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July 1, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Beach Volleyball

“A very interesting game is indulged in during an intermission, which is taken for rest and amusement combined. It is basket ball. A small wire basket is fastened to the wall on either end, about twelve feet from the floor.”

“Sides are chosen and each attempt to land a small rubber ball in the goal of the other team. The tactics involved in football are used with the exception that there is no kicking of the ball or tackling of players.” (Hawaiian Star, December 3, 1896)

“In the winter of 1891, Luther Gulick, the head of the physical education department at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, persuaded a young instructor named James Naismith to create an indoor game that could be played during the off-season.” (Basketball Hall of Fame)

Gulick’s first intention was to bring outdoor games indoors, namely, soccer and lacrosse. These games proved too physical and cumbersome. Gulick was born on December 4, 1865 at Honolulu, Hawai‘i, the fifth of seven children of Congregationalist missionaries, Luther Halsey Gulick and Louisa Lewis Gulick.

Four years later, in 1895, William G. Morgan, an instructor at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, MA, decided to blend elements of basketball, baseball, tennis and handball to create a game for his classes of businessmen which demanded less physical contact than basketball. He created the game of Mintonette. The name later changed to Volleyball.

Per Morgan, the game was fit for the gymnasium or exercise hall. The play consisted of any number of players keeping a ball in motion from one side to the other over a net raised 6 feet 6 inches above the floor. (NCVA)

In 1900 Canada became the first country outside of the US to take up volleyball, followed by Cuba in 1906, Japan in 1908, China in 1911, France in 1915 (during World War I on the beaches of Normandy and Brittany).

Then, the game of volleyball went outside, on the beach at Waikiki. The true birth of beach volleyball most likely began in 1915 when the Outrigger Canoe Club (OCC) set up a court on Waikiki Beach. (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball)

Started by George David “Dad” Center as an activity to keep OCC members busy during times when there was a lack of surf, the sport has flourished. (OCC)

‘Dad’ went out and bought a couple of volleyballs and a volleyball net; then, he and OCCC other members temporarily put the net up, in the sandy beach area parallel to the tide line, between the surfboard lockers and the canoe shed. This is where the first recorded game of ‘Beach Volleyball’ took place.

After playing on this Waikiki Beach volleyball court, ‘Dad’ and his group decided that the area was not spacious enough so they relocated the court in front of the Clubs little commissary and the big lanai.

Past Club President Ronald Quay Smith said that when he first came to Hawaii in 1919 and played volleyball: “I met the ‘Outrigger boys’ who were the best volleyball players that I knew of at the time and it was something to go up against those fellows.”

“‘Dad’ Center was their captain and coach. Tom Singlehurst, Duke and Dave Kahanamoku along with some of the other boys could jump five or six feet, and we respected them very much.” (OCC)

The Club’s most famous member was Duke Kahanamoku. Duke is credited with introducing surfing to the world. Duke was also one of the best beach volleyball players at the Club.

Duke Kahanamoku is also credited, by some of California’s ‘Old-Timers’ at Santa Monica’s ‘Beach Club,’ for helping to refine the game of beach volleyball. In the 1930s, Duke came to the mainland to fill the position as Athletic Director at Santa Monica’s ‘Beach Club.’ (OCC)

It is said that Kahanamoku, because of his exceptional athleticism, was the first to make beach volleyball a rugged sports activity rather than a leisurely way to pass the time away on the beach. Duke would jump to unmatched levels and spike the ball down at extraordinary angles.

The Outrigger Canoe Club was founded in 1908 by a small group of Honolulu’s business and professional community. The Club’s original mission was to help perpetuate traditional Hawaiian sports.

The Club’s story mirrors that of Waikiki and Hawaii. The 1908 clubhouse was two grass houses purchased from a defunct zoo. The grass houses were moved to leased land, on the beach, next to a lagoon.

One (fronting the beach) was fitted out as a shed for canoes and surfboards. The other shed became the Club’s first bathhouse and dressing room. Both had spacious lanai. A sand floor pavilion was built a short time later and it became a popular gathering place for members.

