Pittwater Online News

Adrian Curlewis, circa 1930 doing a headstand at Palm Beach - photo courtesy Philippa Poole, daughter of the 'Father of Surf Life Saving'

The story of surf board riding at Palm Beach commences at the other end of the peninsula, at Manly. There remains some contention as to whom brought a surf board here for use as surf life saving equipment, one recorded Surf Life Saving entry holding C D Paterson did as a surf life saving device in 1909, another that a Tom Walker did around the same time.

North Narrabeen can also lay claim to having early surfers among surf life saving members with Toby Hynard, a North Narrabeen SLSC member, apparently being taught board riding by the Duke while on a holiday to Hawaii and had brought a board back to Australia around 1911-12. 

Australian legend of board riding, Snowy McAlister, also remembered someone from Narrabeen having a surfboard around that same time. Stan Exton, a pioneer and Life Member, always maintained that he brought the board to Narrabeen prior to 1915 and that he and his friend Toby used to share it. This is substantiated by a photo taken outside a cottage owned by Stan:

photos from and courtesy, The Beach Comes First, North Narrabeen SLSC history

This was followed by:

DUKE KAHANAMOUKU

The marvellous Hawaiian, undisputed champion sprint distance swimmer of the world, some of whose natatorial feats are said to have astounded the fishes, as did the exploits of Pegoud, the French aviator, in the clouds, cause wonderment amongst the birds of the air. He is here seen performing one of his famous surfing accomplishments. This is not by any means his most daring achievement. Whilst dashing forward at an incredible speed, he stands on his head and does other things of an acrobatic description. Similar boards to the one he is shown using have been imported into Australia, but so far none of our surfing experts have been able to imitate his sensational deeds. 

It is supposed, however, that the breakers that roll in on our shores are of a different formation, and not suitable for the purpose. All doubts on that subject would have been set at rest had Kahanamouku visited here this Summer, as was supposed to have been his intention. He has on several occasions expressed his willingness to come, but the time he originally offered to make the trip was regarded as inopportune by the officials of the Swimming Association who were carrying on the negotiations, and they fell through, owing to the date they suggested as a substitute clashing with the great water festival that is to be held at Honolulu on February 18 and 24 next. Visitors from all parts of the world have been known to go to Hawaii merely to witness Kahanamouku shoot the waves in the extraordinary fashion depicted above. DUKE KAHANAMOUKU (1913, December 14). Sunday Times (Sydney, NSW : 1895 - 1930), p. 20 (SUNDAY TIMES GLOBE PICTORIAL). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article126315151 

And he following year, on Christmas Eve, Thursday December 24th, 1914:

JUST as my wild-eyed, touzle-headed Gilbert Island cook brought me my early coffee and hard ship biscuit, Toria and Vailele, brown-skinned brother and sister peeped in through the window, and in their curious bastard Samoan said 'twas a glorious morn to fahaheke. 

Now I had learned to fahaheke (use a surf-board), having been instructed therein by the youths and maidens of the village individually and collectively. And when you have once learned surf-swimming the game takes possession of your innermost soul like unto cycling and golf. So I said I would come, and instantly my young friends handed me in a surfing costume, a highly indecorous looking girdle of thin strippings of the leaf of the pandanus palm. 

This I blushingly declined, preferring a garment of my own design; a pair of dungaree pants razeed from the knees down. Then, bidding me hurry up and meet the swimming party on the beach, Toria and his sister ran back to the village to attend early morning service, to which the wooden cylinder that did duty for a church bell was already summoning the people. 

Now, in some of the Pacific Islands surf-swimming is one of the forbidden things, for many of the native teachers hold the sport to savour of the po uli – ie; of the heathen days - and the young folks can only indulge in the innocent diversion away from the watchful eye of the local Chadband and his alert myrmidons, the village police, among whom all fines are divided. But in this particular little island we had for our resident missionary a young stalwart Samoan, who did not forbid his flock to dance or sing, nor prohibit the young girls from wearing flowers in their dark locks. And he himself was a mighty fisherman and a great diver and swimmer, and smoked his pipe and laughed and sang with the people out of the fulness of his heart when they were merry, and prayed for and consoled them in their sorrow. So we all loved loane, the teacher, and Eline, his pretty young wife, and his two jolly little muddy brown infants ; for there was no other native missionary like him in all the wide Pacific. 

