Surf | Page 2 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

December 16, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

George Douglas Freeth, Jr

In 1889, the Redondo pier in California was a wharf at the foot of Emerald Street, designed to handle the enormous lumber trade from the Pacific Northwest. Two additional wharfs were added in 1895 and 1903.

Traffic into the port was so busy that ships had to wait their turn for a spot at one of the piers, as Santa Fe rail cars transported the cargo inland as fast as possible. (RedondoPier)

However, Redondo’s popularity began a slow decline when San Pedro Harbor started to take shape in 1899. By 1912, the Pacific Steamship Company stopped calling at Redondo altogether. (Megowan)

In 1907, real estate entrepreneurs Abott Kinney and Henry Huntington were heavily promoting their respective coastal resorts. Kinney had the lead, having dedicated his “Venice of America” (Venice Beach) on July 4, 1905. Henry Huntington, in June 1907, was putting the final touches on his own elaborate beach resort in Redondo Beach. (Verge)

At about that time, 19-year old, hapa-haole, George Douglas Freeth Jr, met up with Jack London and Alexander Hume Ford riding the waves at Waikiki. “I saw him tearing in on the back of (the wave,) standing upright on his board, carelessly poised”. The “young god bronzed with sunburn” gave London a surf lesson. (London)

“The whole method of surf riding and surf fighting, I learned, is one of non-resistance. Dodge the blow that is struck at you. Dive through the wave that is trying to slap you in the face. … Never be rigid. Relax.”

“The man who wants to learn surf riding must be a strong swimmer, and he must be used to going under the water. After that, fair strength and common sense are all that is required.” (London)

Around 1905, Freeth was the first – or among the first – to reintroduce angling across the wave as opposed to heading straight for shore. (Encyclopedia of Surfing)

“In 1907, (Freeth) left Hawaiʻi for the Golden State with letters in hand from Ford, Jack London and the Hawaiʻi Promotion Committee. His objective was to ‘give exhibitions of Hawaiian water sports to the people of that section.’” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser; Laderman)

The July 3, 1907 Pacific Commercial Advertiser announced Freeth’s departure from his native Hawaiʻi with a page 1 headline that read, “George Freeth Off To Coast – Will Illustrate Hawaiian Surfboarding to People in California.”

“The aquatic skills that had enamored London, Ford and the Hawaiʻi Promotion Committee were the same skills Freeth brought with him to California, where he found work for two of the major developers of the period, Abbot Kinney and Henry Huntington.” (Laderman)

Within six months of his arrival, Freeth was commuting between the two seaside communities aboard Huntington’s Pacific Electric Railway. At Huntington’s Redondo resort, Freeth performed his surfing act twice a day under the billing, “The Hawaiian Wonder.”

Freeth lived in Redondo Beach where he worked as a swim instructor/lifeguard at Huntington’s “Plunge,” which from afar looked more like a royal palace than a public swimming pool. With over 1,000-dressing rooms and three heated pools, the Redondo Plunge could hold as many as 2,000- swimmers at one time. (Verge)

“At Venice Beach, Freeth went to work training Kinney’s Venice Lifesaving Crew. Freeth taught the crew to become one with the water. Rip currents, for example, were not to be fought against, but instead used by the rescue swimmer to speed to the victim in distress – a method that is still employed today.”

“So grateful were members of the Venice Lifesaving crew that on the occasion of his 24th birthday, they surprised him with a gold watch and a card that read in part – ‘Mr. George Freeth, King of the Surf Board, Captain of the Venice Basketball team, First Lieutenant of Venice Volunteer Life Saving Corps, and leader in Aquatic Sports and General Good Fellowship, is reliable, sober, industrious.’”

“’We, his comrades and citizens of Venice, extend our best wishes and a watch, that he may continue to keep abreast of the time to the century mark at least.’” (Verge)

On December 16, 1908, Freeth’s water safety skills were put to a test. That day, a tremendous winter squall suddenly descended upon Santa Monica Bay. Gale force winds and high surf trapped several Japanese fishing boats off the Venice Pier.

