surfresearch.com.au  william mariner  : surf riding in tonga, 1810

- wikipedia: William Mariner, viewed 3 May 2013.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Mariner_(writer)

Also see:

1810 George Vason : Body Surfing in Tonga.

Fanifo swimming in the surf.
This bold and manly exercise has been well described by Cook as seen by him at the Sandwich Islands; but the natives of Tonga use no board.
...
They have a sport the name of which is forgotten; but it consists in carrying alaige stone under water ten feet deep, from one post to another, at
the distance of seventy yards, the party who carries the stone running along the bottom.
The difficulty is to pursue a straight course : a person may thus run much faster than another can swim.
 

Caceow. To swim, to wade

Page Iviii

Fanifo. The art of swimming in the surf.

Fanga. Beach, shore.

Foonga. The beach, the deck of a vessel, the top or summit of a hill where it is flat : the top of any thing.

Page lxix

Gnaloo. A billow, surf, surge.

Page lxxxviii

Tee. To swim, to float.

Teetee. A float, to be buoyant.

Mariner, William; Martin, John: An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean:  With an Original Gramar and Vocabulary of Their Language  John Martin, London, 1817. Constable and Company, Edinburgh, 1827.   Internet Archive http://archive.org/details/anaccountnative03martgoog

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