"SURF RIDING IN CANOES SOCIETY FAD OF NEWPORT" (1908)

"Surf Riding in Canoes Society Fad of Newport," unattributed, ran in the August 28, 1908 edition of the Los Angeles Evening News.

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One of the great sports at Newport this season, of which the outside world hears nothing, is surf riding in canoes. This is a feature of the fun in which the exclusive set indulges on the private beach at the foot of Bellevue Avenue, where, free from public company, they disport themselves in the surges and ride the waves like South Sea Islanders.

The beach is admirably adapted to such sport. The sea comes ashore in heavy rollers. The sand at either end is buttressed with rocks, and the waves are accentuated as they are compressed between these jutting points of ledge and roll on to the curving beach inshore.

The narrower and "crankier” the canoe is the better, for balancing her in the surf is the best part of the sport. Some of the young women of the summer colony at Newport who ride, drive motorcars, play golf, sail yachts and dance with equal ease, have added the art of surf riding to their list of sporting accomplishments, and devote an hour a day to It. The young men also follow it assiduously, and its charm is by no means lessened by the presence of the young women at the bench.

The ideal team for surf riding is a man of say 175 pounds paddling at the stern, with a girl of 120 or so in the bow. This gives the canoe proper trim, and trim is important, for a canoe down by the bow cannot be ridden on the back of a roller, owing to Its tendency to yaw.

The surf rider launches his canoe—or hers—and wades out through the line of breakers with it, then climbs aboard and paddles off to the outer raft. Here the rollers begin to make up for their final rush to the beach, and when a good sea is running, they are long, glassy and deep mounds and valley of pure green, moving toward the shore with irresistible power.

The surf rider dallies around, with his canoe headed for the beach, until he feels himself lifted on an unusually large roller. Then he begins to paddle like an Indian guide chasing a moose in a Maine lake. Fast paddling is necessary to keep the canoe on the back of the roller, and the trick of the sport is to ride the hoary monster to the beach and land on the sand in the last swish of froth unscathed.

If the rider is unable to keep the pace and the roller goes on ahead of him, he is in danger of being picked up by the following wave and shot at the beach at an angle that will trip him up, and send his frail boat end over end.

Sometimes when the waves are sharp, the green edge of a roller, as It strikes shoal ground, will engulf the canoe. For a minute there is a mixture of arms, legs and paddles in the foaming, yeasty surf, then a couple of heads emerge and the canoe is hauled out on the beach to be freed of water. It is then taken out again and the occupants climb in for another trial.

Nothing can be prettier than a pretty girl, of which Newport society has an abundance, and a stalwart young fellow, in their bathing suits, paddling a bright red or green canoe on the top of a long roller, and bringing it through the surf without a spill.

The exhilaration of being lifted forward by the roller is very great, and the knowledge that a spill cannot be followed by serious consequence, owing to the shallowness of the water, and the presence of the liferopes to prevent anyone being drawn into deeper water, robs the sport of all fears that it might hold for the timid.