The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-06-01

IHe art Oh SURVIVING on DodTu is
learned and obtained only after much
hardship and the least of the hard
ships is the genial joshing that comes
from the kamaaina experts who float
gaily past you, while you are vainly
struggling to recover from the effect
of your board striking the sand and
a big wave washing over you at the
same time.
The first step toward learning to ride
the surf on a board is to join the Out
rigger Club The next is to obtain
bathing suit, and the most important is
to pick a good cicerone. There are all
kinds of eicerones. They may be divid-
ed, roughly, into four classes. The first is
the kind that has forgotten the time
when they learned how to balance
themselves on a board and have no use
for eIumsiness; pass them by and look
for another one.
The second variety has lately learn
ed and is very enthusiastic. He gets
you in one corner of the grass hut and
gives you long and scientific account,
including angles, balance and momen-
| tum. He stays with you while you
make two foozles and then goes on to
enjoy himself. Pass him by also.
| The third kind comprises that prac
| teal joker who selects a much too small
board and enjoys endless fun and limo
cent merriment every time you vainly
endeavor to keep on a board that is
meant for -year-old kid Do not
pass him by; but, if you be good
enough swimmer, dive for his legs and
| upset him with force and JUNCTION. Do
this while he is laughing at you and
watch with joy how he splutters when
salt water enters the grInning orifice
of his food-chute.
! But the fourth kind. There are very
/ few of them. They are the ones who,
having had a hard time in learning
themselves and being really anxious to
/ put you wise, spare no trouble or pains
/ to select the right kind of a board and
! show you just how to work the start
| | have had experience with all four
! varieties of cicerones, and the fourth
and good kind came at last | will not
mention his name, because | have a
bunch that he would be swamped by
requests for tutelage, but you will find
him, or some others like him. if you
only look long enough.
Beware the Cynic
There is one class of surfer that you
must look out for if you ever try the
! game. Beaming with enthusiasm at
/ having hit wave right and having fol-
| lowed it with several more successful
attempts, You reach the club house and
! change your clothes. Unable to keep the
| delight of the thing TO yourself you tell
about your success to some guy from
whom you expect appreciation if not
! congratulation. He looks you straight
/ in the eye and says .'Say, you don It
| imagine for a minute that you can
really surf ride do you?n And. oh, the
way he says it. There is only one de-
/ fence, you must smile at him and look
| pleasant
The first attempt of the novice is
made in the small surf which breaks on
comfortable sand half way between the
| Seaside hotel and the Outrigger club.
| Here there are some hundred and fifty
| bathers, more than half of whom have
surfboards. And they all ride the surf
so easily, so lightly and with such ex-
pert methods of steering that you ask
yourself lis it possible that there is
any difficulty about this thing?' Is
| there? Just ask me.
So Easy for Mr. Expert.
| The cicerone-that is, the fourth kind
explains that you must nave way on
when the wave strikes you. He shows
! you how to pull the board toward you
| to give it impetus and then leap onto
1t just as the foam reaches the end of
! the board.
"Oh, so easy; just like this and
he skins away and deftly leaps to his
! feet on the board Then you wait for
/ the next wave. You give the board a
violent jerk, jump clumsily onto it in
spread-eagle fashion, and the end of
the board burrows into the sand and
you go head over heels with the wave
breaking all over you.
Nil desperandum Cicerono duce, how
ever. You try again. This time you
| get fairly good start and you feel the
first ecstacy of the swift movement on
the crest of the wave-but, alasi it
passes you and you are left wallowing
in the following trough.
The First Success.
By this time that good instructor
has returned to you, vigorously hoeing
his board. He tells you to wait until
he gives the word and then to take a
start. Along comes a rather high wave
not breaking, but curling ominously