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bougainville : tahitian surf-riding, 1768

Bouganville : Description of Tahitian Surf-riding, 1768.

Source: Unidentified.
de Bougainville, Louis-Antoine
The Pacific Journal of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville 1767-1768
The Hakluyt Society., London. 2002.
1st edition, volume No. 9, in Third Series of works issued by the Hakluyt Society.
Translated and edited by John Dunmore.
LXXVII, 322 PP with 5 maps, 2 colour and 3 b/w plates.

de Bougainville, Louis
A Voyage Around the World ... In the Years 1766, 1767,1768 and 1769.
J. Nourse, The Strand and T. Davies, Covent Garden, London, 1772.
Translated from the French by John Reinhold Forster.
1967 Fascimile Edition by
N. Israel, Keizersgracht 5539, Amsterdam.
Da Capo Press, 227 West 17th Street, New York.

Canoe Prow

A plank, which covers the head of the periagina, and projects about five or six feet beyond it, prevents it entirely plunging into the water, when there is a great sea.

Bougainville (Forster): Voyage (1772), page 259.

Bougainville (Forster): Voyage (1772), covers the visit to Tahiti pages 220 to 274.

One French book, published in 2005, quotes a description of surfriding written by Louis Antoine de Bougainville at Tahiti in April 1778, twelve months before the arrival of Cook's Endeavour.

Roussel, Nolwenn: Jardin de Recif: Sur la trace des premiers surfeurs tahitiens.
(Reef Gardens: Tracing/Finding/Identifying the First Tahitian Surfers.)
Atlantica, Biarritz. 2005.

More significantly, Roussel
Roussel writes (French text, with English translation by google and adjusted):

"Printemps 2003 : l'lle de Tahiti est aujourd'hui tres connue pour la qualite de son surf, c'est-a-dire de ses vagues et de ses surfeurs.
Spring 2003: the island of Tahiti is renowned today for the quality of its surfing, that is its waves and its surfers.

Est-il possible que Tahiti et sa region aient ete le berceau du surf?
Is it possible that Tahiti and its region (the Society Islands) were the cradle of surfing?

Pourquoi pas!
Why not! / It is possible!

Avant, on pensait que le surf venait de Hawai'i.
First / Initially, it was thought that surfing came from Hawai'i.
<...> " - page 15.

"Cependant, certains de ces textes ant ete ecrits des 1768.
However, some of these (surfriding) texts were written in 1768.

Or, les Europeens ne sont arrives sur les lles Hawai'i -appelees alors lles Sandwich - qu'en 1778.
But, the Europeans did not arrive in the Hawaiian Islands, then known as the Sandwich Islands, until 1778.

Ces textes avaient ete ecrits avant!
These texts had been written first!

Le surf se pratiquait donc en meme temps a Tahiti et a Hawai'i !
Surfing was thus practised at the same time in Tahiti and in Hawai'i!

Mieux: ces textes, ecrits a Tahiti, sont les premieres descriptions faites de surfeurs !
Better: these texts, writings in Tahiti, are the first recorded descriptions of surfers!

Qu'est-ce que l'on sait des surfeurs d'il y a plus de cent ans ?
What does one know of those surfers of more than one hundred years ago?

Eh bien, en 1769, James Cook, le commandant anglais du vaisseau du roi l'Endeavour, a clairement
vu et compte « dix ou douze indiens » qui surfaient."
Well, in 1769, James Cook, the English commander of HMS 'Endeavour', clearly identifies 'ten or twelve Indians' surfriding." - page 16.

Note that this is actually Joseph Banks account, transposed to Cook's voice by Hawkesworth: Voyages (1773), pages 135-136.

