House of Frigate Birds & Surfing
The neatest photos are in a book about Hale`iwa, a place first settled by Hawaiians in the 1400s. In 1779, Charles Clerke, an officer aboard Capt. James Cook’s expedition ship wrote that Hale`iwa was “…the most beautiful country as we have seen among these islands…” for its lushness and numerous plantations. Later and for decades, those farm lands became Waialua Sugar Plantation, until shutting down in 1996 – the last such on O`ahu (pgg 6-7).
Let me add: Hale`iwa means the “House of `Iwa [i.e., frigate birds]. Anciently, a place where those majestic sea-fowls, with wing-span longer that six-feet, soared or surfed along that coastline in large numbers. To which the chiefs were compared. The very chiefs who watched for the ideal waves that frequented that coastline so to surf, unhindered by beaucoup others. Today, Hale`iwa remains an enjoyed, surfing place – but now crowded by folks world over. However, the ‘Iwa are all but gone. Unless some of you have seen otherwise?
For more stories and pictures buy HALEIWA – A PICTORIAL HISTORY, by Tom Jacobs, photography by Bill Romerhaus, 2006
Tags: Hawaiian Stories
