Milestones in Surf History Part Four (#15 - #21)

Milestones in Surf History Part Four (#15 - #21)

by Sam Bleakley

#15 : 1866: Mark Twain Wipes Out : Ask anyone to recount his or her first surf, and a wipeout springs to mind. Wipeouts can be a badge of honour and are repeated endlessly in surfers’ lore, exaggerated and embellished. Before long, the visitors to Hawaii in the late 1800s did try surfing, most famously American writer Mark Twain on the Kona Coast on the Big Island reporting for the Sacramento Union newspaper. Of course, he described a major wipeout (his articles collected for his 1872 memoir ‘Roughing It;): “… tried surf bathing once … but made a failure of it. I got the board placed right … 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.” The surf report was accompanied by two illustrations, one titled ‘Surf-Bathing - Success’ in which three locals girls ride in style; the other, ‘Surf-Bathing-Failure’ shows a mustachioed white man getting nailed.

#15 : 1866 Mark Twain Wipes Out : American writer Twain described a major wipeout on the Kona Coast on the Big Island reporting for the Sacramento Union newspaper. It later appeared in his 1872 memoir ‘Roughing It’ accompanied by two illustrations, ‘Surf-Bathing - Failure’ and this ‘Surf-Bathing - Success’.

#16: 1800s Artistic Wavescapes : ‘Angry sea at Naruto’ by Japanese artist Ando Hiroshige was a wood block print from 1830-31 making the most of newly available blue inks and depicting a cauldron like seascape.

#16: 1800s Artistic Wavescapes : ‘The Cave at Enoshima’ by Japanese artist Ando Hiroshige was a wood block print from 1832 where travellers enter the shine-grotto of Enoshima Island as a solid wave licks the shoreline.

#16: 1800s Wavescapes :’The Great Wave at Setta Point’ by Japanese artist Ando Hiroshige in 1852.

#16: 1800s Wavescapes : Probably influenced by Japanese woodblocks, Frenchman Édouard Riou's 'The Huge Wave' appeared in Jules Verne's ‘Les enfants du capitaine Grant’ published by Hetzel in 1867–1868 and in English as ‘In Search of the Castaways’. Riou illustrated Verne's ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’.

#16: 1800s Wavescapes : In 1873 French painter Édouard Riou illustrated ‘Jeux Havaiens (Hawaiians playing)’ offering a surreal, futuristic, apocalyptic vision of surfing with pointed nose shortboards and cliff face carnage. This was first printed in Charles de Varigny's 'Voyage Aux Iles Sandwich (Iles Havai)' in the French magazine Le Tour du Monde in 1873.

#16: 1800s Wavescapes : French painter Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet led the Realist movement in French painting, inspiring the later Impressionists and the Cubists. ‘The Wave’ was from 1869. Shame the wind wasn’t offshore that day!

#17: 1880s China’s mysterious Surfing Buddhas : A quest to reclaim China’s surfing heritage is just beginning, led by Hainan-based Nik Zanella. Following countless surf trips exploring the coastline of China for waves, Nik moved to Hainan in 2011 and became central to the growing surf scene, teaching, writing, working at competitions and coaching the national surf team. “I just kept seeing traces of wave-riding, in engraving, in statues, and always associated with Daoism and Zen Buddhism. So in 2011 I took a trip from Hainan inland to Yunnan, which is a lush green forest area, a bamboo grove, with a lot of ethnic minorities in the southwest of China. I went to the Qiongzhu Temple 筇竹寺 near Kunming, 600 kilometres (370 miles) from the coast. I walked into the main hall and saw a full wall of surfing Buddhas. My jaw dropped. There is a green wave and 30 surfing Buddhas carved along the walls of the hall.” Nik discovered that the Temple was rebuilt in the 1880s following a fire, and an emperor commissioned a local artist to carve 500 life-sized statues of luohans (Buddhist arhats, or ‘enlightened ones’). “There are eight similar installations allover China, from Beijing to Chengdu,” says Nik, “But only this has surfers.” Two full walls are dedicated to the act of ‘Chong Lang’ (China’s current word for ‘surfing’, literally translated as ‘entering the waves’) with men of all ages depicted riding a green overhead wave, in perfect stance. Nik continues, “after some research and a talk with the Abbot, I found an older word for 'wave-riding': not 'chong lang', but ‘Nong Chao Er’ meaning ‘Children of the Tide’. And over the last three years I have discovered that traces of this activity traverse Chinese literature, from a love poem in the 9th century, through a 12th century surf parade, to a final ban on the activity during the late Song Dynasty.” Nik is head down in his research, translating texts, collecting data and writing a book on this groundbreaking work. “We know for sure that 12th century Chinese surfers had all the technology needed for a surf boom: bamboo hollow boards, surf clubs allover the state of Wu 吴, and printed tide charts of their home spot (the tidal river bore wave of Hangzhou) precise to the minute. China is about to reclaim its wave riding heritage.”

