Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1908 — RIDING THE SOUTH SEA SURF. [ARTICLE]

RIDING THE SOUTH SEA SURF.

Author's Description Makes One' Long to Participate. "I shall never forget the first big wave I caught out there In the deep water. I -paw it coming-, turned my back on it and paddled for dear life. Faster and faster my board went, until it seemed my arms would drop off. What was happening behind me I ccuid not tell. One cannot look behind and paddle the windmill stroke. I heard the crest of the wave hissing and churning, and then my board was lifted and flung forward. I scarcely knew what happened the first half minute. Though I kept my eyes open, I could not see for I was buried in the rushing white of the crest. But I did not mind. I was chiefly conscious of ecstatic bliss at having caught the wave. At the end of the half minute, however, I began to see things and to breathe. I saw that three feet of the nose of my board was clear out of water and riding on the air. I shifted my freight forward and made the nose come down. Then I lay, quite at rest in the midst of the wild movement, and watched the shore and the bathers on the beach grow distinct I didn’t qover quite a quarter of a mile on that wave, because, to prevent the board from diving, I shifted my weight back, but shifted it too far, and fell down the rear slope of the wave."—Jack London In the Woman’s Home Companion.