Kawa Kawa ( Awa in Hawaiian )

     There is a peculiar root that grows on the Pacific Islands.   In Hawaii it is called Awa root.  I
first heard of it there and tried it with a couple of friends of mine on Kauai.  We knew it had a history or better said; a place in Hawaiian history.  We, being true explorers of pharmacology in the sixties, knew there was a load there and as explorers were compelled to explore the mysteries surrounding this spiritual, cliff dwelling root called Awa.  (pronounced ava)..
    
     AWA


`Awa is one of the plants brought in their sailing canoes by the earliest Polynesian voyagers arriving in Hawai`i. `Awa (Piper methysticum), a member of the pepper family, grows in the wild now and is also cultivated increasily throughout the Pacific Islands, where it is called Kava or Kava Kava. This plant grows well at low elevations where there is constant moisture and partial sun. More than a dozen varieties of `awa were known in old Hawai`i.

       I started this thought  to kick around an idea about ka'awa, kawa, kawa kawa!  I was going to share with you the difference between Fijian kawa and Vanuatu'an kawa and their ceremonies.  Well, I can officially say to you," That is over"!  Like the root itself, it keeps growing!
      
      I need you to visualize a picture.  Sailing today with modern technology is still a risk.  The picture I
would enjoy you to sea is carved tree hulls with pounded coconut pulp sails and rope made from dying plants.
Navigators who FEEL stars, swells, currents, smells, birds and stories passed from father to son, remembered in Homeric proportion!  Their very existance depended upon it.! I cry! 
  



A sign showing a "Kava license area" at Yirrkala, in the Northern Territory of AustraliaMain article: Kava culture

Kava is used for medicinal, religious, political, cultural and social purposes throughout the Pacific. These cultures have a great respect for the plant and place a high importance on it. In Fiji, for example, a formal yaqona (kava) ceremony will often accompany important social, political, religious, etc. functions, usually involving a ritual presentation of the bundled roots as a sevusevu (gift), and drinking of the yaqona itself.[24]





A traditional Fijian yaqona bundle of rootsCorrespondingly, the paraphernalia surrounding the traditional kava ceremony are expertly crafted. Traditionally designed Kava bowls are bowls made from a single piece of wood, with multiple legs. More modern examples are also highly decorated, often carved and inlayed with mother of pearl and shell.

They like Fijian tobacco also as did I.  Cake was cool. Snake wasn't!

Kava is used primarily at social gatherings to increase amiability and to relax after work. It has great religious significance, being used to obtain inspiration. Among some fundamentalist Christian sects[who?] in the Western Pacific, the drink has been seen as a vice, and young members of these religions often reject its traditional use. However, among many mainline Christian denominations, i.e. the Roman Catholic, Methodist, and Anglican churches, kava drinking is encouraged where it replaces alcohol.

        So!  Welcome to Fiji.  Clap clap.  Peaceful isn't it?  A half coconut shell filled with a liquid substance that tastes like dirty dishwater and has basically the same results.  I didn't realize that Indians from India were taking over the politics of a melanesian country under New Zealand auspices!  A coup.  Oh man.  I hadn't been laid in damn near a year!  I'm on the highest level of the stadium in downtown Suva. Making love to the first American I had had in awhile!  Another story! ( mention Legsly for both[tres] of these recomembers) I had come ashore a few days before, nowhere nesr Suva, illegally, I might add.  I hope there is a statue to limitations, cause I'm telling the truth!  I bought several cartons of cigarettes and two cases of Fijian Bitters, quarts before we quarenteened in Suva and cleared customs.  Oh shit!  We ran aground anyway, inside the leads! (another story) Rainfall/sandbar/aground!  ARRgGH!!
 
       This story is about Kawa.  New Hebrides (Vanuatu ) Port Vila is where I would like this story to bend.
Later I'll share with you " the banks" or the island of Pentecost"  where, to get there you sail over an underwater volcano, where everyman is sure that even a balanced boat will be unfloated because it is heavy and the saltwater that carried the vessel there has sailed into HEAVY water!  These people on the Island of Pentecost jump---off of towers, like bungi jumpers of today.  It's a " right of passage".  Sometimes it goes wrong and lasts a lifetime.  But then, the kawa of the Vanuatuans is what I was meant to express.
        
       Allow me to tell you what I have longed to share with anyone who has ears to hear.  The boat I had sailed on through weather foul and fine arrives in Port Vila, Vanuatu.  Beers at the yacht club were one thing but my skipper and I wanted to experience Vanuatuan kava.  We are invited to a place, covered, and a parking lot.  50 locals and 6 tourists are there.  No clap clap with the beautiful bowl.  This is the real deal.  Sooo.  Being as I have been searching for awa since I was a youngster in Hawaii, this cost kala.  We all paid money because it is hard work to harvest, grind, wash, tent, and set up a loading zone for this kind of experience.  Here is what happened to me:  My mind and body became numb.  I begged a ride from a local, speaking with a tongue so swollen that combined with hand messages barely got me back to the yacht club, which is where I had tied the dinghy up.  I was extremely lucky, in that, since I had no control over my body functions, I slipped and fell, rolled down the dock, and over into the dinghy!  As I was looking at the stars in Port Vila, belly up! (can you imagine if I had landed face down?)  I laughed a laugh that no one could hear because I was paralized from a drug that I had no idea was as powerful as what I found to be true!  I believe to this day, had I have missed the dinghy when I rolled off that dock and hit the warm water of the South Sea., I would not be sharing this yarn with you. No one was around to hear me not cry out for help. I simply couldn't cry out.  My vocal chords, for the first time in my life, would not vibrate!
      