A new clubhouse was eventually built in 1941 on the same grounds. Then in 1964, when the Waikiki lease was lost, the club moved to its present Diamond Head location. (OCC)

June 30, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Spray Will Come Back

Joshua Slocum was born on February 20, 1844, in Nova Scotia. He was the fifth of eleven children. His father was a hard disciplinarian and from his early teens, he made several attempts to run away to the sea.

At the age of fourteen he became cook on a local fishing schooner and soon afterwards he and a friend shipped out, bound for Dublin. From Dublin, he went to Liverpool becoming an ordinary seaman on the British merchant ship Tangier which was bound for China.

Joshua Slocum’s first command in 1869 was the barque Washington which he took across the Pacific from San Francisco to Australia and then onwards to Alaska. In 1871, while in Sidney, he married his first wife, an American named Virginia Walker. They went on to have four children, all born in different countries.

In remote Alaska, the Washington ended up dragging her anchor during a gale, ran ashore and was a total loss. However, Slocum managed to save the cargo and crew, bringing them back safely in the ship’s open boats.

The shipping company was impressed by this feat of leadership and seamanship and gave him command of the Constitution which he sailed to Honolulu and later Mexico.

After the Constitution he commanded the Benjamin Aymar in the South Seas. However, when the owner sold the vessel, he became stranded in the Philippines.

There he was given the 90 ton schooner, Pato. Reviving his fortunes, he crossed the North Pacific to British Columbia. During this period, Slocum fulfilled his wish to become a writer by becoming a temporary correspondent for the San Francisco Bee.

Crossing to Hawaii, he sold the Pato and bought the Amethyst which he sold in Hong Kong for an interest in the full-rigged ship Northern Light. This was his ‘best command’ and was considered the ‘finest American sailing vessel afloat’ at the time.

However after two years he sold his interest and bought the barque Aquidneck in which he sailed to Buenos Aires. While there his wife, Virginia, died at the age of 35.

The following year, 1886, he married his cousin Henrietta Elliott and the Aquidneck ran between Baltimore and South America. During this time he lived through a cholera epidemic, an outbreak of smallpox (which killed several of his crew), and later a mutiny in which he was forced to shoot two men.

A few months later, in 1887, his ship ran aground and broke up in Brazil, marooning him and his family and ruining his fortunes. Unwilling to return to the United States as a castaway and a pauper, he used native help and the wreckage of his ship to build a 35-foot, junk rigged, dory which he named “Liberdade”.

The next year, he, his wife and children sailed this small, homemade craft across 5,500 miles of open ocean to South Carolina. Slocum wrote his first book ‘Voyage of the Liberdade’ about the trip. In recognition for this feat the Liberdade was placed on view at the Smithsonian Institution. (Chesapeake Bay Lighthouse Project)

Then, he sailed alone …

At noon on April 24, 1895, Joshua Slocum cast off his dock lines in East Boston and set out to sail alone around the world in the 37’ sloop Spray.

“The first name on the ‘Spray’s’ visitors’ book in the home port was written by the one who always said, ‘The ‘Spray’ will come back.’”

“The ‘Spray’ was not quite satisfied till I sailed her around to her birthplace, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, farther along.” (Slocum)

“The ‘Spray’ … plunged into the Pacific Ocean at once, taking her first bath of it in the gathering storm. There was no turning back even had I wished to do so, for the land was now shut out by the darkness of night.”

“To cross the Pacific Ocean, even under the most favorable circumstances, brings you for many days close to nature, and you realize the vastness of the sea. Slowly but surely the mark of my little ship’s course on the track-chart reached out on the ocean and across it, while at her utmost speed she marked with her keel still slowly the sea that carried her.”

