"European Colonization and surf culture"

As is the tradition of post-colonization, Western societies viewed and continue to view the Hawaiian culture as exotic, primitive, magical, dangerous and Other to western society. Being unfamiliar with the ocean, the surf and the amusement it could provide, the Europeans instead feared the wrath of the ocean. It was not until the 1900’s that Westerners realize positivity in the ocean, that the Hawaiians had known all along. Pacific Passages gives us an up close look into the experiences of the first European explorers. 

Passages from Sir Joseph Banks (1769), David Samwell (1779), James King (1779) and many other explorers describe the activity they saw for the first time in their journal passages:

“In our way we came to one of the few places where access to the island is not guarded by a reef, and, consequently, a high surf breaks upon the shore; a more dreadful one indeedI had seldom seen; it was impossible for any European boat to have lived in it; and if the best swimmer in Europe had, by any accident, been exposed to its fury, I am confident that he would not have been able to preserve himself from drowning...” (63-64).

-Sir Joseph Banks

“Thus these People find their Chief amusements in that which to us presented nothing but Horror & Destruction, and we saw with astonishment young boys & Girls about 9 or ten years of age playing amid such tempestuous Waves that the hardiest of our seamen would have trembled to face...” (71).

-David Samwell 

“By such like exercises, these men may be said to be almost amphibious” (74).

-James King


These passages give us only a glimpse in to how exotic the Hawaiians seemed to the Europeans. So exotic that some would even refer to the native Hawaiians as being amphibious. The practice of dehumanizing the native is common in the colonizing of any territory, or group. This practice has been the main drive for missionaries to transform “primitive” peoples into members of a westernized society. Although many of the explorers were captivated by the natives and their activities amongst the waves, European missionaries used surfing and the devotion the natives had for the ocean as  tool to mold them in to the Western view. 

Modern times have changed dramatically from the 1900’s until now the ocean has been embraced by Europeans and has become a large part of modern culture. Surf culture in Western society has grown so much through the branding of surfing and the surfing lifestyle that it has become a commodity to be exploited by capitalistic society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EgU_FHcGmo&feature=related