b'death of a chiefas was the result of at least one famous surfing contest in Hawaiian legend.Finney and Houston go on, (William) Ellis, that adven-turous missionary who hiked around the island of Hawai`i, described the islanders mass reaction to a sudden run of good waves: the thatch houses of a whole village stood emptydaily tasks such as farming, fishing and tapa-mak-ing were left undone while an entire communitymen, women and childrenenjoyed themselves in the rising surf and rushing white water.SurfinglapsedintothebackgroundoncetheBoston IN THE BEGINNING missionaries arrived in the islands in the 1850s and began Though the origins of surfingcalled he`enalu in thedissuading the Hawaiian people from showing their bodies Hawaiian language, which translates literally to waveand partaking in the traditional culture they had practiced slidingare lost to history, Hawai`i, and particularlyfor so many thousands of years in favor of a more prudish Hawai`iIsland,iswhereitisacknowledgedtohavelifestyle. But by the early part of the 20th century, surfing evolved.had seen the beginning of a revival. Inpre-Europeantimes,writeBenFinneyandIndeed, when we think of surfing, the first images that James D. Houston in their excellent book, Surfing, Acome to mind are likely of the legendary Duke Kahanamoku History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport, surfing wason Waikk Beach from those days; or the 1960s and 70s, more than just catching and riding an ocean wave. Itwhen big wave jockeys on O`ahus North Shore began riding was the center of a circle of social and ritual activitiesthe face of 20-foot curlers at Banzai Pipeline, Waimea Bay, that began with the very selection of the tree from whichand Haleiwa, where the Triple Crown of Surfing was born a board was carved and could end in the prematureand is still conducted. 8 9'