“On the forty-third day from land, – a long time to be at sea alone, – the sky being beautifully clear and the moon being “in distance” with the sun, I threw up my sextant for sights. I found from the result of three observations, after long wrestling with lunar tables, that her longitude by observation agreed within five miles of that by dead-reckoning.” (Slocum)

“Taking things by and large, as sailors say, I got on fairly well in the matter of provisions even on the long voyage across the Pacific. I found always some small stores to help the fare of luxuries; what I lacked of fresh meat was made up in fresh fish, at least while in the trade-winds …”

“… where flying-fish crossing on the wing at night would hit the sails and fall on deck, sometimes two or three of them, sometimes a dozen. Every morning except when the moon was large I got a bountiful supply by merely picking them up from the lee scuppers.” (Slocum)

“The Pacific is perhaps, upon the whole, no more boisterous than other oceans, though I feel quite safe in saying that it is not more pacific except in name. It is often wild enough in one part or another.”

“I once knew a writer who, after saying beautiful things about the sea, passed through a Pacific hurricane, and he became a changed man. But where, after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves?”

“At last here was the ‘Spray’ in the midst of a sea of coral. The sea itself might be called smooth indeed, but coral rocks are always rough, sharp, and dangerous. I trusted now to the mercies of the Maker of all reefs, keeping a good lookout at the same time for perils on every hand.” (Slocum)

More than once during his 38-month circumnavigation, Slocum was reported as having gone missing. There were times when it was presumed he had been lost.

But when Slocum finally sailed into Newport, Rhode Island, at 1 am on June 27, 1898, he proved all the doubters wrong. Slocum and his Spray had sailed into history. (New Bedford Whaling Museum)

At the age of 51, Captain Joshua Slocum became the first man to sail around the world alone. His 46,000-mile voyage in the 36-foot sloop ‘Spray’ was only part of a life of adventure, exploration and ingenuity, making him one of the world’s most famous sailors. (South Bay Sail)

June 28, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kamakahonu Royal Center

Kamakahonu Royal Center at Kailua Bay was the residential compound of Kamehameha I from 1813 until his death in 1819.

It had previously been the residence of a high chief, and it was undoubtedly a residential area back into the centuries prior to European contact.

Kamakahonu (which literally means eyes of the turtle) was the location of multiple heiau known collectively as Ahu‘ena, originally said to have been built by either Liloa or his son Umi-a-Liloa during the sixteenth century, was reconstructed and rededicated by Kamehameha I in the early nineteenth century.

John Papa ʻĪʻī, attendant of Kamehameha I, to become a companion and personal attendant to Liholiho (later King Kamehameha II,) described Kamakahonu from on board a ship in 1812 …

“Kamakahonu was a fine cove, with sand along the edge of the sea and islets of pāhoehoe, making it look like a pond, with a grove of kou trees a little inland and a heap of pāhoehoe in the center of the stretch of sand.”

Kamehameha first moved into the former residence of Keawe a Mahi. He then built another house high on stones on the seaward side of that residence, facing directly upland toward the planting fields of Kuahewa.

Like an observation post, this house afforded a view of the farm lands and was also a good vantage from which to see canoes coming from the south.

The royal residence at Kamakahonu was served by a series of anchialine pools, upwellings of fresh and salt water found on young lava fields. These anchialine pools were used to raise bait fish and shrimp for larger catches.

During Kamehameha’s use of this compound, reportedly 11 house structures were present. These included his sleeping house, houses for his wives, a large men’s house, storehouses and Ahuʻena heiau.

Kamehameha also included a battery of cannon and large stone walls to protect the fortress-like enclosure.

Upon Kamehameha’s death, a mortuary house was built, which held his remains until they were taken and hidden away.

After Liholiho’s departure from Hawaiʻi Island in 1820, the high chief Kuakini, who served as Governor of Hawai’i for many years, resided here until 1837, when he had Huliheʻe built and moved there.

By the late-1800s, Kamakahonu was abandoned and in the early-1900s H. Hackfield & Co. purchased the land, and its successor American Factors used the site as a lumberyard and later for the King Kamehameha Hotel.

