Customer Reviews

Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport (1996) by Ben Finney and James D. Houston, which calls itself 'the first book to chart surfing's Pacific origins in the context of Polynesian culture,' has its juiceless roots in Finney's mid-Sixties master's thesis at the University of Hawaii.

Written without enthusiasm or verve, the book plods along, its undistinguished text style flattening what should be a colorful, vital, and fascinating history. For the 30th anniversary addition, the authors state that they have decided not to revise the text, a strategy which might have worked had the original been stronger. But Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport, at a slim 117 pages, could badly use some lively additional material.

Though the book contains a variety of prints of traditional Hawaiian surfing practices and customs, there are surprisingly few historical photographs, and less than a handful from the post-Forties period. Though most of the photographs included are excellent, a vivid photo documentary of one of the most colorful sports in history the book is not.

Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport may be useful to students or novice researchers, but most of the information contained here can be found elsewhere, and in brighter, more stimulating form.

The book does include interesting maps of the most heavily-used surfing areas in ancient times, a pronunciation guide, an appendix of Hawaiian surfing terms, and firsthand observations by Mark Twain and Jack London as they witnessed the sport in 1872 and 1911.

A far better book in every possible sense is Drew Kampion's exceptional Stoked: A History of Surf Culture (2003).

I have this book in front of me and for the life of me I can't figure out why Mr. Barnes found it so repulsive that he gave it a one-star review. It's a perfectly good history, well-illustrated and well-written, of an ancient sport, part of an ancient culture that has all but disappeared. It's not a breathless "WOW, DUDE" account like the title "Stoked" that he seems so enamoured of, but it's a perfectly good and readable history. The illustrations range from pre-photographic era engravings to early photos up until the mid-fifties. The appendices, including essays by Mark Twain and Jack London, are fascinating.

I guess if you can only read only words of one syllable, it might prove daunting (especially the Hawaiian terminology), but for the rest of us, it's just fine. What's his problem?

This is a great book with lots of awesome pictures, this book is great, I really recommend it!