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wilbur chamberlin : surf-riding at waikiki, 1900 

Wilbur J. Chamberlin : Surf-riding at Waikiki, 1900.
Chamberlin, Wilbur J.:
Ordered to China; letters of Wilbur J. Chamberlin,
written from China while under commission from the New York Sun
 during the Boxer uprising of 1900 and the international complications which followed.
 
F. A. Stokes Company, New York, 1903.

Hathi Trust
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015027805426


Introduction
Seven years before Alexander Hume Ford "resurrected" surf-riding with the formation of the Outrigger Canoe Club,
Chamberlin observed hundreds in bathing at Waikiki, and nearly all of them had surf-boards.

Chamberlin, Wilbur J., 1866-1901.

Page 12

S.S. CITY OF PEKING, Monday, August 20, 1900.
...
On the road again, traveling west. In my letter to you Sunday morning I said that the Peking was to sail at noon.
That was the time she should have sailed, and I cut my letter short.
But she did not sail until nearly 12 o'clock last night.
It took until that time to load up with coal to carry her on to Yokohama.
It was about as dull an afternoon on the ship as could be put in, and so, with five other passengers, I went off to Waikiki, the seashore, again, and had another swim in the ocean.
We all had dinner at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, and got back on board the Peking about 10 o'clock in the evening.
I promised to give you the details of the trip about Honolulu.

Page 14

After the ride we all went to the beach.
The water here is only four or five feet deep clear out a half-mile from the shore, and that makes a beautiful line of breakers.
There were hundreds in bathing.
Nearly all of them had surf-boards, and the natives were particularly expert in using them.
A surf-board is a flat board about the length of a man's body, and to ride on it you must flop down on your stomach at exactly the moment a wave catches up with you.
Then, keeping your feet and legs going like a threshing machine, you ride ahead of the wave until you lose your balance.
You have no idea of the speed with which the wave comes.
You don't begin to realize it until you see a man riding a surf-board ahead of it.
The most expert of the natives were able to ride a while on the boards on their stomachs, and then to climb up and balance themselves, standing on the board and riding clear in to the shore.
It is a more difficult trick than walking a tight rope, and a good deal more interesting to look at.

Besides the surf-boards, there were surf-boats.
These were long, curved, with two arms out one side, and a sort of rider at the end of the arms to make a better balance.
Two natives would take one passenger away out in one of these boats, and then swing the canoe around, and have it caught by a wave just as the surf-board was caught.
Then they'd all come kiting in to the shore at what seemed a mile-a-minute gait, the spray dashing up in front and all about them. It looked like the finest kind of sport, but I didn't try it.
After our bath, our party had dinner with C. in the hotel annex at the seashore.


Chamberlin, Wilbur J.:
Ordered to China; letters of Wilbur J. Chamberlin,
written from China while under commission from the New York Sun
 during the Boxer uprising of 1900 and the international complications which followed.
 
F. A. Stokes Company, New York, 1903.

Hathi Trust
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015027805426
 


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Geoff Cater (2017) : Wilbur J. Chamberlin : Surf-riding at Waikiki.
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1900_Chamberlin_China_Letters.html