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

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Still, as with Freeth, surfing remained Kahanamoku’s greatest passion. His 1914 and 1915 demonstrations in Australia, while not in fact the first instances of board riding in that country, nevertheless marked what Grady Timmons called “the real beginning of the sport Down Under.”¹²³ When Kahanamoku first took to the Australian waves in late December 1914, the Sun newspaper could not help but be taken by the “thrilling spectacle.” To the Sydney Morning Herald, it was a “magnificent display.” The Sunday Times was perhaps most effusive. “Nothing more remarkable in the way of a natatorial exhibition has ever been seen locally,” the paper declared without equivocation.¹²⁴ People flocked to the beach to witness Kahanamoku’s “wonderful water feats.” The crowd that gathered for one exhibition “was the biggest that has ever congregated at Dee Why since the inland aboriginals came down to spear fish in the lagoon and dance corroborees round their shell-fish naps on Long Reef”; the estimated four thousand spectators gave Kahanamoku an ovation.¹²⁵ While by no means solely responsible for the rise of Australian surfing, the Hawaiian went some distance in popularizing it. His wave-riding skills were in fact quickly exploited as a marketing spectacle: an advertisement for two carnivals sponsored by the Queensland Amateur Swimming Association proudly featured Kahanamoku poised on his board.¹²⁶