For the next 2 ½-hours, Freeth braved gale force winds, pounding surf, and a frigid ocean temperature to save single-handedly the lives of seven men. The Venice Lifesaving Corpsmen launched their boat to assist Freeth. More were saved.

As a result of these collected statements and the first-hand news accounts of the rescue, a special act of Congress dated June 25, 1910, awarded Freeth the nation’s highest civilian honor: the Congressional Gold Medal.

In 1915, lured away by the prospects of a better income and the chance to promote Hawaii and the sport of surfing, he joined the San Diego Yacht Club as a lifeguard/swim coach. Unfortunately, the club suffered from financial problems and Freeth was let go; a sympathetic club member then found Freeth a job at a sporting goods store in downtown San Diego.

On a warm spring day in May 1918, 13 swimmers drowned together in a massive rip current. Ocean Beach officials who hadn’t thought it necessary to have lifeguards saw their beach resort community empty as tourists stayed away.

Twelve days later the legendary lifeguard and surfer was in charge of the beach. There, Freeth performed on his surfboard, trained youngsters to work as lifeguards, and to the delight of everyone, not a single swimmer drowned.

Sadly, the flu pandemic of 1918-19 was sweeping through San Diego. Worldwide, 20 million people died from the flu in four months, as many as were killed in all of World War I. Rather than the young and the old, the victims were mostly healthy and middle aged. Among the stricken was Freeth. (Verge)

Freeth is credited as being the “First great waterman of the modern era” – Swimmer, diver, boatman, fisherman, outrigger canoeist, sailor, first professional lifeguard in California, Congressional Gold Medal for bravery, founded lifesaving service in California and introduced waterpolo to California. (UCSB)

George Douglas Freeth, Jr was born on Oʻahu on November 9, 1883; he died of the flu in San Diego on April 7, 1919 at the age of 35.

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Historic Huntington – surfing – George Freeth – LA Herald Dec 17 1908

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September 22, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Surfing in Britain

“Surf riding after the Hawaiian fashion is extremely simple when performed with pen and ink, but the swimmer who tries it at Waikiki when there is any sort of sea tumbling in from the south is either overwhelmed in the roller …”

“… or parts company with his board to learn the adamantine solidity of beach sand when a would-be rider essays to plow it up with any portion of his anatomy.” (Paducah Daily Sun, AK, August 18, 1898)

Edward, Prince of Wales (Later King Edward VIII) visited Hawai‘i in April 1920 and enjoyed a three-day surf trip with Earl Mountbatten (future Admiral of the Fleet.) He was so thrilled with the experience that he ordered his ship, the HMS Renown, to return for three days so he could surf again.

But it’s not the surfing of British royals in Hawai‘i that is the focus of this summary, this is about Hawaiian royals in Britain, surfing off the British coast.

While Duke Kahanamoku introduced and promoted surfing to the rest of the world (making him the ‘Father of International Surfing,’) the year he was born (1890,) a couple Hawaiian Princes were riding the waves at Bridlington, Yorkshire in Britain.

Brothers David Kawānanakoa (Koa) and Kūhiō, orphaned after their father died in 1880 and mother in 1884, were adopted by King David Kalākaua’s wife, Queen Kapiʻolani, who was their maternal aunt.

Both were sent on Kalākaua’s ‘studies abroad program.’ They travelled with a guardian arriving in London on November 27, 1889. At first, it was thought that David might work for Hawaii Consul Armstrong in London.

