British sea captain William Bligh served as sailing master beneath Captain Cook during Cook’s third and final voyage to the Pacific, which began in 1776. In 1787, Bligh captained the HMS Bounty during its 

famously and notoriously fraught voyage to the South Pacific.

 This entry was written five months before Bligh’s subordinates, sailing home from Tahiti, mutinied.

Note: surfboards, below, are referred to as “paddles.”

The heavy surf which has run on the shore for a few days past has given great amusement to many of the Natives, but is such as one would suppose would drown any European. The general plan of this diversion is for a number of them to advance with their paddles to where the Sea begins to break and placing the broad part under the Belly holding the other end with their Arms extended at full length, they turn themselves to the surge and balancing themselves on the Paddles are carried to the shore with the greatest rapidity. As several seas follow each other they have those to encounter on their return, which they do by diving under them with great ease and cleverness.

The delight they take in this amusement is beyond anything, and is of the most essential good for them, for even in their largest and best Canoes they are so subject to accidents of being overturned that their lives depend on their swimming and habituating themselves to remain long in the Water. They also practice with small Canoes in these high surfs, and it is seldom that any of them get overturned or filled.

1788: CAPTAIN WILLIAM BLIGH, MATAVAI BAY, TAHITI: "THE DELIGHT THEY TAKE IN THIS AMUSEMENT IS BEYOND ANYTHING"

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