RIDING THE WHITE HORSES

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 201, 26 August 1939, Page 3

RIDING THE WHITE HORSES

THERE is an exultant abandonment in the thrill of that mad rush towards a sunny shore which makes the sport of the surf board truly regal. To feel the sting of the wind and the spray, and to have so close to you the unbounded might of the sea as your life-force, is an experience which grips even the most unresponsive heart. As a boy I rode the tumultuous ride from the reef to the shore at Waikiki with a Kanaka named George—a friend of my father—and the passion for the glorious sport is dormant in me to-day.

I remember the first time George took me out at Waikiki. I had already learnt the elements of the art of the surfboard amongst the weary waves of the shallower water on my own fivefoot board. That day George took me out to the reef on his big eight-footer.

Sitting in front of him, I watched the waves bunt at us as we travelled seaward. George lay at full length, his powerful arms dipping into the watei on each side of the board driving us on. We gradually approached the reef where, for half a mile on each side of us, parallel to the beach, the white horses of the Pacific leapt the coral ridge and raced shorewards, shaking their smoking white manes.

With a dexterous movement of one arm George swung the board so that the nose pointed to the dim rim of the shore. Suddenly he shouted, "Now," in my ear and began to churn the water with his hands. Behind us heaved a mighty sheet of turgid Water. It would overpower us. It caught us ahd thrust us upward. George ceased paddling. We seemed to be standing still. As the wind began to bite at our eyes and faces and the flung spray to chill our bodies there came an impression of great speed. The shore was half a mile away, but was getting perceptibly closer.

George had by this time risen to his feet. He steadied me as I did likewise. The shore was hurtling at us. I hardly noticed the water or our Speed: my whole self seemed alive with a strange, fleeting spirit. I was tense, and stared at the beach. The feeling passed as

By--Dolphin

soon as the board drove on to the sands with a gentle shudder. I had ridden the waves from the reef. The first thrill does not tame with repetition. The okl kanaka, whose very life has been to lie on the warm sands and bake his black hide to a cracked, almost charred, mass in between teaching portly American business men the art of surfboard or rescuing them from drowning (for a modest five dollars

C.0.D.), will take his board for the thousandth time out to the reef and come back on a tremendous breaker with a new light in his eyes. It is a kingly sport possessing the regal attributes of : morality and noble spirit. The Duke of Windsor knew the thrill of it when, as Prince of Wales, he visited Honolulu. Duke Kahanamoku, the famous Hawaiiian swimmer, taught the Prince the way of the sea and the Surfboard. In memory I can hear the clapping of the crowds on the beach when out of the mists of a smoking comber the two of them appeared, the arms and shoulders of the Prince glistening strangely white against the black skin of the Duke. It was almost as if the native had captured the Seagod of churnins waves and blown spume.

The Prince loved it and the crowds loved him for it.

I have not had much experience in New Zealand waters with a board; but there seems to be only a few East Coast beaches where one can enjoy these long surf rides, which hardly bear comparison with the short dashes which are common fare on New Zealand beaches. On the West Coast the undertow makes surf riding dangerous. And even on the East Coast, unless weather conditions are ideal for a large incoming surf, the heavy surfboards, which are more desirable further out at sea, are used only with difficulty. The type of board most generally used on the Waikiki Beach is Bft in length, 2ft wide and about liin thick. Under the calmest

conditions there is always sufficient surf at Waikiki to pick these boards up and swing them and their riders towards the beach at express speed.

The suitability of Waikiki Beach for surf riding is due primarily to the reef, which extends parallel to the shore at a distance seawards of about half a mile. This reef, besides acting as a natural shark barrier, eliminates dangerous currents and assists the formation of the smashing breakers that give speed to the surf rider.

There are two ways in which the surf rider is given impetus. First, from the wave itself. How this is done is more easily understood if it is kept in mind that a wave is a communicated agitation and that the waiter composing a wave does not move forward. As the ocean is affected by the various forces that act upon it, the water is agitated and apparently set in motion. However, each section of water as it is affected does not move relatively to the rest of the ocean, but communicates the agitation to the next section. Thus if the

agitation is moving shoreward, you can watch section after section of water rise and fall, yet there is no relative change of position.

When you rest on your board for a split second on the crest of a wave you are at the beginning of a short slope downwards. The water composing the wave is standing still, so that you begin to slide down the slope. The wave moves forward as one section of water recedes and another promptly takes its place. Strangely enough, you never reach the bottom of the slope until you reach the shore. But your speed is only that of the agitation that causes the wave.

The great speeds attained 011 the surfboard are obtained from the breaking up of the wave at its crest. As the agitation strike* a section of water and a wave is formed, the bottom of the wave is held by friction with the sea bed. The top of the wave, moving faster, piles up and is broken by the force of gravity. The combined result of this breaking and the lag of the bottom of the wave is to fling the top crest forward. Thus when you catch the wave at its crest just before it breaks, you are caught up and hurled shoreward with tremendous speed.

But who \rould pause to question why? The blue waters of Waikiki Beach are dancing in the sun at your feet. Away, throw the board into the sea and let us set out to + he reef.