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polynesian surfriding : other islands

5.1. Introduction.
These brief notes illustrate that surf riding was wide spread across Polynesia.

5.2 Pitcairn Island, 1821.
Following an extended stay at Matavai Bay in Tahiti in 1788-1789, Midshipman Fletcher Christian led the
infamous mutiny on the Bounty, setting Captain Bligh adrift in a longboat.
After returnining to Tahiti, Christian was desperate to find a sanctuary from punishment by the Royal Navy and
eventually settled the then uninhabited and remote Pitcairn Island with some of the mutineers and a number of,
mostly female, native Tahitians.
As the mutineers progresively eliminated themselves by misadventure or murder, Pitcairn became a intergated
culture of English and Tahitian influences.

The island settlement was disovered in 1808 by Captain Folger in the Topaz, who reported his surprising find
to the British Admiralty.
However there was litle official interest in pursuing what was now merely remnants of the mutiny.
Whereas European influence on Pitcairn was principally evident in a resurgent Christianity, Polynesian culture
maintained a strong bond with the ocean, most noteably a continuation of surfboard riding in relatively difficult
conditions.
A number of vessels visited the island before the Surry in 1921, when the inhabitants were observed surfing on
small boards.
Crew member, Dr. Ramsay reported:

"The Capt returned and told me that after loading the boats which was done by swimming through the
surf with the fruit, they to his great astonishment amused themselves by taking a flat board about 3
feet long, on the upper side smooth and on the under a ridge like a keel, and went out on a rock and
waited till a large breaker came and when the top of it was close on them, away they went with the
piece of wood under their belly on the top of this breaker and directed themselves by their feet into
the little channel formed by the rocks, so that men the surf left them they were only up to their knees
in water.
They are very dexterous in keeping off the rocks which to us would be inevitable death."
- page 7.

While the Pitcairn surfboards were built of local timber, the incorporation of a "ridge like a keel" appears to be
unique and is not recorded in any of the reports of traditional surfboards of Tahiti or the Hawaiian Islands.
It appears to be a design feature intended to give the board directional stability (commonly known as a fin and
usually accredited to Tom Blake in 1935), developed by a combination of the Tahitian native design and the
European seaman's knowledge of boat building.
Alternatively, there is a very remote possibility that it was added to give board structural strength.

In 1823, a British whaler, Cyrus, left two of her crew on Pitcairn, John Buffett and John Evans, who provided an
injection of European influence, but this was minor in comparison to the significant social dislocation resulting
from the arrival of Joshua Hill in 1831.
Due to the pressure of an increasing population on the small island, several attempts were made to relocate the
inhabitants before there was a major relocation to Norfolk Island in 1856, where the descents of the Bounty
mutineers' continued their enjoyment of surfriding.

Ramsey, Dr. David: The Scrapbook of the Log of the Ship "Surry", Pitcairn Island April 1821.
Acquired from The Pitcairn Islands Study Center : Historic Papers
http://library.puc.edu/pitcairn/studycenter/store/papers.shtml

5.3 Rapanui (Easter Island), 1827.
Intially discovered by xxx in xxxx, Rapanui is the most eastern of the islands of the Polynesian triangle.
Its location off the coast of South America led some anthropologists, noteably Thor Heyerdahl, to doubt the islanders' Polynesian ancestry.
Early European visitors immediately recognised the island had passed its cultural apex, evidenced by the desecration of the famous stone statues, and extreme enviromental devastation with the complete erradication of the native timbers.
The lack of timber severely limitted the islanders ability to construct canoes and restricted their access to fishing resources.

Visiting Rapanui in 1827, Hugh Cuming noted the islanders swimming out to the vessel with supplies for the visitors, principally plantains (bananas), a practice reported on many other Polynesian islands.:

“On standing into the Bay on the West side of the Island which appears to be the most highly
cultivated, we saw the Natives collected in great numbers on the Rocks and on nearing the shore
they took to the Water and swam onboard each person having a small Net or Basket or a Bunch of
plantians on his Back for Sale or barter."

These goods were exchanged for fish hooks (made from metal) and timber, indicative of the lack of local resources:

"they where [were] particularly partial to Wood and Fish hooks for one only the[y] gave a Net or Basket full of Fruit or Vegetables."

The islanders' skill at swimming is common to many reports of early European contact across the Polynesian triangle:

"Swimming at which the[y] are very expert as I ever witness'd,"

Without acces to canoes, the Rapanui's had constructed diminutive craft made from small shrubs to assist their swimming in difficult conditions:

"when the Sea becomes rough which occurd in the afternoon some of them made use of small Balsas or Bundle of Flags about 2 Feet long, Six Inches thick at one End and tapering to a point at the other.
this the[y] place betwixt their legs to assist them in Swimming"

While the small "Balsas or Bundle of Flags" were not surfboards, they were certainly an elementary floatation device of considerable assistance.
Fischer comments in his notes on the text:

"Cuming further notes (MS pp.7-8) how the Rapanui make use of “small Balsas or Bundle of Flags
about 2 Feet long” that taper to a point at each end to assist them in swimming out to the Discoverer,
this pora (type of raft) was first mentioned by Lisiansky (1814:1:58). (Footnote) 9.

