Introduction
A very rare report of surf-riding in Melanesia,from the Solomon Islands, off the coast of New Guinea.in the Eastern Pacific

Although Shurcliff calls the craft surfboards, in construction they resembled the ancient catamarran of Madras; made from several sticks of bamboo tied together in the form of a raft about eighteen inches wide in the stern and pointed at the bow which is bent up like the nose of a toboggan, nearly eight feet high.
The last detail may seem an exaggeration, however, the local war canoes featured extremely high prows, certainly decorative and in excess of practicability.

These surfboards were also paddled, the rider sitting on the sterns with their feet hanging in the water, and ridden, they stood upright with magnificent daring, similar to the Madras catamarran, or the Australian surf-ski of the 1930s.

Unable to find any other trace of surf boards in the Solomons or elsewhere in the South Seas except Hawaii, Shurcliff suggests that perhaps there is some undiscovered relationship in the histories of the two islands.

Sidney Nichols Shurcliff was a member of the Crane Pacific expedition of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, 1928-1929.
Sowa, a small native village about ten miles north along the coast from Tunnibuli.

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After the Wobble (dance) was over the banqueters rose from

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their benches and marched in a double file procession to the beach where they sat down to watch the children go in swimming. Presently two husky-looking men appeared carrying under their arms queer contraptions of bamboo.
Several sticks had been tied together to form a raft about eighteen inches wide in the stern and pointed at the front.
At the bow the bamboos were bent to curve up into the air like the nose of a toboggan.
This point was nearly eight feet high.
We soon discovered that these queer craft were surf boards.
The owners, sitting on the sterns with their feet hanging in the water, paddled out to the furthest line of breakers and then turned toward the shore.
Instantly a large smooth roller came up behind them.
Before it reached them they seized their paddles and got well under way.
Then with magnificent daring they stood upright, skilfully balancing their flimsy rafts, and as the wave swept under them they pointed the bows downward at just the right angle to be propelled forward at thrilling speed - at least thirty miles an hour.
It made a glorious picture as they came gliding into the bay with green and blue rollers all around them and white spray flying. Their dark skins were tawny in the brilliant sunlight and their bodies, silhouetted against the sea, were like bronze statues.

I have been unable to find any other trace of surf boards in the Solomons or elsewhere in the South Seas except Hawaii.
Perhaps there is some undiscovered relationship in the histories of the two islands.

Page 198 Cornelius Beside One of the Elaborately Ornamented War Canoes of the Rubiana Lagoon. A very large boathouse is needed to accommodate the tremendous prow.

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Charles Gold: Madrassan men surfing,1800 (detail). Colour aquatint on paper Australian National Maritime Museum. Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds

Standing surf ski rider, Sydney, circa 1937. Margan and Finney (1970) page 131

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Shurcliff, Sidney Nichols: Jungle Islands:  the Illyria in the South Seas. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, London, 1930.    Hathi Trust https://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89041291410

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