The simple service was soon over, and then there was a great scurrying to and fro among the thatched houses, and presently in twos and threes the young people appeared, hurrying down to the beach and shouting loudly to the white man to follow. A strong breeze had sprung up during the night, and the long rolling billows, which had sped waveringly along for, perhaps, a thousand miles from beyond the western sea-rim, were sweeping now in quick succession over the wide flat stretch of reef that stood out from the northern end of the island like a huge table. Two hundred yards in width from the steep-to face it presented to the sea, it ceased, almost as abruptly as it began, in a bed of pure white sand, six feet below the surface of the water ; and this sandy bottom continued all the way from the inner edge of the reef to the line of coco-palms fringing the island beach. At low tide, when the ever-restless rollers dashed vainly against the sea-face of the reef, whose surface was then bared and shining in the sun, this long strip of sheltered water would lay quiet and undisturbed, as clear as crystal and as smooth as a sheet of glass ; but as the tide rose the waves came sweeping over the coral barrier and poured noisily over its inner ledge till the lagoon again became as surf-swept and agitated as the sea beyond. This was the favoured spot with the people for surf-swimming, for when the tide was full the surf broke heavily on the reef, and there was a clear run of half-a-mile from the starting-point on the inner face of the coral table to the soft, white beach. Besides that, there was not a single rock or mound of coral between the reef and the shore upon which a swimmer might strike with fatal effect if the danger were not perceived in time. 

The north point was quite a mile from the village, and, the tide being very high, we had to follow a path through the coconut groves instead of walking along the beach, for the swirling waves, although well spent when they reached the shore, were washing the butts of the coco-palms, whose matted roots protruded from the sand at high-water mark. In front of us raced some scores of young children ranging from six years of age to ten, pushing and jostling each other in their eagerness to be first on the scene. Although the sun was hot already, the breeze was cool and blew strongly in our faces when we emerged from the narrow leafy track out upon the open strand. Then with much shouting and laughing, and playful thumping of brown backs and shoulders, Timi, the master of ceremonies for the occasion, marshalled us all in line and then gave the word to go, and with a merry shout, mingled with quavering feminine squeaks, away we sprang into the sea, each one pushing his or her surf- board in front, or shooting it out ahead, and trying to reach the reef before any one else. 

And now the slight regard for the conventionalities that had been maintained during the walk from the village vanished, and the fun began ducking and other aquatic horseplay, hair-pulling, seizing of surf-boards and throwing them back shorewards, and wrestling matches between the foremost swimmers. The papalagi (white man), swimming between the boy Toria and a short, square-built native named Temana, had succeeded in keeping well in the van, when he was suddenly seized by the feet by two little imps, just as a sweeping roller lifted him high up. And down the white man went, and away went his surf-board shoreward amid the shrieking laughs of the girls. 

" Never mind," shouted Temana, shaking his black curly head like a water-spaniel ; and seizing a board from a girl near him, and pushing her under at the same time, he shot it over towards me ; and then Toria, with a wrathful exclamation, caught one of the imps who had caused my disaster and, twining his left hand in her long, floating hair, pitched her board away behind him. This little incident, however, lost us our places, and amid the merry gibes of some naked infants who were in the ruck, we swam on in face of the slapping seas, and at last gained the edge of the reef, which was now alive with nude, brown-skinned figures, trying to keep their position in the boiling surf for the first grand " shoot " shoreward. 

Between the lulls of the frequent seas the water was only about four feet deep, and presently some sort of order was formed, and we awaited the next big roller. Over the outer reef it reared its greeny crest, curled and broke with thundering clamour, and roared its mile-line length towards us. Struggling hard to keep our feet on the slippery coral against the swift back-wash, we waited till the white wall of hissing foam was five feet away, and then flung ourselves forward flat upon our boards. 

Oh, how can one describe the ecstatic feeling that follows as your feet go up and your head and shoulders down, and you seem to fly through the water with the spume and froth of the mighty roller playing about your hair and hissing and singing in your ears ? Half a mile away lies the beach, but you cannot see it, only the plumed crowns of the palms swaying to and fro in the breeze ; for your head is low down, and there is nothing visible but a wavering line of shaking green.

 

Perhaps, if you are adept enough to turn your head to right or left, you will see silhouetted against the snowy wall of foam scores and scores of black heads, and then before you can draw your breath from excitement the beach is before you, and you slip off your board as the wave that has carried you so gloriously in sweeps far up on the shore, amid the vines and creepers which enwrap the sea-laved roots of the coco-palms. 

