Читать книгу Empire in Waves. A Political History of Surfing онлайн

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There was, moreover, an additional and more immediate reason for the Outrigger’s founding. With the planned visit to Hawai‘i of Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet in the summer of 1908, the club, it was believed, could provide an excellent showcase for what was uniquely Hawaiian. This meant the Pacific islands’ most popular water sports. “What better way to demonstrate the charm and culture of old Hawai‘i than for the Navy men to experience first hand [sic] the regal sports of surfing and outrigger canoeing!” one history of the club proclaimed. The Outrigger thus organized two major efforts in anticipation of the visit. It “placed dozens of surfboards and some forty outrigger canoes at the disposal of the Navy men,” and it sponsored a “water carnival” for the visiting personnel—an event that was, by all accounts, a tremendous success. The carnival featured a “surfboard contest” between approximately twenty surfers, the most impressive of whom seemed to be Harold Hustace, whose wave-riding skills prompted cheers from the beach.⁸¹ There was also an organized regatta that, together with the “most thrilling event,” the surfing competition, drew an estimated four to five thousand spectators. This was a remarkable turnout; one press report called it “probably the largest crowd that has ever gathered at the swimming beach.”⁸² The success of the planned activities undoubtedly pleased two of the Outrigger’s charter members, territorial secretary (and Theodore Roosevelt appointee) A. L. C. “Jack” Atkinson and Hawaii Promotion Committee member Hart P. Wood. Both men had assumed leading roles in the fledgling club, allowing their offices to host its first organization al meetings. In the wake of the July events, the future looked promising. Yet these developments were notable not only for the details of what transpired but also for what they collectively represented: an early confluence of the histories of surfing, tourism, and the military.⁸³ Indeed, Ford believed surfing to be favorably linked to American military power. The water sports pursued at the Outrigger Canoe Club, he later ghostwrote for the U.S. secretary of the interior, had made “the boys of Honolulu grow up into great[,] strong[,] athletic[,] and daring men” who proved “most valuable” to the United States in the First World War.⁸⁴