Henry Cheever of Maine is best known as the author of The Whale and His Captors (1850), written a few years after Cheever voyaged the Pacific on a whaler; Captors was an important source for Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Cheever’s Life in the Sandwich Islands, his follow-up book, was published in 1851 later and includes this…
1843, HENRY T. CHEEVER: “THE SPORT IS SO ATTRACTIVE AND FULL OF WILD EXCITEMENT”
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- DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS: WE SHOULD HAVE STUCK WITH “SHARKBOARDS”!
- 1843, HENRY T. CHEEVER: “THE SPORT IS SO ATTRACTIVE AND FULL OF WILD EXCITEMENT”
- 1769: CANOE SURFING IN TAHITI, BY JOSEPH BANKS. “THEY WERE DRIVEN TOWARD SHORE WITH INCREDIBLE RAPIDITY”
- 1777: CANOE SURFING IN TAHITI, BY WILLIAM ANDERSON. “I COULD NOT HELP CONCLUDING THAT THIS MAN FELT THE MOST SUPREME PLEASURE”
- 1866–1870: EXCERPT FROM “FRAGMENTS OF HAWAIIAN HISTORY,” BY JOHN PAPA ‘Ī‘Ī
- 1778: EXPLORER CHARLES CLERKE: WAIMEA, KAUAI: “MEN AND WOMEN ARE SO PERFECTLY MASTERS OF THEMSELVES IN THE WATER THAT IT APPEARS THEIR ELEMENT”
- 1778: EXPLORER WILLIAM ELLIS, WAIMEA, KAUAI: “THEY HAVE ANOTHER MODE OF CONVEYING THEMSELVES, WHICH WE CALL SHARKBOARDS”
- 1779: EXPLORER DAVID SAMWELL, KEALAKEKUA BAY, HAWAII: “THE MOTION IS SO RAPID THAT THEY SEEM TO FLY ON THE WATER”
- 1779: EXPLORER JAMES KING, KEALAKEKUA BAY, HAWAII: “THE BOLDNESS AND ADDRESS IS SCARCELY TO BE CREDITED”
- 1779: EXPLORER GEORGE GILBERT, KEALAKEKUA BAY, HAWAII. BLIMEY, HOW D’YE PADDLE THESE THINGS?
- 1779: EXPLORER JAMES KING, KEALAKEKUA BAY, HAWAII: “THEY SEEM TO FEEL A GREAT PLEASURE IN THE MOTION WHICH THIS EXERCISE GIVES”
- 1788: CAPTAIN WILLIAM BLIGH, MATAVAI BAY, TAHITI: “THE DELIGHT THEY TAKE IN THIS AMUSEMENT IS BEYOND ANYTHING”
- 1788: EXPLORER JAMES MORRISON, MATAVAI BAY, TAHITI: “AT THIS DIVERSION BOTH SEXES ARE EXCELLENT”
- 1794: EXPLORER PETER PUGET, KEALAKEKUA BAY, HAWAII: “I WAS IN MOMENTARY EXPECTATION OF SEEING SOME DASHED TO PIECES”
- 1817–22: POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, BY WILLIAM ELLIS
- “WORK WAS OFTEN NEGLECTED FOR THE PROSECUTION OF THIS SPORT”: AN EXCERPT FROM THRUM’S ANNUAL, 1896
- 1823: MISSIONARY WILLIAM ELLIS, WAIMANU, HAWAII: “THE ONLY CIRCUMSTANCE THAT EVER MARS THEIR PLEASURE IS THE APPROACH OF A SHARK”
- 1836: “PEOPLE, TO ENJOY LIFE, WANT AMUSEUMENT.” A MISSIONARY CRITIQUE BY WILLIAM RUSCHENBERGER
- 1841: NAVY MAN CHARLES WILKES: SURFING TOO CLOSE TO “LASCIVIOUS THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS”
- 1846: “THO’ THE MOTION IS SWIFT, IT IS VERY PLEASANT,” BOOK EXCERPT FROM CHESTER LYMAN
- 1849: “RARE SPORT AT OHONOO,” BY HERMAN MELVILLE
- 1849: “TRUELY A FAMOUS AND ANIMATING DIVERSION,” EXCERPT FROM “TRAVELS IN THE SANDWICH AND SOCIETY ISLANDS,” BY SAMUEL S. HILL
- 1861: “THEY CAN SPRING UPRIGHT ON THE SURFBOARD AND COME IN ERECT!” AN EXCERPT FROM “THE VICTORIAN VISITORS,” BY SOPHIA CRACROFT
- 1865: “SUCH RIDING OF MAN AND WOMAN ON THE SAME WAVE RESULTS IN SEXUAL INDULGENCE,” J. WAIAMAU
- 1867: “A GREAT SEA CAUGHT ME,” BY JAMES CHALMERS
- 1868: TSUNAMI DESTROYS BIG ISLAND TOWNS, CREATES BIG-WAVE LEGEND
- THE LEGEND OF KELEA: “JOYFUL AT THE THOUGHT OF SURFING”
- “FAITHLESS LOVER TURNED TO STONE,” ANCIENT HAWAIIAN LOVE-GONE-BAD SURFING LEGEND
- 1913: “MAMALA, THE SURF-RIDER,” BY WILLIAM WESTERVELT
- “SOUNDS FROM THE SEA – THE GREATEST GIRL BATHER,” SURF HISTORY DISCOVERY (1888)