Then back again, up and down over the seas, diving beneath any that are too high and swift to withstand, till you reach the ledge of the reef again and wait another chance. Not all together do we go this time, for now the swimmers are widely separated, and as we swim out we meet others coming back, flying before the rollers under which we have to dive. Here and there are those who from long practice and skill disdain to use a board ; for springing in front of a curling sea, by a curious trick of hollowing in the back and depressing the head and neck, they fly in before the rolling surge at an amazing speed, beating the water with one hand as they go, and uttering wild cries of triumph as they pass us, struggling seaward. Others there are who with both hands held together before them, keep them-selves well in position amid the boiling rush of waters by a movement of the legs and feet alone. 

But, that day, to my mind the girls looked prettiest of all when, instead of lying prone, they sat upon their boards, and held them-selves in position by grasping the sides. Twice, as we swam out, did we see some twenty or thirty of them mounted slopingly on the face of a curling sea, and with their long, dark locks trailing behind them, rush shoreward enveloped in mist and spray like goddesses of the waves. Their shrill cries of encouragement to each other, the loud thunder of the surf as it broke upon its coral barrier, the seething hum and hiss of the roller as it impelled them to the beach, and the merry shrieks of laughter that ensued when some luckless girl over-balanced or misguided herself in the midst of the foam, lent a zest of enjoyment to the scene that made one feel himself a child again. 

For two hours we swam out again and again to fly shoreward ; and at last we met together on the beach, to rest under the shade of the palms, the girls to smoke their banana-leaf sului of strong negro-head tobacco, and the men their pipes, while the younger boys were sent to gather us young drinking-coconuts. 

And then we heard a sudden cry of mingled laughter and astonishment ; for, tottering along the path, surf-board under arm, came an old man of seventy, nude to his loins. 

" Hu ! hu ! " he cried, and his wrinkled face twisted, and his toothless mouth quivered, " is old Pakia so blind and weak that he cannot fahaheke ? Ah, let but some of ye guide me out and set me before the surf then will ye see." 

Poor old fellow ! Like an old troop-horse who dozes in a field, and whose blood tingles to some distant bugle call, the ancient, from his little hut near by, had heard our cries, and his brave old heart had awakened to the call of lusty youth. And so, earnestly begging the loan of a board from one of the swimmers, he had come to join us. And then two merry- hearted girls, taking him to the water's edge, swam out with him to the reef amid our wild cheers and laughter. They soon reached the starting-point, and then a roar of delight went up from us as we saw them place the ancient on his board, his knees to his chin, and his hands grasping the sides. Then, as a bursting roller thundered along and swept down upon them, they gave him a shove and sprang before it themselves one on each side. And, old and half blind as he was, he came in like an arrow from the bow of a mighty archer, his scanty white locks trailing behind his poor old head like the frayed-out end of a manilla hawser, his face set, and his feeble old throat crowing a quavering, shaking note of triumph as he shot up to the very margin of the beach, amid a roar of applause from the naked and admiring spectators. 

Poor old Pakia ! Well indeed art thou entitled to this stick of tobacco from the white man to console thy cheery and venerable old pagan soul in the watches of the night.  

What is most remarkable about the above is the recording of women surfing as part of the culture of these people and quite natural for them to do, something that would regress in later generations both here and around the world to the point where some women were harassed from surf breaks to the point of giving up surfing all together.

Australians had, in fact, been given an opportunity to see surfboards, or the then versions of them, at the 1888 Centenary of NSW Exhibition. In 1888 Lady Carrington presided over the Exhibition of Women's Industries in Sydney, held during October at Prince Albert Park, Redfern, housed in the 1870 Intercolonial Exhibition Building (demolished 1954). The Exhibition was the closing event in centenary celebrations with a motto of 'Patience, Work and God's Grace'. 

It included a series of auctions, cooking demonstrations, lectures on food and temperance, concerts of singing and other music, dramatic performances, comedies and award ceremonies. The Exhibition opened on Tuesday October 2nd, with a ceremony performed by Lady Carrington and a 100-voice choir accompanied by the Permanent Artillery Band.

The Exhibition received praise. It was free to children, but notably too expensive for working class women. One newspaper correspondent commented that women touted their wares at the exhibition as if it was a common flea market. Nevertheless, it drew close to 3,000 people each day, and its net profit of £6,000 financed the Temporary Aid Society, which lent money to women in financial difficulty.