Nolween Roussel subsequently quotes from the surfriding reports of Morrison (1788), Ellis (circa 1830), Bligh (1788) and Jacques Antoine Moerenhout (1835) - pages 16 and 17.
She then notes:

" Pour preuve, des 1768, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, Francais et commandant la fregate du roi La Boudeuse, a rapporte dans ses notes que les insulaires « etaient capables de chevaucher la crete des vagues en se tenant debout sur des planches »."
For proof, in 1768, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, the French commander of the royal frigate 'Boudeuse', reports in his notes that the islanders 'were capable to overlap (ride over?) the crest of the waves while (being held / standing?) upright on boards'.

C'est bien resume, non?
It is well summarized, not? / (You agree) this is a good description?" - page 17.

Unfortunately, the reference to Bougainville is not included in Roussel's Bibliographie (Bibliography).
As Bouganville spent only 10 days (at a maximum, 13) on Tahiti and recorded the visit in a mere four dozen pages of his Diary, the existence of such an account must be considered remarkable.
[Cameron: Lost Paradise (1987), page 148; Moorehead: The Fatal Impact (1987), page 13.]

Geoff Cater (2007) : Bougainville : Tahitian Surf-riding, 1778. http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1768_Bougainville_Tahiti.html
More significantly, Roussel quotes a description of surfriding written by Louis Antoine de Bougainville at Tahiti in April 1778, twelve months before the arrival of Cook's Endeavour.
Roussel writes (French text, with English translation by google and adjusted):

"Printemps 2003 : l'lle de Tahiti est aujourd'hui tres connue pour la qualite de son surf, c'est-a-dire de ses vagues et de ses surfeurs.
Spring 2003: the island of Tahiti is renowned today for the quality of its surfing, that is its waves and its surfers.

Est-il possible que Tahiti et sa region aient ete le berceau du surf?
Is it possible that Tahiti and its region (the Society Islands) were the cradle of surfing?

Pourquoi pas!
Why not! / It is possible!

Avant, on pensait que le surf venait de Hawai'i.
First / Initially, it was thought that surfing came from Hawai'i.
<...> " - page 15.

"Cependant, certains de ces textes ant ete ecrits des 1768.
However, some of these (surfriding) texts were written in 1768.

Or, les Europeens ne sont arrives sur les lles Hawai'i -appelees alors lles Sandwich - qu'en 1778.
But, the Europeans did not arrive in the Hawaiian Islands, then known as the Sandwich Islands, until 1778.

Ces textes avaient ete ecrits avant!
These texts had been written first!

Le surf se pratiquait donc en meme temps a Tahiti et a Hawai'i !
Surfing was thus practised at the same time in Tahiti and in Hawai'i!

Mieux : ces textes, ecrits a Tahiti, sont les premieres descriptions faites de surfeurs !
Better: these texts, writings in Tahiti, are the first recorded descriptions of surfers!

Qu'est-ce que l'on sait des surfeurs d'il y a plus de cent ans ?
What does one know of those surfers of more than one hundred years ago?

Eh bien, en 1769, James Cook, le commandant anglais du vaisseau du roi l'Endeavour, a clairement
vu et compte « dix ou douze indiens » qui surfaient."
Well, in 1769, James Cook, the English commander of HMS 'Endeavour', clearly identifies 'ten or twelve Indians' surfriding." - page 16.

Note that this is actually Joseph Banks account, transposed to Cook's voice by Hawkesworth: Voyages (1773), pages 135-136.

Nolween Roussel subsequently quotes from the surfriding reports of Morrison (1788), Ellis (circa 1830), Bligh (1788) and Jacques Antoine Moerenhout (1835) - pages 16 and 17.
She then notes:

" Pour preuve, des 1768, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, Francais et commandant la fregate du roi La Boudeuse, a rapporte dans ses notes que les insulaires « etaient capables de chevaucher la crete des vagues en se tenant debout sur des planches ».
For proof, in 1768, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, the French commander of the royal frigate 'Boudeuse', reports in his notes that the islanders 'were capable to overlap (ride over?) the crest of the waves while (being held / standing?) upright on boards'.

C'est bien resume, non?
It is well summarized, not? / (You agree) this is a good description?" - page 17.