The page for Tom Blake's 1935 book Hawaiian Surfboard just posted. Like Blake himself, Surfboard is a strange work, part history, part how-to manual, with a sprinkling of Blakeian observations about the state of surfing halfway through the Great Depression. A few excerpts are presented here.


Big surf seems to be caused by disturbances in the earth, such as earthquakes. Great swells are started from the place of the quake and travel just as ripples travel to the edge of a pond when a stone is cast in. A few days before a recent big surf, newspapers carried daily reports of earthquakes in Japan, Italy and elsewhere. Prior to this, the bay at Waikiki was like a millpond. But overnight it changed and for four days we had some fine surfriding. In 1917, during the Japanese earthquake, there was a long spell of big surf here of which the boys still talk. So it seems to be the jars, the shaking, the vibration from the inside of the earth that causes the big surfs. I have seen [big] waves at Makapu Point in the winter time, while at Waikiki beach there was no surf. Evidently, the gravity “pull” of the planets has something to do with it.


On one occasion, about 1918, a [surf] riding contest was held [in Waikiki]. Everybody disagreed, and that led them to believe surfriding contests were impracticable. The summer of 1935 will mark the revival of the once popular surfriding contest under the ancient rules, to decide the champion of the Hawaiian Islands. Duke Kahanamoku has put up a cup, a genuine Hawaiian koa calabash, as a perpetual trophy. [The contest will be held] when First Break, or big surf, is running. The rules will be as follows: Contestants gather outside of a buoy at First Break. As a good set of waves appear, a starter fires a gun and the race begins. Surfriders then must ride (at least halfway standing) to a second buoy inside Canoe Surf, or about where the waves end. The first contestant to the buoy will be credited with 10 points, the second with 9 points, the third with 8 points, and so on until the tenth rider gets 1 point. Contestants then leisurely paddle back out to the starting buoy and the same performance is repeated [five times]. The contestant who has the highest number of points wins. Judging a riding contest any other way, such as points on form, paddling, catching the wave, etc., is confusing and out of the question.


The only definite date I can say as to when “sliding the waves” started was in 1907 or 1908, because Kenneth Atkinson condemned the new “slide” idea and exhorted the beachboys to keep to the orthodox method of riding straight before the break.



The Outrigger Canoe Club is the center of surfriding in Waikiki. At the club is to be found a row of some 200 upright surfboard lockers, filled with boards of all sizes, shades and colors; the average being 10-feet long, 23 inches wide, three inches thick; quite flat on top and bottom, with edges rounded; weighing up to 75 pounds. They are made of California redwood, white cedar, white sugar pine, and a few of balsa wood. Ninety-percent being of redwood because of its lightness, strength, and cheapness. Ten-dollars will buy the rough plank to make a redwood board. Some of the boards are hollowed out.


[On a] Pan American trip from Nassau, I carried a full-sized hollow surfboard as baggage without trouble or inconvenience.


Acquaintances in the States have asked me why I bury myself in the Hawaiian Islands. The reason is I like it. It fits my nature, it is life’s compensation for such a nature as mine. I like it because I live simple and quietly here . . . without the social life. I can dress as I please, for comfort, usually it’s a pair of canvas sneakers, light trousers and a sleeveless polo shirt with swimming trunks. I can . . . rest and sleep for hours in the wonderful sunshine each day. I like the opportunity of studying and seeing the great mixture of races gathered here, each one retaining many of their old customs and eating, dress, and living. I pick a custom or two from each race to use at my convenience. Perhaps it is the Buddhist religion of the Chinese; the poi-eating and surfriding of the Hawaiians; the raw peanut eating of the Filipinos; the happiness, enthusiasm and appreciation with which the Japanese meet their daily duties. I like it here because I can live conservatively. It is a great place for a bachelor.


LET US NOW READ FROM THE BOOK OF BLAKE

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