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bingham : surf-riding,
1821
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Hiram Bingham
: Surf-riding, 1821.
Extracted
from
Bingham, Hiram: A Residence Of Twenty-one
Years In The Sandwich Islands,
Or, The Civil, Religious, And Political
History Of Those Islands.
Hezekiah Huntington, Hartford CT;1847
Sherman Converse, New York, 1847
Chapter VI: 1821
Pages 136 and 137.
Introduction.
CHAPTER VI : The Second Year of the
Mission, 1821.
Page 136
SPORTING IN THE SURF.
After this, they 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.
It is made of buoyant wood, thin
at the edges and ends, but of considerable thickness in the middle, smooth,
and ingeniously adapted to the purpose of sustaining a moderate weight
and gliding rapidly on the surface of the water.
It is of various dimensions from
three feet in length, and six or eight inches in breadth, to fourteen feet
in length, and twenty inches in breadth.
In the use of it, the islander,
placing himself longitudinally upon the board as it rests upon the surface
of the water, and using his naked arms and hands as a pair of oars, rows
off from the sand-beach a quarter, or half a mile into the ocean.
Meeting the succession of surges
as they are rolling towards the shore, he glides with ease over such as
are smooth, plunges under or through such as are high and combing, allowing
them to roll over him and his board, coming out unhurt on the other side,
he presses on till his distance is sufficient for a race, or till he has
passed beyond the breaking -or combing surf.
After a little rest, turning around
and choosing one of the highest surges for his locomotive, he adjusts himself
and board, continuing longitudinally upon it directing his head towards
the shore, and just before the highest part of the wave reaches him, he
gives two or three propelling strokes with his spread hands.
The board, having its hindmost end
now considerably elevated, It glides down the moving declivity, and darts
forward like a weaver's shuttle.
He rides with railroad speed on
the forefront of the surge, the whitening surf foaming and roaring just
behind his head, and is borne in triumph to the beach.
Often in this rough riding, which
is sometimes attended with danger, several run the race together. Formerly,
this was usually done on a wager.
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
...
Page 137
... they manage themselves, their
surf-boards and canoes, in that element.
Their divers can stay under water
five or six minutes.
The adoption of our costume greatly
diminishes their practice of' swimming and sporting in the surf, for it
is less convenient to wear it in the water than the native girdle, and
less decorous and safe to lay it entirely off on every occasion they find
for a plunge or swim or surf-board race.
Less time, moreover, is found for
amusement by those who earn or make cloth-garments for themselves like
the more civilized nations.
The decline or discontinuance of
the use of the surf-board, as civilization advances, may be accounted for
by the increase of modesty, industry or religion, without supposing, as
some have affected to believe, that missionaries caused oppressive enactments
against it.
These considerations are in part
applicable to many other amusements.
Indeed, the purchase of foreign
vessels, at this time, required attention to the collecting and delivering
of 450000 lbs. of sandal-wood, which those who were waiting for it might
naturally suppose would, for a time, supersede their amusements.
Bingham, Hiram: A Residence
Of Twenty-one Years In The Sandwich Islands,
Or, The Civil, Religious, And Political
History Of Those Islands.
Hezekiah Huntington, Hartford CT;1847
Sherman Converse, New York, 1847
Pages 136 and 137.
2020ok: Directory of FREE Online Books and FREE eBooks
http://2020ok.com/tags/sandwich.htm
Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
Westward by Sea: A Maritime Perspective
on American Expansion, 1820-1890
"A residence in the Sandwich Islands"
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mymhiwe:
@field(DOCID+@lit(mymhiwedu625b6div6))
surfresearch.com.au
Geoff Cater (1997-2007) : Hiram
Bingham : Surf-riding, 1821.
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1821_Bingham_Surfriding.html
Bingham, Hiram:
A Residence of Twenty-One Years in
the Sandwich Islands : A Civil, Religious and Political History (ISBN:
0804812527)
Tuttle Publishing, Boston, Massachusetts,
U.S.A., 1981.