There were 13 Hawaiian Consuls throughout England, indicative of the two countries important trade relations. As for Kuhio, “(he) is not sure if he wants to stay or leave. He thinks he’ll leave, (because) it is very cold here.” (Hall)

On September 22, 1890 Prince Kūhiō could not restrain his enthusiasm in his letter to the Hawaiian Consul Armstrong about their experience of surfing at Bridlington:

“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 (John) Wrightson (their tutor) 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.” (Museum of British Surfing)

Their Bridlington surfboards would most likely have been planks purchased from a boat‐builder. There were extensive regional forests plus readily available foreign timber. A local wood expert’s best guess is that the wood was ash, sycamore or lime. (Hall)

This wasn’t the first international surfing experience for the princely brothers. In 1885, the Koa and Kūhiō (and their other brother Edward, who later died in 1887) were schooled at St Matthew’s Hall in San Mateo, California; they were placed under the care of Antoinette Swan, one of the ‘Pioneers’ of Santa Cruz and daughter of Don Francisco de Paula Marin.

When the Swan home became too crowded, the princes boarded at the nearby Wilkins House, located half a block away, on Pacific and Cathcart streets. (Dunn & Stoner)

The three princes are noted in the first account of surfing anywhere in the Americas: “The young Hawaiian princes were in the water, enjoying it hugely and giving interesting exhibitions of surf-board swimming as practiced in their native islands.” (Santa Cruz Daily Surf, July 20, 1885; Divine)

Another Hawaiian royal may also have added to the international surfing experience. It is suggested that when Princess Kaʻiulani, a cousin of Koa and Kūhiō, also surfed in England (in 1892.)

“She may have been the first female surfer in Britain, … a letter in which she wrote that she enjoyed ‘being on the water again’ at Brighton.”

“Kaʻiulani liked swimming and surfing. She was a high-spirited girl, who when she returned to Hawaii, liked to sneak out past midnight to go swimming in the moonlight with girlfriends.” (Hall)

Reportedly, “The tall foreign dignitary stood erect on a thin board with her hair blowing in the wind and rode the chilly waters.” (British Surfing Museum; Boal)

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David Kawananakoa (1868-1908) Edward Keliiahonui (1869-1887) and Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole (1871-1922)-PP-97-17-008

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July 20, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The Three Princes

As early as the 1870s, “surf swimming,” as it was called, had become one of the most popular attractions in the bourgeoning tourist Mecca of Santa Cruz. Folks weren’t on boards; they were ‘bathing’ in the ocean.

In June of 1885 “the beach and the surf were both at their best … the breakers with their white crests, beautiful enough to delight the genuine sea lover … Late in the afternoon, a large party of swimmers went into the water, a number of our best lady swimmers being among them.” (Dunn & Stoner)

“Sunday afternoon at the beach was one of the liveliest of the season. It was warm, very warm, but tempered by a breeze, which made the heat endurable and kept people good-natured.”

“The breakers at the mouth of the river were very fine and here occurred the very primest of fun, at least, so said those who were ‘in the swim.’”

As many as 30 or 40 swimmers were out in the water with them, “dashing and tossing, and plunging through the breakers, going out only to be tossed back apparently at the will of the waves and making some nervous onlookers feel sure that they were about to be dashed against the rocks.”

“The young Hawaiian princes were in the water, enjoying it hugely and giving interesting exhibitions of surf-board swimming as practiced in their native islands.” (Santa Cruz Daily Surf, July 20, 1885; Divine)

This was the first recorded account of surfing on the continent … let’s look back.

The present Church of St Matthew in San Mateo, located at the corner of Baldwin and El Camino, dates back to 1865. At that time, San Mateo boasted a modest population of 150, with a corner grocery, blacksmith, railroad depot, one Roman Catholic Church, an old schoolhouse and about 25 houses spreading from San Mateo down to Belmont.

Almost simultaneous with the construction of the Church was the founding of St Matthew’s Hall, a full-fledged military boarding school for boys. The original site was a two-story building on Baldwin in San Mateo, adjacent to today’s St. Matthew’s Church (where the Mills Medical Arts Building now stands.) (St Matthew’s)

In 1882 the school was moved to an 80-acre site at the upper end of Barroilhet Avenue. Enrollment averaged 120 boys a year and in its 49 years, approximately 3,000 students passed through the school. Most of the students were boarders who came from around the West and the Pacific.

