b'Aeder also points out that one of Captain Cooks lieu-tenants, James King, described seeing Hawaiians surfing in his journal entry from 1779 when their ships arrived in Kealakekua Bay:A diversion the most common is upon the water, where there is a very great sea, and surf breaking on the shore. The men, sometimes 20 or 30, go and lay themselves flat upon an oval piece of plan [board] about their size and breadth, they keep their legs close on top of it, and their arms are used to guide the plank, they wait the time of the greatest swell that sets on shore, and altogether push forward with their arms to keep on its top, it sends them in with a most astonishing velocity, and the great art is to guide the plan so as always to keep it in a proper direction on the top of the swell, and as it alters its direct. If the swell drives him close to the rocks before he is overtaken by its break, he is much praised.AS MUCH A RELIGION AS A SPORTEven though O`ahu may be more famous nowadays, thereMany other writersMark Twain and Jack London are also those, like Aeder, who know where to find the bestforemost among themhave been taken with the art and swells and breaks on Hawai`i Island, and for whom surfingsport of surfing over the years since Cook. Londons enthusi-is close to spiritual. astic account of his experiences learning to ride a surfboard I moved to the Big Island in 1993, Aeder says, and itin Waikk, first published in Womans Home Companion and really opened my eyes. There are other areas where early evi- then reprinted in The Cruise of the Snark in 1911, helped to dence of surfing is seen, but Hawai`i is where it really camepopularize surfing outside of Hawai`i. It is, London said, the to fruition, and a lot of that happened on the Big Island. royal sport for the natural kings of earth.HepointstoKahalu`uBay,anancientsurfspotinIt is special to live in such a surf-laden area, Aeder Kailua-Kona once used by Hawaiian ali`i (royalty) and thereflects. I drive by the water and think, This is where it Ku`emanu Heiau at the north end of the bay, where the ali`iall began. I can almost picture Kamehameha out there on would pray for good surf and probably shaped their boards. his board.9 0'