HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	87
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2010
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

Designating the week that includes august 24th as surf week in hawaii.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, section 5-13.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, provides that surfing is adopted, established, and designated as the official individual sport of the State; and

 

     WHEREAS, he'e nalu, or surfing, was a sport originally enjoyed by Hawaiian alii, and ultimately by commoners as well; and

 

     WHEREAS, many Hawaiians believe that surfing has its roots in the Kumulipo, the epic Hawaiian creation chant; and

 

     WHEREAS, in writing about the Kumulipo chant, Palani Kanak'ole Kahahele stated that:

 

The Kumulipo articulates and reveals the connections of the sky and earth, the ocean and land and man, the man and gods and returns again to repeat the cycle with the sky and earth, who are the gods.  The Kumulipo recognized that the interrelationships of all things in an everlasting continuum, it is Ponahakeola, the chaotic whirlwind of life.

 

The Kumulipo is the reality of our dim past, the foundation for our present and the pathway into the future.  It is a cognizant reminder of our ancestors, their intelligence, failure, conquest, and defeat.  This song is a gift which encourages the Warrior within us to awake to the contests and challenges which consistently confront us by using intelligence and ancestral experiences.  It is our genealogy connecting mankind to earth and sky.  You are the Kumulipo, know that esoteric soul inside of you and celebrate your ponahakeola; and

 

WHEREAS, the essence of surfing is further tied to the Kumulipo chant by the words of Kimo Campbell, in his preface to The Kumulipo:  A Hawaiian Creation Myth:

 

Here we are speaking not only affection for past times and people but of respect and understanding for them.  As we try to understand the things we have valued and still value in Hawaii, we create a moral vision of what we would like a future Hawaii to be; and

 

     WHEREAS, the international popularity of surfing makes it one of the world's most dominant ocean sports, with approximately twenty-three million surfers worldwide; and

 

     WHEREAS, the designation of a Surf Week would honor and celebrate the surfing tradition of Hawaii's watermen and water women; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2010, the Senate concurring, that there shall be a designated Surf Week in Hawaii, during the week that includes August 24, the birth date of one of Hawaii's most famous and skillful watermen, Duke Kahanamoku; and

    

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, the Hawaii Surfing Association, and the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Surf Week; August 24