Three Hawaiian princes (and brothers,) David Kawānanakoa (Koa,) Edward Keliʻiahonui and Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, nephews of Queen Kapiʻolani, were schooled at St Matthew’s Hall in 1885, and went on to study at prestigious academic institutions like Stanford, the University of California and a dozen Eastern colleges accepted graduates without further examination. (St Matthew’s)

When not at St Mathew’s, the three princes were placed under the careful eye of Antoinette Swan (daughter of Don Francisco de Paula Marin and hānai daughter to Dr Thomas Charles Byde Rooke (and hānai sister to future Queen Emma) who had moved to Santa Cruz a few years before.)

When the Swan home became too crowded, the princes boarded at the nearby Wilkins House, located half a block away, on Pacific and Cathcart streets. (Dunn & Stoner)

Meanwhile, during the mid-1880s, the first-growth redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains were being lumbered by several fledgling timber businesses. Indeed, the lumber industry was by far the largest in Santa Cruz County during the 1870s and 1880s, with enormous amounts of redwood being transported out of the region by both rail and shipping lines.

The brothers had surfboards made from “solid redwood planks and milled locally by the Grover Lumber Co. They were over 100 pounds in weight and 15 feet in length.”

“Grover Lumber Co. had a planing mill on lower Pacific Ave. and Santa Cruz housewives could set their clocks by the noon whistle.” This finish mill was just a few blocks from the Swan home in which the three princes stayed. (By the end of the 1880s, the redwood trees had all been cut, and they renamed the lumber camp settlement, Clear Creek in 1890.) (Stoner)

While the likes of George Douglas Freeth Jr and Duke Kanahamoku are honored for their indroduction of surfing to others, “On weekends the princes could be found enjoying water sports at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River”; and, as noted above, were the first reported to surf in California.

They also enjoyed some of the local sports as well, “Olympic Rink was honored by the presence of the Hawaiian princes, who received their first lesson in roller skating. They fell down about as many times as ordinary individuals. A pair of skates has no respect for rank. They level all persons who can’t skate.” (Dunn & Stoner)

Shortly after (1887,) Prince Edward was sent home ill from St Mathews and died a short time later in Honolulu from scarlet fever. Koa would eventually become the immediate first heir to the throne. His youngest brother Jonah, who had been Queen Liliʻuokalani’s personal favorite, was second. Neither of them, however, would ever become king.

Kūhiō, an advocate for Hawaiian independence, was involved in the rebellion against the overthrow and was sentenced to a year in prison. Immediately upon his release from prison he traveled the world. In 1902, he returned from exile to participate in Hawaiian politics.

While Koa headed up the state’s Democratic Party (and was a delegate to the 1900 Democratic National Convention,) Kūhiō joined the Republican Party and was elected to the US Congress in 1903 as a delegate from the Territory of Hawaiʻi, where he served until his death in 1922. (Dunn & Stoner)

Today, the two surfboards of Kūhiō and Koa are on loan from Bishop Museum and included in the display at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History ‘Princes of Surf’ exhibition (July 3 – October 25, 2015.)

A plaque with the three princes was added at Santa Cruz Surfing Museum at Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse.

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Kuhio and Koa surfboard (on display in Santa Cruz)

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March 17, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Swastikas … to Waikiki Surf-Boards

Founded in 1908 by William Butte, Pacific Ready-cut Homes, later Pacific System Homes, made ’kit’ homes.

They were considered one of the largest mass producers of pre-cut houses in the US; over the course of about 30-years, they delivered approximately 40,000-homes.

