surfresearch.com.au  corbett / the sun : kahanamoku talks, 1915

Surf shooting is indeed new in Australia.
We do not need to go to the oldest inhabitant for information regarding how or when it began.
Men who could supply all the particlars are yet young.
Somewhere about twenty-two years since (9.), as the result of a long and vigorous fight for the privilege by several residents of Manly, peole who desired to do so were allowed to bathe in the surf at any time and all times throughout the day, and their number multiplied remarkably from year to year. (10.)

SURF SHOOTING'S BEGINNINGS
We had surf shooting four or five years before surf bathing became general. (11.)
Mr Fred C. Williams, that inimitable handler of the megaphone at all Sydney's important swiming carnivals, was the pioneer.
He picked up the art from a South Sea Islander, and spread knowldge of it amoung the surfers on the favored beaches of the time - Freshwater, Curl Curl and Maroubra. (12.)
Mr. Williams was then the best exponent of cavorting the breakers, and he still stands out in that respect  beyond all others.

This enthusiast will tell you of surf shooters of the early days of the game who suprised their fellows  by the clever manner in which they used the force of the breaker.
I have heard of him mention Monty Fuller, Douglas Walker, Frank Bell, Harald Baker (the Stadium referee), Jack Thompson, Morman Martin (Maroubra), Arthur Rosenthal, Clive Smith, and Co., as wonderfully adept at taking the wave and never leaving it till it exhausted itself.

Proceeding, Kahanamoku said : "You have hundreds more surf shooters at work in one day around Sydney than we see in a week, or perhaps a much longer stretch of time, at Honolulu, but I think the old island has the pastime at greater perfection, which is only to be expected considering its antiquity with us. (13.)
We race each other in on a breaker, and the desire to excel sets us all thinking hard and practising constantly.

THE DIFFERENCE.
"You catch the wave as it curls. We take it earlier, perhaps half a dozen yards away from the point of turning, and accumulate speed by scooping the water with the right hand and using the left in the ordinary way, putting in the while at least the speed you saw me finish my world record in last saturday afternoon.
Then the velocity of the shoot is materially increased and its duration rendered greater.
We begin on our sides and find we get more control over the effort, then we turn on our backs or breasts as fancy suggests.
You are apparently content with one position.
Two or more of your beaches I have seen where dozens of bathers were shooting or trying to shoot are not suitable.
The best performers amoung the people patronising those places would do a great deal better if assisted by more favorable conditions. (14.)
Holes and channels created by the water's action are against the best results in surf shooting.
We believe there is not another place in the world equal of Waikiki  - that little cove  lying in the shelter of Diamond Head - for surf shooting purposes, and thousands of travellers who call at picturesque island every year endorse that opinion.
It has  a big curve protected by a large coral reef about half a mile from the shore.
There is absolutely no undertow. (15.)

SURF BOARD AND CANOE.
"There the facscinating sports of surf-canoeing and surf-board riding are indulged in by man, woman, and child, who insist that they have the most exhiarating and fascinating pastime known.
The canoe is cunningly turned  before a breaker near the edge of the reef till it is picked up like a feather on the inclined plane of the front of the  wave, and borne with remarkable  speed - frequently  right to shore.
The  board is worked on the same principle, but its control  calls for  much greater skill.

"There are numbers of high class surf-shooters in Honolulu, and some white people amoung them, but, as with every other game, a few can do better than the great majority.
It was with the few I delighted to be. (16.)
You ask me if I held the championship as a surf shooter!
I did not, because we had no competitions, but I do not mind telling you that there were none around Honolulu whom I knew anything about able to shape better than me (17.), and the full-blooded Hawaiian population is something between 25,000 and 30,000.

"You must get suitable  days here to achieve the best results, and we, at Honolulu, also need suitable days, but more of them occur at Waikiki Beach than on this country's ocean front. (18.)

FAVORABLE CONDITIONS REQUIRED. (19.)
"Take Freshwater, for instance.
I was promised a long roll there the day I gave that exhibition on the board, and perhaps such a state of affairs may be more often experienced at Freshwater than at Manly, Coogee or Bondi, but I found a short roll and a sea otherwise which needed some managing. (20.)
With everything favorable one can show one's best , and the more frequently condiions are right  the more practice the shooter gets.