In footnote 9, Steven Roger Fischer suugests the craft were of Polynesian origin and are not diretly related to the reed boats (pora) as used by ancient Peruvians:

"9. For a physical description of this raft, see Métraux (1940:208).
Pora were also used for surf-riding.
Their use most likely originated uniquely on Rapanui for want of appropriate wood to construct
proper vaka; i.e., they would probably not represent an importation of similar Peruvian craft, as
Heyerdahl has repeatedly suggested."

Fischer, Steven Roger:Hugh Cuming's Acount of an Anchorage at Rapanui (Easter Island) November 27-8, 1827.
Journal of Polynesian Society, Volume 100, Number 3, 1991, pages 303 - 316.
Above quotations page 304.

Métraux, Alfred:Ethnology of Easter Island.
Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 160, Honolulu, 1940, page 208.

Lisyansky, Yuri: Voyage round the world in the Ship Neva.
Lisiansky, London, 1814.

5.4 Niue, 1902.
Located about 1500 miles to the north east of New Zealand, to the east of Fiji and about half way between Samoa and Tonga, it was first sighted by Captain James Cook in 1774..
Cook recorded the natives were distrustful of strangers and he was refused permission to land, describing the region as the "Savage Islands".
Christianity was brought o the island by Peniamina in 1846, after he was converted during his stay at
Samoa.
The islanders were completely converted to Christianity by the end of the 19th century.
Colonization took place thereafter and the island was declared as a part of the British Empire.

In an article for the Journal of Polynesian Society (1902, page 215), S. Percy Smith, detailed the canoes and fishing practices of the Nuie islanders, drawing parallels with other Polynesian craft:

"Like all Polynesians, the Niue people are expert canoe men.
Even to this day they go in their little canoes right round the island on fishing expeditions, on the weather side of which rough seas are experienced.
Every dark night fleets of canoes are to be seen along the leeward coast with their bright torches ('hulu') engaged in catching flying or other kinds of fish,—it is a very pretty sight to see them.
A canoe is a 'vaka', as it is in all other parts in some form of that word; but 'foulua' is also a
canoe, now applied to ships, which are also called 'tonga'.
The canoes have outriggers, which are fastened by two arms to the canoe itself.
The hull is dug out of a log, with a topside lashed on and enclosed for a space both fore and aft.
The seams are caulked with a hard gum called 'pili', and are often ornamented with shells and a little very rough carving.
The Niue canoes are more like the 'va'a-alo-atu' or Bonito canoes of Samoa than any others I have seen, but they are not so well-finished nor so long.
A Niue canoe is from 12 feet to 25 feet in length, about 18 inches or 2 feet deep, and somewhat less in width.
They carry from one to three or four people.
The outrigger is called a 'hama'; a double canoe is 'vaka-hai-ua', but not now in use.
The paddles are termed 'fohe', and are shaped as seen in Plate 6.
With these the canoes can be propelled at a considerable pace, and they sometimes sail, the sail being a 'la', the mast a 'fane'.
The natives manage their craft very adroitly in coming onto the reef in rough weather, for at that time the little chasms ('ava') in the reef are not available for landing purposes."

The final comment, "manage their craft very adroitly in coming onto the reef in rough weather", probably indicates some form of canoe surf riding, a familiar practice across Polynesia.

In a section on Amusements (page 217), Smith notes:

"Surf-riding was another amusement, called 'Fakatu-lapa' or 'Fakatu-peau', which again is common to the race everywhere, but seems to have been practised more in Hawaii than elsewhere."

Smith, S. Percy: Nuie Island and Its People.
Journal of Polynesian Society, Volume 11, Number 4, 1902, pages 195-218.

5.5 Ellice Islands
The Ellice Islands, now known as Tuvalu, are located in Oceania.
The island group consists of nine coral atolls in the South Pacific Ocean, about one-half of the way from Hawaii to Australia.
Donald Gilbert Kennedy in his index to Field Notes on the Culture of Vaitupu Ellice Islands (1932) indicates a reference to surf-riding on page 112.

Kennedy, Donald Gilbert: Memoir No. 9. Supplement to the Journal of the Polynesian Society.
Field notes on the culture of Vaitupu Ellice Islands.
Journal of the Polynesian Society, Volume 41, Number 9, 1932, pages 321 to 328.

In 1912, a goup of Ellice islanders demonstrated their surfing skill, and some native traditions, at a Sdydney surf carnival:

A successful surf carnival was held at North Steyne, Manly on Saturday afternoon, 28 December 1912.
The display was witnessed by 15,000 spectators.
...
One of the prinipal attractions was the presence of a team of native swimmers from the Ellice Islands.
They entertained the crowd with their quaint songs and war dances, combined with clever exhibitions of surf and boat displays in the breakers.
139. Sydney Morning Herald 30 December 1913, Daily Telegraph 30 December 1913.

- S&G Champion: Drowning, Bathing and Life Saving (2000) page 177.

polynesian surfriding : chapter 6

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