He’e Nalu, or “wave sliding” as directly translated from Hawaiian to English, is the ancient art of surfing. European explorers were the first to document surfing in Polynesia – most prominently, in Hawaii – dating all the way back to 1796 and the voyages through the Pacific of Captain Cook.
But back then, there were no cameras to document the early days of surfing – only written records from crewmates on the exploratory voyages. Flashforward a hundred years and some change, and rudimentary cameras came around. Flashforward to today, and we have the tools to digitally enhance those early videos.
Thus, the first-ever surf session documented on video, then digitally-enhanced and colorized by Honolulu-based artist, Tony Barnhill. (Check it out here on Barnhill’s Instagram; see below for a look inside the process via Hawaii News Now.)
“The first surfing video ever recorded – August 3, 1906 – Waikiki Beach,” Barnhill wrote about the clip. “Original recording by Robert Bonine, restoration by @tonybarnhill808. Working for the Thomas Edison company, Robert Bonine filmed these surfboard riders on August 3, 1906.
“There are 33 more films in this collection. Original footage from the Library of Congress. Presumably, one of these men is Duke Kahanamoku.”
More recently, Barnhill shared more digitally-enhanced and colorized footage from 1906 Waikiki Beach. It shows people frolicking in the shallow waters, bodyboarders riding waves on wooden planks, and an outrigger canoe catching a wave to shore. Here it is as re-shared by Da Hui:
“This was not filmed as a video, but rather a series of images that were taken in succession,” Barnhill explained about the footage. “There was no sound recording at the time; everything you’re hearing I added manually.”
In an interview with Hawaii News Now, Barnhill talked more about his restoration project:
“It’s a labor of love. A passion project, if you will. I think it brings back some part of the past that maybe we didn’t even know existed. You realize what a different world – what a different place – this was just 100 years ago.”
Makes you think…what will surfing look like 100 years from now?
To see more of Barnhill’s work, check out his Instagram page and his website.
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