes
in his journal that Iddeah's canoe paddling skill was outstanding: “The sea
broke very high on the beach; nevertheless, a canoe put off, and, to my
surprise, Tinah, his wife (Iddeah), and Moannah, made their way good through
the surf, and came on board to see me. There was no other person in the canoe,
for the weather did not admit of useless passengers: each of them had a paddle,
which they managed with great activity and skill.” Ten years later, Iddeah's
son was now the local chief, Pomare, and in 1798, the newly arrived English
missionary, John Williams, updated James Morrison's report of her surfing
skills: “The women are very dexterous at this sport; and Iddeah, the
queen-mother, is considered the most expert in the whole island.” This Hawaiian
engraving by Alphonse Pellion from 1819 is titled ‘The Houses of Kraimokou’,
the first image of an Olo board, preserved for Hawaiian royalty.
#07 : 1800s Hawaii : Ancient
Polynesia was not a written culture, but Europeans writing about the Pacific
islands recorded a rich, varied and active approach to wave-riding, already
deeply embedded in the lifestyle, folklore and surfboard-building customs of
Hawaii. Expert boardmakers searched the forests for sound trees, felled them,
and shaped them with stone and bone tools on the spot. The heavy roughed-out
blank would then be hauled down to the shore for finishing. Boards were
customised for the rider, carefully worked with adzes and coral sanding blocks.
They were polished with stone rubbers and stained with vegetable dyes, such as
the ti plant, banana buds or burnt pandanus leaves. Finally they were glossed
with kukui or cocoa nut oil, and ridden. After the surf, the board was dried in
the sun and rubbed with coconut oil to preserve the wood, wrapped in tapa cloth
and suspended inside the house to prevent sun and insect damage.
#07 : 1800s Hawaii : The
giant, hulking Olo boards were 18-20
ft in length, so would have taken several Hawaiians to carry down the beach to
launch. They had convex tops and bottoms tapered to thin round edges, and were
cut from the wood of the flowering wiliwili tree, also used to build outrigger
canoes. They weighed 70 kilos, where weight and size often related to wealth
and power of the rider. The great length, narrowness and buoyancy of the Olo allowed the expert rider to pick up
a wave long before it became steep enough to break, and glide on way after the
wave had lost its power. A long wave was a ‘lauloa’;
a low, unbreaking wave ‘a’ohu’; and a
fast curling wave a ‘kakala’. To
surf, the rider first paddled, ‘hoe’,
out to where the surf lined up, the ‘kulana
nalu’. He or she waited for a good wave, a ‘nalu ha’I lala’, a ‘wave that breaks diagonally’, paddled, and slid
shoreward at an angle in front of the curl, a technique called ‘lala’.
#07 : 1800s Hawaii : The
Hawaiians wrote love stories based around surfing. Sometimes riding together on
the same wave was a prelude to sex. One Hawaiian legend tells of a good-looking
local enticed by a gorgeous member of royalty to ride alongside her at a break
reserved for royalty. He was nearly executed by the ruling chief, saving
himself only after he was able to skewer 400 rats with a single shot. And
surfing was already feminised - the ancient break Kekaiomamala (The Sea of
Mamala) was named after a ladies champion. The board was her status symbol - so
much for the cod psychoanalysis that would have surfboards as phallic symbols.
But performance mattered: a Hawaiian proverb said: ‘Hō a‘e ka ‘ike
he‘enalu i ka hokua o ka ‘ale - Show (your) knowledge of surfing on the
back of the wave, or talking about one’s knowledge and skill is not enough; let
it be proven.’
#08 :
1808-1855 Chief Abner Kuhoʻoheiheipahu Pākī Rides : The most recited European
accounts of surfing appears in the official journals of the Captain James Cook
expeditions. In 'A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean: Volume III', Lieutenant James
King devoted two pages to Hawaiian surfers. King remarked that wipeouts in
rocky areas were “reckoned very disgraceful” and were “attended with the loss
of the board, which I have often seen, with great terror, dashed to pieces, at
the very moment the islander quitted it.” But the real ‘wipeout’ arrived later.
King wouldn’t have known at the time, but surfing itself was nearly killed off
in Hawaii following British colonial contact. Imported chicken pox, cholera,
influenza, measles, mumps and syphilis practically crippled the regal home of
waveriding. The Hawaiian population dropped drastically - from 300,000 in the
mid-eighteenth century to 70,000 by the mid-nineteenth century. To add insult
to injury, in the face of the stern Calvinist philosophy of work, not play
brought by the Christian missionaries that followed, surfing was seen as
frivolous and apparently ‘against the laws of God’, especially as it was
conducted semi or wholly naked. But surfing survived the puritan ambush. A
relatively small number of non-conformist Hawaiians – such as Honolulu born
Chief Abner Kuhoʻoheiheipahu Pākī (pictured here) - kept surfing alive in the
1800s by riding waves in secret. Chief Abner was a six feet four 140 kilos
giant of a man. His 18 feet long Olo (allegedly the oldest remaining Hawaiian
surfboard, and pictured alongside) can still be seen at the Bishop Museum in
Honolulu, founded by Bernice Pauahi Bishop, a descendant of King Kamehameha II
and Queen Kaahumanu.