Today, three remnant structures are present on the seaward beach of the property (all recreated in the 1970s and recently refurbished) – ‘Ahu’ena heiau, the mortuary house’s platform and an additional structural platform.

These structures are set aside in a covenant agreement between the State’s Historic Preservation Division and the current hotel owners.

Kamakahonu became the backdrop for some of the most significant events in the early nineteenth-century history of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Three momentous events occurred here which established Kamakahonu as one of the most historically significant sites in Hawaiʻi:

In the early morning hours of May 8, 1819 King Kamehameha I died here.
A few months after the death of his father, Liholiho (Kamehameha II) broke the ancient kapu system, a highly defined regime of taboos that provided the framework of the traditional Hawaiian socio-economic structure
The first Christian missionaries from New England were granted permission to come ashore here on April 4, 1820.

The property is now part of King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel; none of the original houses or walls remain.

Ahuʻena heiau was reconstructed in the 1970s at 2/3-scale and can be viewed, but not entered.

The small sandy beach provides a protected beach for launching canoes and children swimming. The first Hotel was built here in 1950; it was imploded (boy, that was an exciting day in Kona) and the current one constructed in 1975.

Kamakahonu is one of the featured Points of Interest in the Royal Footsteps Along The Kona Coast Scenic Byway. We prepared the Corridor Management Plan for the Scenic Byway.

June 27, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Keolewa Heiau

Keolewa Heiau is situated along the Hā‘upu ridge line on the peak of Hāʻupu on Kauai.

According to chants, Keolewa can only be seen as a bird in the sky (above the clouds). “Me he manu la Keolewa i ka laʻi,” “Like a bird is Keolewa in the calm.”

Hā‘upu in the Hawaiian language means a sudden recollection; the mountain is known for its ability to jolt a memory, or alternatively, open a view to the future.

The phrase Hā‘upu mauna kilohana i ka la‘i (Hā‘upu, a mountain outstanding in the calm) honors the mountain itself, and is also a description for someone who achieves outstanding things.

The small heiau atop Mt. Hā‘upu is dedicated to Laka, the goddess of the forest and patron of hula, whose kinolau (embodied form) lives in the wild and sacred plants of the upland forest that are used by hula practitioners.

Both the heiau and the wooded area at Hā‘upu’s summit are known by the place name Keolewa, which appears in a variety of prayers, chants and oral traditions.

Beckwith calls her “the goddess of love.” The name laka means “gentle, docile, attracted to, fond of,” and there are old chants asking Laka to attract not only love, but wealth.

Of very different origin, she was nevertheless incorporated into the Pele religion. Due to her associations with the forest she represents the element of plants.

“Laka is the child of Kapo (Pele’s sister,) ‘not in the ordinary sense but rather as a breath or emanation.”’ The two as ‘one in spirit though their names are two.’”

“Laka and Kapo therefore must be thought of as different forms of the reproductive energy, possible Kapo in its passive, Laka in its active form, and their mother Haumea as the great source of female fertility.” (Beckwith)

Hā‘upu Ridge is also revered as a dividing line between and meeting place where the powerful fire-goddess Pele made passionate love with the demi-god Kamapua‘a.

The Kōloa region south of the ridge was controlled by Pele; its dry and rocky landscape reflects her harsh, impatient and dominant personality.

The lusher Līhu‘e side of the ridge was home to the pig god Kamapua‘a, who is associated with “taro, fertility and the creation of fertile springs necessary to sustain life,” and who is known to excel as a lover.

According to tradition, “Pele and Kamapua‘a are believed to have been involved in a tumultuous love affair with each other in the vicinity of Hā‘upu and the topography of the area is believed to have been shaped by the fury of their love-making.”

“Hā‘upu Ridge is the dividing line between the two areas controlled by Pele and Kamapua‘a and Hawaiian religious practitioners believe these gods continue to dwell there.”