One SMH article records:

EXHIBITION OF WOMEN'S INDUSTRIES.

The principal attraction at this exhibition yesterday was the cut-flower display. The entries in all classes were numerous, and many of the exhibits reached a high standard of floral cultivation, and considerable artistic taste was shown in arrangement and decoration. In the sections for girls attending school there was a magnificent display of flower-baskets and table, hand, button-hole bouquets and floral devices. The arrangements in the annexe were excel- lent. Along the top were the loan exhibits, and the entries for competition were displayed below on the one side in turf and on the other among the foliage and greenery. The turf formed an admirable setting particularly for the roses, and enhanced the attractiveness of the department very considerably. The cottage gardening section showed up remarkably well in the class for the best 12 roses there were nine entries, for the best six 12, and for the best 12 varieties of cut ….

In Department I. Needlework and Lace, the Dutch goods from the Roman Catholic Orphanage at Rotterdam have been placed on exhibition. The articles include an infinite variety of needlework, including some miniature dresses, laces, and embroidery. Mrs. Monro, of Bathurst, has on view a satin patchwork embroidery screen, and Mrs. Bowker, of Darling Point, shows another screen of crewel work in satin, representing the four seasons. In one of the Centennial stalls in this department, is selection of native women's work from Samoa. The collection, which has been got together by Mrs. J E Newell, the wife of one of the missionary, includes, among other articles, a chiefs dress with belt, different garments, hats, and some specimens of coral. 

On the opposite side of the central space a case is being erected by Mr. Hoffnung, for the display of a number of curios and valuable articles, which have been sent by the Hale Nana or Archaeological Society of Honolulu, for the Melbourne Exhibition Mr. Hoffnung has decided to show them at the present Exhibition before forwarding them on to Victoria. 

Among the collection are the following; - Royal feather cape restored,  feather bed quilt, cloak cape and two pillow cases, two native red and white topees, two native nuhau mats, dining mat, cocoanut wooden bowl, two stone idols, two wooden fish gods, taboganning sleigh for women, hair booth necklaces, round awa bowl, wooden plates, finger bowls, and spittoon, assorted sizes of wooden poi calabash belonging to a famous monarch, docs'-teeth ankle ornament, stone adze and side axe, rough unpolished adze, women's and men's stone poi powder, a stone mortar, with powder for medicine, stone dye containers, stone plate and lamp, an unpolished poi calabash, sting slug (an implement of war), ballot balls, a spear made of kanwila wood, pair of rough ti-leaf sandals, primitive telephone instrument, invented in 1806; a dancing and a small auxiliary drum, box of 37 tapa-pounders, carrier stick for bearing burdens, miniature single and double outrigger canoes, ornamented and unornamented water gourd, calabashes find unornamented spittoon calabash "for common people," textile fiber, scrapers and board of the olono, short war club, fine mesh net made of the olona, ball and twine of the olona fibre, bamboo flute, small nose flute of gourd and miniature native hut, wooden tapa blocks with rough samples of tapa, gourd dancing instrument, bundle of bamboo tapa prints, samples of native tapa clothes, Hawaiian checker board with white and black pebbles, the board perforated with small holes to designate the places of the pebbles placed as alternately white and black with holes throughout the board, and used as Kriege-spiel or war game board and diplomacy ;  cocoanut wooden dagger, surf-ridding board and wooden hook. Hanging from the central dais is a magnificent Fijian mat made by native women. It has been presented to Lady Carrington by Miss Annie Buttel as a contribution to the Exhibition. In the afternoon Miss Waleen delivered in the concert hall the second lecture, "Kindergarten." The lecture proved a very interesting one and formed the complement of the one which was delivered on the previous afternoon. Mrs. Windeyer, the delegate for the Educational Department, presided. The German Band played several selections of music during the day. …EXHIBITION OF WOMEN'S INDUSTRIES. (1888, October 13). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 11. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13699509 

South Seas exhibition in Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition, 1888 - photo by Lindt, J. W. (John William), 1845-1926, courtesy State Library of Victoria. Item: FL15988655

Sydney Centennial Exhibition., 1888 - by Calvert, Samuel, 1828-1913, engraver. February 11, 1888. courtesy State Library of Victoria. Item: FL16416459