In the 1920s, working class people aspired to the “good life” of home and auto ownership and Pacific System was there to provide the little California bungalow that they were dreaming of. (AntiqueHome)

When the Stock Market crashed in October of 1929, Butte’s son Meyers was at Stanford and training for the Olympics in wrestling. Sales of homes were slow; the economic crash forced Meyers to come home and get involved with the family business.

When Meyers came on board, he convinced the family that manufacturing surfboards would be a good way to diversify the business. He began to change a small part of the production of Pacific System to surfboards.

Pacific System was one of the first companies to produce commercial surfboards.

Back then, boards were made of single pieces of redwood – and weighed about 100-lbs.

The first Pacific System boards were like the rest at Waikiki Beach – finless, single-slab redwood planks.

Recognizing the solid planks were too heavy, they looked for other options.

To lighten the load, Pacific System started making laminated surfboards; the big break came when they found a water-proof glue that would hold the slabs of wood used in board construction together. (Gault-Williams)

The new, lighter boards were constructed from glued and doweled balsa and redwood strips. They were 10 to 12-feet in length, 20-inches wide and a few inches thick (and weighed closer to 50-lbs.)

At first, the company logo was a swastika on the deck; the boards became known as ‘Swastika’ models.

“The Swastika boards were droolers,” shaper Dale Velzy is quoted as saying. “Everybody had homemades or hand-me-downs, so people really wanted a Pacific System.” (Velzy; Gault-Williams)

Although most boards continued to be custom made by surfers themselves, for the period leading into World War II, Swastikas became the most widely-used production board. (Gaul-Williams)

With the rise of Nazi Germany later in the decade, in about 1938, the swastika name and logos were dropped and the boards became known as ‘Waikiki Surf-Boards.’ (Motil)

Pacific System employed a number of well-known surfers, including Pete Peterson and Lorrin ‘Whitey’ Harrison. (They were the first of the hardcore California surfers to surf Waikiki.) (SurfMuseum)

“All ‘Waikiki’ boards are precision built with modern up-to-date machinery for a life-time of service in the world’s largest home-building plant.”

“The woods are specially selected. The Balsa wood is hand-sorted from finest imported stocks, scientifically kilned, laminated and cabinet finished by expert craftsmen under the personal direction of a professional surf-board aqualist.” (Pacific System Ad)

According to Butte’s son, his father took “great pride in the fact that he had pioneered the making of light surfboards.”

Pacific System models were popular and demand grew; they were shipping 60-boards a month to Hawaiʻi. (Marcus)

Pacific System Homes, as a Butte family enterprise, soon changed; although Pacific System still sold ready-cut houses throughout the thirties, homebuilding did not really recover until after World War II. (Flynn; Gault-William)

Founder/father William Butte died in 1936; sons Meyers and Robert ran the business for a while, then sold the company in 1942 and enlisted in the military. (Flynn; Gault-Williams)

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December 8, 2012 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Surfing – Hawaiʻi’s Gift to the World of Sports

Although no one knows for sure exactly where and when surfing began, there is no doubt that over the centuries the ancient sport of “heʻe nalu” (wave sliding) was perfected, if not invented, by the kings and queens of Hawai’i, long before the 15th century AD.

“Surf-riding was one of the most exciting and noble sports known to the Hawaiians, practiced equally by king, chief and commoner. It is still to some extent engaged in, though not as formerly, when it was not uncommon for a whole community, including both sexes, and all ages, to sport and frolic in the ocean the livelong day.” (Malo)

By 1779, riding waves lying down or standing on long, hardwood surfboards was an integral part of Hawaiian culture. Surfboard riding was as layered into the society, religion and myth of the islands as baseball is to the modern United States.

Chiefs demonstrated their mastery by their skill in the surf and commoners made themselves famous (and infamous) by the way they handled themselves in the ocean.

When Captain Cook arrived in Hawai’i, surfing was deeply rooted in many centuries of Hawaiian legend and culture. Place names had been bestowed because of legendary surfing incidents. The kahuna intoned special chants to christen new surfboards, to bring the surf up and to give courage to the men and women who challenged the big waves.

