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sereno bishop : surf riding at kailua, 1830s. 
Sereno Edwards Bishop : Surf Riding at Kailua, 1830s.
Bishop, Sereno Edwards:
Reminiscences of Old Hawaii
with a Brief Biography By Lorrin A. Thurston.
Advertiser Historical Series no. 1
Hawiian Gazette Co., Ltd., 1916.

Open Library
http://www.archive.org/stream/reminiscencesofo00bish#page/n7/mode/2up

Selections reprinted in
Bishop, Sereno Edwards: Memories of  Old Hawaii
The Mid-Pacific Magazine,
Al.H. Ford, Honolulu, Volume 17, Number 3, March 1919		 Bishop, Sereno Edwards: Boy Life in Old Hawaii
The Mid-Pacific Magazine,
A.H. Ford, Honolulu,  Volume 17, Number 5, May 1919.
.Hathitrust
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/chi.098053893
Introduction.
Source identified by Partick Moser: Pacific Passages (2008) page 325.
Volume 17, Number 3.
Page 289

Memories of  Old Hawaii

When I returned to Honolulu in 1853, after an absence of thirteen years, I was struck by the many changes.

Page 291

The Waikiki Road.
There was probably a horse trail to Waikiki, but there were only a few houses of the native dwellers there.
The natives took to horseback riding with great facility and it is true that as the horses became cheap and everyone had his horse, the people gave up surf (page 292) riding, as though their idea was to have rapid progress and they abandoned the older method for the newer one.
The sport of surf riding was even disappearing when I returned, though some of the outlying islands had a great deal of it.
Advertising Section
Page 4
Surfriding as Seen From the Cars  of the Rapid Transport Company.

Also printed in
Mid-Pacific Magazine
Alexander Hume Ford,
Honolulu, July 1917.
Volume 14 Number 1, Advertising, page 2.
Volume 17, Number 5.
Page 472



The surf off Kailu, island of Hawaii.

Waikiki, Honolulu, was not the only
surfing place known to the old Hawaiian.

At Kailua the annual surf-riding contests
were held between the chiefs, and even
today an occasional native braves
the waves here with his board.


Boy Life in Old Hawaii

Page 473

My earliest memory of our home at Kailua on the Island of Hawaii, in the year 1831, was that of two thatched cottages, set closely side by side, and raised upon a low stone platform.
The outrigger canoe at Coconut Island. (Hilo?)
Page 474
...
Of the five years [circa 1831- 1836] spent in this house I have vivid and many pleasant recollections.
From the upper verandah, my older sister and myself often watched the active gambols of the crowd of natives sliding on the great rollers of the surf, which we could see through the stems of a grove of coconut trees.
That now nearly forgotten sport was then in its fullest activity.
In the absence of horses, equestrian sport had not displaced it.
Each one swam out with the light surfboard under his arm, diving under the incoming combing rollers.
Reaching the point where the waves began to comb over they adjusted themselves adroitly on the front of the wave in a prostrate position on the board.
With a few rapid strokes of the hands and feet, they were in motion, and the wave itself did the rest, shooting them forward.
The sea spurted in front of the darting board, while the surf foamed over them behind as they slid down the deep hill of the wave, which ever came pushing up under them.
It required great skill to maintain the precise position on the slope of the wave, which was necessary, and sometimes a less practiced one would be overtaken by the comber and left behind.
But a majority of the performers were able to kneel on their boards, and many of them to stand erect after getting started.
This was a universal sport of the chiefs and common people alike.
The ponderous chiefs had very large hoards of light wood.
In the Bishop Museum may be seen today an immense surf board of the cork-like wili—wili wood, on which the famous Paki used to disport himself at Lahaina fifty years ago.
I doubt whether Kuakini, with his 500 pounds, was agile enough to attempt it.

In handling canoes the natives were most adroit
 Kona, with its great koa forests inland abounded in canoes.
There were no boats.
The people were skilled fishermen and often went many miles to sea, in pursuit of the larger deep-sea fish.
A name given to Mount Hualalai behind us, was “Kilo-waa,” or Canoe-descrier.
The canoes were of elaborate form and smoothness.
Most of them were single canoes with outriggers.
Many large ones, however, were rigged double, six or eight feet apart, with a high platform between them.
All the fastenings were of carefully plaited sinnet or coconut fiber, the lashings being laid with great care and skill.
The mast was stepped in the platform.
The common people had mat sails.
Those of Kuakini’s canoes were of sail- duck.

Page 476

Our nearest missionary neighbors outside of the town of Kailua were the Ruggleses, who lived at Kaawaloa, 12 miles south.
We visited Kaawaloa probably twice a year, going by water in a double canoe, generally starting two or three hours before daylight, so as to carry the land breeze a good part of the way.
There were a number (page 477) of paddlers in each of the two canoes, who would make the long craft fly swiftly through the sea.
The steersman in the stern would give the signal by a slap of his paddle against the canoe, and all the rowers would shift their paddles in unison from one side to the other.
We children generally lay upon the raised platform with the mother, though sometimes in the bottom of a canoe.
We were apt to be seasick. and then go to sleep, sometimes awaking to see the waves dashing on a coast of black lava cliffs.
We would run up the little bay and step ashore upon Cook’s rock, whence it was only a few rods to the nice premises of the good Princess Kapiolani.
These were pretty thatched cottages on a platform of white masonry which was studded with black pebbles.
 Kapiolani’s quarters were neatly furnished within.
Page 477
An old Hawaiian surfrider at Waikiki.

James J. Williams : Surf Board Rider, circa 1893.
[cropped]
Printed in 
Twombly, Alexander S. :
Hawaii and Its People
Silver, Burdett & Co., 1899, New York, 1899. 
Page 477

Advertising Section
Page 302
Surfriding as Seen From the Cars  of the Rapid Transport Company.

Also printed in
Mid-Pacific Magazine
Alexander Hume Ford,
Honolulu, July 1917.
Volume 14 Number 1, Advertising, page 2.
Hathitrust
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/chi.098054077?urlappend=%3Bseq=22
Bishop, Sereno Edwards:
Reminiscences of Old Hawaii 
with a Brief Biography By Lorrin A. Thurston.
Advertiser Historical Series no. 1
Hawiian Gazette Co., Ltd., 1916.

Bishop, Sereno Edwards:
Memories of  Old Hawaii
The Mid-Pacific Magazine,
Alexander Hume Ford,
Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii,
Volume 17, Number 3, March 1919.

Boy Life in Old Hawaii
The Mid-Pacific Magazine,
Alexander Hume Ford,
 Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii,
Volume 17, Number 5, May 1919.

Hathitrust
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/chi.098053893
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Geoff Cater (2013-2016) : Sereno Edwards Bishop : Reminiscences of Old Hawaii, 1916.
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