Sophia Cracroft, an adventurous and well-connected upper-class Londoner, visited Hawaii for two months in 1861 and wrote about her experiences in a book of letters titled The Victorian Visitors. While there, Cracroft and her traveling partner, Lady Jane Franklin, were guests of King Kamehameha IV. The scene below takes place in Kailua, on the Big Island.

At twelve, we [headed off] to a bay a little way below this, to see some surf riding. Seeing the Catholic Church open we looked in—the priest invited us in but we declined, stopping only long enough to observe that it was large, very well kept, and without any of the usual nonsense and frippery—only one picture was over the altar. There were several natives there praying—i.e., on their knees—and this made us regret that this act of outward homage does not prevail in the Presbyterian Church. We were quite a cavalcade of horsemen and walkers—men, women, and children, some of whom accompanied us the whole way, some three miles—our bearers often running along merrily.

We alighted at a very nice native house belonging to a Chief of the lower grade, a very good-looking man whom Mr. Kalakaua had introduced to us yesterday. He is an excellent surf rider and joined in the succeeding sport, which was also witnessed by a great number of people belonging to the village, who clustered all round the house.

I fear I can hardly give you a correct idea of surf riding but I must try.

A man or woman swims out to the line of breakers, having before him a thin board from 4 to 6 feet long and about 15 inches wide; this in swimming he carries before him with one arm, swimming with the other. The curling waves are nothing to these wonderful swimmers—they either dive under them or ride up the face of the liquid wall and appear on the top of or behind it. They choose their wave according to its height and the direction it will take in reaching the shore, and then instead of facing it they turn about, place the surfboard immediately in front, rise to the crest of the wave, and literally 

 upon it with extended limbs until it has spent itself upon the beach. But if they perceive that it will cast itself against the rocks, then they turn round again and stop short. It is a really wonderful sight, and some are so expert that during their flying progress they can spring upright on the surfboard and come in erect! We saw one man do this.

All here living on the coast are as much at home in the water as on the land and seem to enjoy it thoroughly. The children begin from tender youth, three or four years old. You see them run in to the edge of the water and out again—a little older and they go farther and dance in the outer edge of the spent waves, throwing themselves down that the water may pass over them—older still and they have their tiny surfboards, being already good swimmers. Morning and noontime you see them here by the dozen in the water, shouting, playing, jumping in from the rocks head foremost or straight upright, diving, standing on their heads, and dashing their legs in the air—in fact, their antics are innumerable.

1861: “THEY CAN SPRING UPRIGHT ON THE SURFBOARD AND COME IN ERECT!" AN EXCERPT FROM "THE VICTORIAN VISITORS,” BY SOPHIA CRACROFT

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