Gnarly raspberry!

July 26, 2005 9:21 PM

Hawaiian lava boarding (he'e holua) revival.History here and holua sleds/boards here.
posted by loquacious (16 comments total)

Does it have a brake? I've been mountianboarding, and know from experience, brakes would be nice.

Doesn't look like it.. Wish I could see some videos of this.
posted by Balisong at 9:52 PM on July 26, 2005

And here's me thinking they're surfing actual, y'know, orange lava.
posted by polyglot at 10:19 PM on July 26, 2005

This is almost as insane as when the Japanese try to ride trees down hills.

But that's definitely part of the point of it.
posted by fenriq at 10:19 PM on July 26, 2005

I can definately see where it would be nice to have a faster-than-running mode of transportation down off the lip of a grumbling volcano.
posted by Balisong at 10:29 PM on July 26, 2005

I imagine a high speed wipeout on pumice would be truly nasty. Is there someone whose job is to pick the skin bits off the course after such a crash? Or does the skin serve to make the runs faster?

Hmmm, I wonder...
posted by crumbly at 11:24 PM on July 26, 2005

Well, like the chasing of a wheel of cheese down a steep slope in England, I suppose cultures all over the planet have found a way to use gravity for entertainment.
Who knows what the Mayans had going on, were their history not obliterated so completely, we might have records of their approach.
posted by Busithoth at 11:33 PM on July 26, 2005

I think "gravity sports" are intuitive. At least for boys/men. Women generally seem to have the common sense just to leave 'em alone.

As a kid growing up I remember trying to ride just about anything we could get our hands on down the steepest grass and dirt hills we could find. Cardboard sheets. Shopping carts. Planks of wood. Skateboards. Bikes. Boogie boards. Cafeteria trays. Barrels. Big Wheels. Scooters. Moving dollies. Whatever. If it slid, rolled, or tumbled, we'd try it.

There were also the old standbys of biking/skateboarding/skating down whatever paved roads or surfaces we could find, but that's just not the same thing. It's a wonder I'm still alive.

People who grew up with snow had even more opportunities for mayhem.
posted by loquacious at 12:12 AM on July 27, 2005

loquacious: Women generally seem to have the common sense just to leave 'em alone.

Doesn't pregnancy qualify as a gravity sport?
posted by pmbuko at 12:39 AM on July 27, 2005

The surfer who is the most relaxed in good sized waves that I know of is a woman. She's well into middle age by now and should know better but I've still seen her look hopeless, scary shit in the face, laugh, and go for it.
posted by rdr at 1:10 AM on July 27, 2005

pmbuko: I don't know, does it? Is there adrenalin, audacious stupidity and reckless bravado involved? What about swell-bo and raspberries? I know there's plenty of blood.

If so, I'd say yes, but generally I'd say you'd have to get yourself bodily into some kind of haphazard contraption and hurtle pell-mell down the face of an inclined surface while making questionable hooting noises.

Anyways, I said "generally". Historically, generally "men" or "male-identifying archetypes" have been the stupidish ones going over the falls wrapped around a log, or deciding and even vocally proclaiming "Oh yeah! Oh hell yes! Rolling down that steep hill in a tire is a most excellent idea! Ohboyohboy!" while "women" or "female-identifying archetypes" looked on in mock horror and amusement.

The really sad thing is is that these generally-spoken of "males" somehow got the idea that not only are these acts of bodily stupidity fun and amusing (well, they are) but that they actually impress "females" and somehow identify themselves as eligible breeding partners.

How these traits haven't been bred out of the gene pool through overt Darwinism at it's finest is beyond me.

This isn't to say at all that women haven't been willing and active participants in such tomfoolery. I honestly don't mean to imply any sexism. I know (and welcome and encourage) plenty of female skateboarders, surfers, snowboarders and more, and have swung from tree swings and climbed trees with plenty of girls (at the time) and women (later) to use anything other than broad, non-conclusive strokes.

In fact, one of the most amazing things I've ever seen on a board was a girl skating the combi-bowl at the Vans Skatepark in Orange County, CA. It wasn't really that she was a girl that made it so amazing. It was the fact she was like 4 or 5, barely taller than her board, and that she was ripping up flawless frontside and backside grinds, stalls, airs, transfers and handplants out of the 15+ foot deep end like she was Christian Hosoi with a death wish.
posted by loquacious at 1:29 AM on July 27, 2005

By the way, if my memory is correct, there is video of land surfing on one of the Kauai Boys surfing video.
posted by rdr at 1:53 AM on July 27, 2005

via boing boing?
posted by nofundy at 4:46 AM on July 27, 2005

via boing boing?
posted by nofundy at 4:46 AM PST on July 27 [!]

Who cares? Most links are via someplace else. Very few posted to a given site are due to somebody's curiosity and a skilful google session. Attributions to a place like BoingBoing is meaningless anyway, as most of their links are submitted and the submitters don't necessarily divulge where they got it from (if they even got it from the original source).
posted by substrate at 7:01 AM on July 27, 2005

Man, this would take some serious balls to do. Good luck on finding a sponsor if "survivability" is a scoring criteria though. I've done an amazing number of stupid things growing up but this 54 year old college professor shames my most dangerous childhood stunts.
posted by substrate at 7:08 AM on July 27, 2005

via boing boing?

Nope.
posted by loquacious at 8:09 AM on July 27, 2005

And here's me thinking they're surfing actual, y'know, orange lava.

Me too.

While I'm sure surfing hardened lava rock is quite daring, it pales in comparison to the mental image of someone using some kind of surfboard made out of who knows what non-flammable material and trying to stay perpendicular while risking the worst possible kind of wipe-out.
posted by marsha56 at 11:52 AM on July 27, 2005