Hawaiian society was distinctly stratified into royal and common classes, and these taboos extended into the surf zone. There were reefs and beaches where the chiefs surfed and reefs and beaches where the commoners surfed.

Lieutenant James King, commander of the Discovery, 1779, recorded in the ship’s log the first written description of Hawaiian surfing by a European:
“But a diversion the most common is upon the Water, where there is a very great Sea, and surf breaking on the Shore. The Men sometimes 20 or 30 go without the Swell of the Surf, & lay themselves flat upon an oval piece of plan about their Size and breadth, they keep their legs close on top of it, & their Arms are us’d to guide the plank, thye wait the time of the greatest Swell that sets on Shore, & altogether push forward with their Arms to keep on its top, it sends them in with a most astonishing Velocity, & the great art is to guide the plan so as always to keep it in a proper direction on the top of the Swell, & as it alters its direct.”

“The surf-riders, having reached the belt of water outside of the surf, the region where the rollers began to make head, awaited the incoming of a wave, in preparation for which they got their boards under way by paddling with their hands until such time as the swelling wave began to lift and urge them forward.” (Malo)

“(T)hey resorted to the favorite amusement of all classes – sporting on the surf, in which they distinguish themselves from most other nations. In this exercise, they generally avail themselves of the surf-board, an instrument manufactured by themselves for the purpose.” (Bingham)

“The inhabitants of these islands, both male and female, are distinguished by their fondness for the water, their powers of diving and swimming, and the dexterity and ease with which they manage themselves, their surf-boards and canoes, in that element.” (Bingham)

Missionary Amos Cooke, who arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1837 – and was later appointed by King Kamehameha III to teach the young royalty in the Chief’s Childrens’ School – surfed himself (with his sons) and enjoyed going to the beach in the afternoon. “After dinner Auhea went with me, & the boys to bathe in the sea, & I tried riding on the surf. To day I have felt quite lame from it.” (Cooke)

Mark Twain sailed to the Hawaiian Islands and tried surfing, describing his 1866 experience in his book Roughing It. “I tried surf-bathing once, subsequently, but made a failure of it. I got 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.”

Duke Kahanamoku is credited as the ‘Father of Modern Surfing’ and through his many travels, Duke introduced surfing to the rest of the world and was regarded as the father of international surfing. On one trip to Australia in 1914-15, Kahanamoku demonstrated surfing and made such an impression that the Australians erected a statue of him. (Nendel)

Duke was named after his father, who was named Duke after the Duke of Edinburgh who visited Hawaii in 1869 – in 1920, Duke took Prince Edward surfing at Waikīkī.

Today, surfing is thought of as a lifestyle in Hawaiʻi, it is part of the local culture. As an island state, the shore is the beginning of our relationship with the ocean – not the edge of the state line. Surfing expands our horizon, refreshes, rejuvenates and gives hope. It has helped people find harmony in one’s self and the vast ocean. (Hawaiʻi Quarter Design)

As former Hawai’i State governor, George Ariyoshi, stated, “Those of us fortunate to live in Hawai’i are extremely proud of our state and its many contributions to the world. Surfing certainly is one of those contributions. It is a sport enjoyed by men, women and children in nearly every country bordering an ocean. Surfing was born in Hawai’i and truly has become Hawaiʻi’s gift to the world of sports.”

Missionary Hiram Bingham, noted (rather poetically,) “On a calm and bright summer’s day, the wide ocean and foaming surf … the green tufts of elegant fronds on the tall cocoanut trunks, nodding and waving, like graceful plumes, in the refreshing breeze … the natives … riding more rapidly and proudly on their surf-boards, on the front of foaming surges … give life and interest to the scenery.”

The image shows Hawaiian surfing in the early-1800s (culturemap-org-au.) I have added some other surfing images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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