“In times of drought, the fertile and lush domain of Kamapua‘a is said to be inhabited by Pele, whereas in times of heavy rains the dry and arid domain of Pele is said to be inhabited by Kamapua‘a. It is at these times that their love affairs are believed to continue.” (NPS – OHA)

The image shows the summit of the Hā‘upu Mountains, site of Keolewa Heiau.

June 26, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was first made famous by Judy Garland for the 1938 movie The Wizard of Oz.

Then, Louis Armstrong first recorded and released What a Wonderful World in 1967.

Then, there was Iz, Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole; his classic medley of “Over the Rainbow” and “What a Wonderful World” was added to the National Recording Registry on March 24, 2021.

That registry has recordings “worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.” (HPR)

The Library of Congress, which oversees the registry, called the medley “melancholic and joyous at once” and praised Kamakawiwo‘ole’s vision of “contemporary Hawaiian music that fused reggae, jazz and traditional Hawaiian sound.” (Star Advertiser)

Watch/listen to the “Official” rendition (you will be joining over 1.23-billion who have listened before you)”

Iz’s redition appeared on his 1993 album ‘Facing Future,’ released by Mountain Apple Co. It remains one of the company’s most beloved releases, said Mountain Apple founder Jon de Mello.

The medley has appeared in several television and film productions, such as TV’s “Charmed” and “ER” and the movie “50 First Dates.” De Mello said that someone from Sony Music, which licenses the commercial use of “Over the Rainbow,” once told him the song is requested nearly 500 times a week, and the vast majority are for Kamakawiwo‘ole’s version. (Star Advertiser)

Apparently, the recording by Iz was impromptu and brief (one take). Milan Bertosa, who was at the end of a long day in his Honolulu recording studio got a call from a client connected to Iz; he told the caller he was shutting down, call tomorrow. (NPR)

But the client insisted on putting Kamakawiwo‘ole on the phone. “And he’s this really sweet man, well-mannered, kind. ‘Please, can I come in? I have an idea,’“ Bertosa remembers Kamakawiwo‘ole saying. He arrived in the next 15 minutes. That was in 1988.

“I put up some microphones, do a quick soundcheck, roll tape, and the first thing he does is ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow.’ He played and sang, one take, and it was over,” Bertosa said. (NPR)

“(Kamakawiwo‘ole) went into a studio and sat down and did one take — ‘Over the Rainbow’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful World’ and walked out about 20 minutes later,” de Mello said. “It was a moment in time, and it was a perfect moment in time for Israel.”

The next day, Bertosa made a copy and filed the original recording away. Then in 1993, Bertosa wound up working as an engineer for Mountain Apple Company, a long-established recording house, where Kamakawiwo‘ole was making what would become the best-selling Hawaiian album of all time. (HPR)

Though released in 1993, the recording was actually made a few years earlier. A digital recording made at the time then sat in a drawer before Bertosa brought it to de Mello. Bertosa said, “You should listen to this, this is pretty good,” de Mello recalled.

Kamakawiwo’ole actually was reluctant to put it on “Facing Future,” since it had been recorded so many years earlier, but it was added to the album almost as an afterthought, appearing as the 14th of 15 tracks on the album. (Star Advertiser)

According to Billboard, His famous cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” has spent a record 541 weeks on the World Digital Song Sales chart, including 332 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 starting in 2011.

Google paid tribute to Iz in May 2020 during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with an animated Doodle of him playing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” on his iconic ukulele in a reimagined clip of the viral video.

Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole was born in Honolulu on May 20, 1959. Toward the end of his life, Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole’s weight became unsustainable. He was unable to perform and carried an oxygen tank with him. On June 26, 1997, Iz died at the age of 38. Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole’s cause of death was respiratory failure.

On the day of his funeral, the flag flew at half-mast. About 10,000 people gathered in the ocean to watch his ashes be paddled to Makua Beach. Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole’s death made for a day of mourning for what seemed like all of Hawaii.

Hundreds paddled alongside his ashes, as the respectful air horns from trucks on land echoed across waters, and Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole’s ashes were scattered. (Margaritoff)