"Your  surfers do wonderfully well, all things considered.
But  not  every man  can become an expert.
All people are not built the right way.
The greater the bouyancy the easier the task.
There are men who cxan never float properly.
Their legs will insist on dropping down."

THE EAR TROUBLE. (21.)
Questioned regarding his ear trouble, and asked if it was prevalent amoung Honolulu's surf shooters, Kahanamoku said he never heard of many people suffering.
Occassionally there were cases more serious than others, but considering the number of people who entered the surf, the percentage was very small.
Three or four toimes he had to seek medical attention to relieve him of pain, and found filling his ears with rubber plugs, which are procurable in Sydney, or using wadding saturated with oil, every time he swam till a cure was effected, helped him a great deal.
Before starting for the 100 yards championship of New South Wales last Sunday afternoon     Kahanamoku  could only plug one ear.
It would not have paid to be deaf  to the startes's signals.

W. F. Corbett : A Great  Surf Shooter - Kahanamoku Talks.
The Sun  8th January 1915. Page 6 

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Duke Kahanamoku and Board
Freshwater Clubhouse, Sydney, Australia
circa 10 January 1915

2. The reporter, W. F. Corbett joined The Referee, (a Sydney sporting paper) in 1888, where he reported boxing, swimming, lawn bowls and both codes of rugby.
He moved to the Sydney Sun in 1913. (Source -Rabbitoh Warren)
After a journalistic career of 37 years, he died in 1923, aged 67.
(Source -the Bulletin, Sydney, 1 November, 1923)

3. Sydney's surfing enthusiasts were as interested in Duke Kahanamoku's body surfing skills, as well as his ability on a suirfboard..

4. The ancient origins of surf riding are noted.

5. I suggest this contention is open to further discussion.

6. The boards reported as held by the Bishop Museum probably refers to those ridden at Wakiki in the 1830's by high chief Abner Paki and eventually restored by Tom Blake in the late 1920's.
See #502

7. Duke Kahanamoku was aware of his own press coverage.

8.  That surfboard design has a history (experience) and is also in continuous development (study of cause and effect).

9. circa 1893

10. Legalised daylight bathing is credited to Manly residents and there is no mention of the often credited William Goucher.

11. Hard core suring enthusiasts preceeded the growth of popular surf bathing.

12. Circa 1895, South Sea Islander, Tommy Tana, a youth employed as a houseboy in the Manly district, introduced body surfing to Australia.
From the Pacific island of Tana, (New Hebrides, now Vanuatu) he amazed onlookers at Manly Beach with his skill at using the power of a wave to ride back to the beach.
His style was studied and copied by Manly swimmers, notably Eric Moore, Arthur Lowe and Freddie Williams, considered the first local to master the sport.
Enthusiasm for surf riding expanded such that Manly surfers were invited to demonstrate the technique at other metropolitan beaches, ultimately including Newcastle and Wollongong.

13. Notes the immense popularity of surf riding in Australia at this time.

14. The importance of suitable surf conditons, futher expanded upon later in the interview.

15. The suitability of Wakikiki for surf riding - given the frequency, number of breaks, favorable wind direction and tropical air and water temperatures - is unique.

16. While aware of his own abilities, Duke Kahanamoku indicates that his skills are not unique, and are attainable by others.

17. Can only refer to surfboard shaping?
If so, it would firmly cement Duke Kahanamoku's postion as the founder of modern surfboard design.
It would also account for the importance and revence accorded to Duke's designs and construction technics by Australian surfers.

18. Given the restricted geographic mobility of the period.

19. Further comments on the importance of suitable surf conditons,  expanded intial observations, see 14.

20. Probably refers to a uneven swell or even choppy surface conditions, as indicated by photograph by the Daily Telegraph, 25th December, 1914.
Image below.

21. Ear problems are a common complaint for surfers, exotosis is commonly called "Surfer's Ear".
The use of ear plugs is the most practical preventative.
.
20. There is no discussion of wave height.or mention of tandem riding.

ACROBATICS IN THE SURF.
The Daily Telegraph Friday 25 th December 1914 Page 7

DUKE KAHANAMOKU, THE HAWAIIAN SWIMMER, RIDING THE BREAKERS ON A BOARD AT FRESHWATER YESTERDAY.

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