#18 : 1885: Three Hawaiian Princes Surf in Santa Cruz : The South Pacific Coast Railroad had been completed in 1880, summertime tourism now an important piston in Santa Cruz’s economic engine. In fact, in coastal towns around the world, sea-bathing was booming in the late 1800s. In 1860s, ‘life ropes’ or ‘swim lines’ (thick ropes attached at the beach by tall poles and extending out to floating rafts beyond the surf break) had been established at various points along both the main beach and Seabright Beach east of the San Lorenzo river mouth in Santa Cruz. In the hot summer of July 1885 tourists were flocking to the beach. The local newspaper reported that on no other Sunday of the season, “have so many bathers, both ladies and gentlemen, been in the water, and all pronounced it delightful.” Three Hawaiian princes - David Kawananakoa, Edward Keliiahonui and Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana'ole - were in the water with locally made redwood boards, 100 pounds, 15 ft long, shaped like traditional Hawaiian Olos. Their uncle, King David Kalakaua, was a renowned surfer at Waikiki, Oahu, where they had learned to surf. The boards were milled from first-growth redwood trees from the Santa Cruz Mountains. This redwood shipped from Northern California across the Pacific by both rail and shipping lines would became the primary material for the construction of Hawaiian surfboards for the next 40 years.

#18 : 1885 Three Hawaiian Princes Surf in Santa Cruz : The three princes were staying in Santa Cruz with Lyman and Antoinette ‘Akoni’ Swan, who had close links to Hawaii. Akoni was born in Honolulu. Her father was Spanish and earned his way into the favour of Hawaiian King Kamehameha I. He was also a botanist, introducing fruits, flowers and vegetables to the Islands. Akoni’s mother was Hawaiian and a ‘chiefess’. Although she later married and moved to California, Akoni regularly went back to Hawaii where she stayed with Hawaiian monarchs. Princes David ‘Koa’ Kawananakoa, Edward Keliiahonui and Jonah ‘Prince Cupid’ Kuhio Kalaniana'ole, were studying at St. Mathew’s Hall, a military school for boys, in San Mateo. On break from school they came to Santa Cruz to stay with Antoinette ‘Akoni’ Swan, surfing San Lorenzo river mouth in 1885.

#19 : 1889 : Two Hawaiian Princes in Surf Bridlington, Yorkshire : In 1885 David Kawananakoa, Edward Keliiahonui and Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana'ole had been surfing in Santa Cruz on 15 ft locally milled redwood boards whilst studying in California. Edward was sent home ill from St. Mathews school in 1887 and died a short time later in Honlulu from scarlet fever. Following Queen Victoria’s invitation of the Hawaiian Queen Kapiolani to her golden jubilee in 1887, the Hawaiian Queen sent her adopted sons Princes David and Jonah Kuhio to England in 1889 to study for a while. Five year’s of research at the Museum of British Surfing by Pete Robinson (along with an Oahu based historian and the Bishop Museum in Honolulu) revealed that in the autumn of 1890, the boys took a break in Bridlington in Yorkshire, as a reward from their tutor John Wrightson for good progress in their studies. Sea bathing already had a long history in Europe, developed from the perceived health benefits of mineral springs, such as Spa in Belgium, Bath in England and Aachen in Germany. In 1753, Dr. Charles Russel published 'The Uses of Sea Water' which recommended the use of sea water for healing diseases, and William Buchan's 'Domestic Medicine' advocated sea-bathing and was a best-seller. Marine hospitals opened in France and England. People flocked to the coasts and recreational sea bathing took off. Scarborough introduced bathing machines in the early 1700s. By the end of the 18th century, sea bathing became highly fashionable in the likes of Weymouth, Bournemouth, Brighton, Blackpool and Bridlington. At the sight of good waves breaking off the Yorkshire coast, the Hawaiian Princes ultimately made themselves boards from hardwood acquired at a Bridlington boat-builder, hired neck-to-knee swimsuits made of wool, and rode the waves, as recounted in a letter they wrote to the Hawaiian Consul on September 22, 1890. This is the first documented mention of surfing in Europe: “We enjoy the seaside very much and are out swimming every day. The weather has been very windy these few days and we like it very much for we like the sea to be rough so that we are able to have surf riding. We enjoy surf riding very much and surprise the people to see us riding on the surf. Even Wrightson is learning surf riding and will be able to ride as well as we can in a few days more. He likes this very much for it is a very good sport.” For more check www.museumofbritishsurfing.org.uk and http://www.bishopmuseum.org

