The year 1778 marked the first European contact of record with the Hawaiian island chain. Captain James Cook led the expedition. It was also the first European observation of the ancient sport of surfing.

Cook was a remarkable man. He twice circumnavigated the globe and even charted key portions of Antarctica, but his dream of finding an efficient route from England to Asia without rounding the Cape of Good Hope was never realized. The discovery of the Hawaiian (“Sandwich”) Islands was on his third great voyage. It would be his last.

The First European Record of Surfboard Riding

It was on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1779 at Kealakekua Bay, that one of the greatest maritime careers in history came to an end when Cook was killed by local Hawaiians in a battle on the beach. After the death of the great captain, Lt. James King was made First Lieutenant of Cook’s ship the Discovery. It is from King that we have the first written description of surfboard riding. The following is King’s journal entry:

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. If the Swell drives him close to the rocks before he is overtaken by its break, he is much prais’d. On first seeing this very dangerous diversion I did not conceive it possible but that some of them must be dashed to mummy against the sharp rocks, but jus before they reach the shore, if they are very near, they quit their plank, & dive under till the Surf is broke, when the piece of plank is sent many yards by the force of the Surf from the beach. The greatest number are generally overtaken by the break of the swell, the force of which they avoid, diving and swimming under the water out of its impulse. By such like excercises, these men may be said to be almost amphibious. The Women could swim off to the Ship, & continue half a day in the Water, & afterwards return. The above diversion is only intended as an amusement, not a tryal of skill, & in a gentle swell that sets on must I conceive be very pleasant, at least they seem to feel a great pleasure in the motion which this Exercise gives.

Waves to Remember

A lot has happened in the world of surfboard riding over the last 225 years, not the least of which is the remarkable technology behind the modern boards which allow the most talented and daring to perform amazing feats that appear to test the very laws of physics. My family spent half a day watching some of the best in the world gather for an unusual swell on the North Shore of Oahu. Below are some of the images I shot from the world-famous Bonzai Pipeline:

If you look carefully to the right of the image, you can see a ninety-percent-submerged photographer shooting a boogie boarder as he descends the wave.

Some time ago, the residents of Oahu began sizing their waves by the back rather than the face, a standard which left much smaller height measurements. The idea here was to quell the budding reputation for the size of North Shore waves and to discourage mainlanders from making the surf pilgrimage to the island.

Many of the pro and semi-pro surfers I watched wore helmets, a recent development in surfing gear necessitated by the size of the North Shore waves and the power of the waves to smash surfboards and humans. I stopped counting broken surfboards at the fifth destruction.

God bless the surf champs at the Bonzai Pipeline. But the most amazing surf story of which I know occurred this year when I watched a mother of seven children ride a wave (in a bathing dress) more than two hundred yards. That was impressive. I am not saying who... but she looked a lot like the woman to the left.