SURFS UP!
On Captain James Cook's third expedition to the Pacific, his ships, HMS Discovery and Resolution, made the first recorded European visit to Hawai'i in 1778. When the Discovery anchored off Hawaii’s Kona coast, Cook, and his crew caught their first glimpse of naked Hawaiians riding the waves on smooth wooden boards.
When Cook’s crew arrived in Hawai'i, surfing ("he'enalu" in Hawaiian) 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.
After the publication of the Cook expeditions journals, Hawai'i became the central Pacific destination of choice for captains, brigands, adventurers, missionaries and other opportunists. The haole brought new technologies, languages and Gods, along with vices and diseases that ravaged a society that had evolved over more than a millennium. Speaking the Hawaiian language, dancing the hula, chanting songs to and about the gods and goddesses of the islands, and wearing little or no clothes was deemed shameful and forbidden.
Brought to the brink of extinction, Hawaiian people, their customs, and the sport of surfing has survived. Too bad, the original Hawaiian preference for nude surfing hasn’t. Of all human beings on this planet who deserve to be naked—surely it is surfers. They have the leanest bodies, smooth and sculpted by water, toned, balanced, and tanned.
On Captain James Cook's third expedition to the Pacific, his ships, HMS Discovery and Resolution, made the first recorded European visit to Hawai'i in 1778. When the Discovery anchored off Hawaii’s Kona coast, Cook, and his crew caught their first glimpse of naked Hawaiians riding the waves on smooth wooden boards.When Cook’s crew arrived in Hawai'i, surfing ("he'enalu" in Hawaiian) 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.
After the publication of the Cook expeditions journals, Hawai'i became the central Pacific destination of choice for captains, brigands, adventurers, missionaries and other opportunists. The haole brought new technologies, languages and Gods, along with vices and diseases that ravaged a society that had evolved over more than a millennium. Speaking the Hawaiian language, dancing the hula, chanting songs to and about the gods and goddesses of the islands, and wearing little or no clothes was deemed shameful and forbidden.
Brought to the brink of extinction, Hawaiian people, their customs, and the sport of surfing has survived. Too bad, the original Hawaiian preference for nude surfing hasn’t. Of all human beings on this planet who deserve to be naked—surely it is surfers. They have the leanest bodies, smooth and sculpted by water, toned, balanced, and tanned.
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