#20 : Late 1800s Surf Art & Illustration : Wallis McKay’s ‘Surf Riding’ appeared on the cover of William Charles Stoddard’s ‘Summer Cruising in the South Seas’ published by Chatto and Windus in London in 1873. This was the first book with a surfing illustration on the cover.

#20 : Late 1800s Surf Art & Illustration : ‘Karst: Scene in Polynesia, 1881’ appeared in a grammar school geography textbook illustration, ‘Swinton's Grammar School Geography’, also describing surfers at Kailua, Hawaii. Jay Charlton’s ‘Bathing In The Surf Near Newport Three Miles From Honolulu, Towards Diamond Head’ was printed with the article ‘King Kalakaua at Home’ in ‘Leslie's Illustrated Weekly’ in 1875.

#20 : Late 1800s Surf Art & Illustration : ‘Wahine and Surfboard’ is an important early board portrait, the source a mystery, the date possibly 1875. Robert Michael Ballantyne’s ‘The Natives Playing in the Water’ appeared as the cover to his book ‘The Cannibal Islands: Captain Cook's Adventures in the South Seas’ published by Nisbet and Company in London in 1880.

#20 : Late 1800s Surf Art & Illustration : ‘A Coral Island in the South Pacific’ by Gill Wyatt appeared in ‘Jottings from the Pacific’ in 1885.

#20 : Late 1800s Surf Art & Illustration : ‘A Gay Queen Of The Waves’ was published to illustrate an article ‘Sandwich Island Girl’, appearing as the front cover of The National Police Gazette in 1888.

#20 : Late 1800s Surf Art & Illustration : ‘Surf Riding, Hawaii’ was part of a colour advertisement for the Oceanic Steamship Company. It was also printed inside the back cover of what would become the first modern Hawaiian guide book: ‘The Tourists’ Gaze through the Hawaiian Islands, Descriptive of their Scenes and Scenery’ edited by Henry Whitney, printed by The Hawaiian Gazette Company in Honolulu in 1980. 

#20 : Late 1800s Surf Art & Illustration : ‘A Trip to Hawaii’ appeared as the cover for Charles Warren Stoddard’s Oceanic Steamship Company’s publication, printed in San Francisco in 1897. Phillip Flintoff’s ‘Surf Rider’ appeared on the cover of ‘Hawaii – Our New Possessions’ by John Musick published by Funk and Wagnalls in New York in 1898.

#21 : 1890s First Waikiki Surf Photos : In 1888 James Williams began a monthly tourist magazine called ‘Paradise of the Pacific’, taking some of the earliest photos of surfers posing on the beach with alaia boards and traditional malo (the loincloths probably a prop to attract tourists). This shot is part of the Hawaiian Historical Society Historical Photograph Collection. Williams was one of many photographers (such as Frank Davey) who worked in Honolulu from the 1890s. The surfer may be Charles Kauha. Three miles from Honolulu, Waikiki, a frangipani-lined beach where the tradewinds blow perfectly offshore (and Hawaiian for ‘spouting water’), was soon to change dramatically. It would become a tourism hub and renaissance surf break for the international surfing emissaries of the early 1900s. While film photography was new, surfing and board building were ancient and included a lavish ceremony. Once a tree had been selected, the shaper would dig a hole below the roots, offering fish to the gods, before praying for a successful completion of the board. Once the tree was felled, the board was roughly cut out, then brought down to the beach and placed in a halau (canoe house) to be shaped. Finer sands and harder stones were used for the finishing. Finally, the root of the ti plant or the bark of the kukui nut tree was applied. For a high gloss varnish, kukui oil and burnt pandanus leaves made a black, shiny surface, slippery when wet. Time to paddle out...