The first article of the first volume of the first issue of Mid-Pacific Magazine, June 1911 was an article on surfing. It was written by ‘Duke Paoa’ – we knew him as Duke Kahanamoku. In part, he wrote:
“I have never seen snow and do not know what winter means. I have never coasted down a hill of frozen rain, but every day of the year, where the water is 76, day and night, and the waves roll high, I take my sled, without runners, and coast down the face of the big waves that roll in at Waikiki.”
“How would you like to stand like a god before the crest of a monster billow. always rushing to the bottom of a hill and never reaching its base, and to come rushing in for half a mile at express speed, in graceful attitude, of course, until you reach the beach and step easily from the wave to the strand?”
“Find the locality, as we Hawaiians did, where the rollers are long in forming. slow to break, and then run for a great distance over a flat, level bottom, and the rest is possible.”
“Perhaps the ideal surfing stretch in all the world is at Waikiki beach, near Honolulu, Hawaii. Here centuries ago was born the sport of running foot races upon the crests of the billows, and here bronze skinned men and women vie today with the white man for honors in aquatic sports once exclusively Hawaiian, but in which the white man now rivals the native.”
“I mastered the art of riding the surfboard in the warm Hawaiian waters when I was a very small child, and I never gaze out upon the ocean in any part of the island that I do not figure out how far each wave, as it comes rolling in, would carry me standing on its crest.”
“There are great, long, regular, sweeping billows, after a storm at Waikiki that have carried me from more than a mile out at sea right up to the beach; there are rollers after a big kona storm that sweep across Hilo Bay, on the Big Island of Hawaii, and carry native surfboard riders five miles at a run, and on the Island of Niihau there are even more wonderful surfboard feats performed.”
“A surfboard is easy to make. Mine is about the size and shape of the ordinary kitchen ironing board. In the old days the natives were wont to use cocoanut logs in the big surf of Diamond Head, and sometimes six of them would come in standing on one log, for, of course, the bigger and bulkier the surfboard the farther it will go on the dying rollers …”
“… but it is harder to start the big board, and, of course, on the big logs one man, the rear one, always had to keep lying down to steer the log straight with his legs.”
“At Waikiki beach, Queen Emma, as a child, had a summer home, and always went out surfing with a retainer, who stood on the board with her.”
“Today it is seldom that more than one person comes in before the wave on a single board, although during the past year some seemingly wonderful feats have been attempted.”
“I have tried riding in standing on a seven-foot board with a boy seated on my shoulders, and now I find it not impossible to have one of my grown companions leap from his board, while it is going full speed, to mine, and then clamber up and twine his legs about my neck.”
“Lately I have found a small boy, part Hawaiian, who will come in with me on my board, and when I stand, he stands on my shoulders, and even turns round. But all this is as nothing when we read in Thrum’s annual for 1896, of the feats of the old Hawaiians, and as this is about the best article ever prepared on ancient surfing, I shall quote from it:”
“Among the favorite pastimes of ancient Hawaiians that of surfriding was a most prominent and popular one with all classes. In favored localities throughout the group for the practice and exhibition of the sport …”
“… ‘high carnival’ was frequently held at the spirited contests between rivals in this aquatic sport, to witness which the people would gather from near and far; especially if a famous surf-rider from another district, or island, was seeking to wrest honors from their own champion.”
“Native legends abound with the exploits of those who attained distinction among their fellows by their skill and daring in this sport; indulged in alike by both sexes.”
“Necessary work for the maintenance of the family, such as farming, fishing, mat and kapa making and such other household duties required and needing attention, by either head of the family were often neglected for the prosecution of the sport.”
“Betting was made an accompaniment thereof, both by the chiefs and the common people. Canoes, nets, fishing lines, kapas, swine, poultry and all other property were staked, and in some instances life itself was put up as wagers, the property changing hands, and personal liberty. or even life itself sacrificed, according to the outcome of the match in the waves.”
“There are two kinds of boards for surfriding; one is called the olo and the other the a-la-ia, known also as omo. The olo was made of wiliwili – a very light, buoyant wood …”
“… some three fathoms long, two to three feet wide, and from six to eight inches thick along the middle of the board, lengthwise, but rounding toward the edges on both upper and lower sides.”
“It is well known that the olo was only for the use of the chiefs; none of the common people used it. They used the a-la-ia, which was made of koa, or ulu. Its length and width was similar to the olo, except in thickness, it being but of one and a half to two inches thick along its center.”
“The line of breakers is the place where the surf rises and breaks at deep sea. This is called the kulana nalu. Any place nearer or closer in where the surf rises and breaks again, as it sometimes does, is called the ahua, known also as kipapa or puao.”
“There are only two kinds of surf in which riding is indulged; these are called kakala, known also as lauloa, or long surf, and the ohu, sometimes called opuu. The former is a surf that rises, covering the whole distance from one end of a beach to the other.”
“This, at times, forms in successive waves that roll in with high, threatening crest, finally falling over bodily.”
“Surfboard riding is an art easy of accomplishment to the few and difficult to the many. It is at its best when the rollers are long in forming, slow to break, and, after they do, run for a great distance over a flat, level bottom, such as the coral beds at Waikiki,
which is perhaps the all-year-round ideal surfboarding bit of water in the whole world.”
“There are three surfs at Waikiki: the ‘big surf’ toward Diamond Head, in front of Queen Liliuokalani’s summer residence, where the most expert surf-board riders and the native boys disport themselves …”
“… the ‘canoe’ surf, nearly in front of the Moana Hotel, where the majority of those who stand on the board dispute rights with the outrigger canoes that come sliding in from a mile out at sea before the monster rollers …”
“… and the beginners, or cornu copia surf – a series of gentle rollers before the Outrigger Canoe Club’s grounds and the Seaside Hotel. Here, as a rule, beginners learn the art of balancing on the board.” (Kahanamoku, Mid Pacific Magazine, January 1911)
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