[edit] Strains and origins



A painting showing women preparing Kava.One of the most potent strains is called "Isa" in Papua New Guinea, and also called "Tuday" in Hawaii. In Vanuatu it is considered a type of "Tudei" kava, pronounced as "two-day" because it is said to have effects lasting two days due to its chemical profile being high in the kavalactone dihydromethysticin. The plant itself is a strong, very hardy, fast-growing variety with multiple light to dark green stems covered with raised dark spots.



In Vanuatu there are strict laws over the exportation of Kava. Only strains they deem as "noble" varieties that are not too weak or too potent are allowed to be exported. Only the most desirable strains for every day drinking are selected to be noble varieties in order to maintain quality control. In addition their laws mandate that exported kava must be at least five years old and farmed organically. Their most popular noble strains are "Borogu" from Pentecost Island. "Melomelo" from Ambae island, (called 'sese' in North Pentecost) and "Palarasul" kava from Espiritu Santo Island. In Vanuatu, Tudei (two-days) kava is reserved for special ceremonial occasions and exporting it is not allowed. "Palisi" is a popular Tudei variety.



In Hawaii there are many other strains of kava. Some of the most popular strains are the "Mahakea," "Mo'i," and "Nene" varieties. The Ali'i (kings) of old Hawaii coveted the special kava they called "Mo'i" that had a strong cerebral effect due to a predominant amount of the kavalactone kavain. This sacred variety was so important to them that no one but royalty could ever experience it, "lest they suffer an untimely death."



Other strains are found in Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa.

And don't forget " The Land of the Long White Cloud"!   Aloha........RB

navigator/cartoligist/father/husband-James Cook

The Demise Of Captain Cook


by Betty Fullard-Leo



Captain Cook Monument in Kealakekua Bay.

The bay at Kealakekua is so translucent, so placid, that scores of novice snorkelers slip into the water daily, arriving by boats from Kailua-Kona, which anchor, bobbing peacefully, just beyond the obelisk that marks a far more violent episode in Hawaiian history. It was here that the great navigator Captain James Cook was killed on February 14, 1779.



Cook and his crew had sailed through the Hawaiian Islands little more than a year earlier when they anchored off Kaua'i to re-provision his flagship Resolution and a smaller vessel, Discovery. This was Cook's third Pacific voyage, but his first to explore the North Pacific. It was the voyage that earned him credit as the first westerner to discover the Hawaiian Islands.



When the British ships sailed past O'ahu to Kaua'i in January 1778, they were met by a fleet of canoes filled with Islanders prepared to do battle. Luckily, Cook and his men had learned a bit of Tahitian months earlier. Tahitian was close enough to the Hawaiian dialect so the two groups could communicate, and when Cook gave gifts, the Hawaiians realized he had come in peace. The boats had been anchored for three days at Waimea Bay, Kaua'i, where the crews had discovered that Hawaiian women gave freely of their sexual favors. While there, the High Chief Kaneoneo returned from across the island to board the Discovery and meet Captain Charles Clerke before the two English ships left Waimea, headed for Alaska and Canada. Cook had anchored off Kaua'i during the time of makahiki, a period of months set aside for the collection of taxes in the form of produce, crafts and other goods, while war was suspended and ceremonies and games were the order of the day. There are, however, no notations in Cook's logs that indicate he knew anything about the makahiki season or its peaceful traditions. Ten months later, he returned from the north, badly in need of provisions and a safe harbor to repair his ships. It was November; once again it was the makahiki season. Cook dropped anchor first off Maui, where a meeting with King Kahekili went well. The Hawaiians were pleased to obtain valuable iron nails to fashion into fishing hooks, as well as iron tools, in trade for food and water.





An interpretation of Hikiau Heiau, the temple at Kealakekua Bay, based on 1779 descriptions Painting by Herb Kawainui Kane.

Near Hana, Cook's ships were met by King Kalaniopu'u, who had been warring against Kahekili, but because of the makahiki, the fighting had been suspended. Eight of Kalaniopu'u's chiefs (among them the young Kamehameha) remained on board to direct Cook to the Big Island. From his reception, Cook surmised that swift canoes had raced across the channel to forewarn the Big Islanders of his arrival. Off the northern shore of the Big Island, near Waipi'o Valley, canoes laden with men waving white banners paddled out to greet them. During makahiki, white kapa banners were always hung for ceremonies and displayed at heiau around the islands. Next came young women dressed in their finest kapa, and canoes loaded with "pigs, fruit and roots."



The ships were re-provisioned, but unable to make landing. Cook chose to circumnavigate the Big Island around the windward side, extending his journey far beyond the few days it would have taken for him to reach Kealakekua Bay sailing to the lee. The Islanders, and presumably King Kalaniopu'u, were happy with the decision, as at each seaside village canoes paddled out to trade for valuable western goods. By the time the Discovery and the Resolution, with torn sails and rotting lines, were able to enter Kealakekua Bay for repairs, they were surrounded by possibly 1,000 canoes and thousands of people swimming or on surfboards.



Captain William Bligh, Cook's sailing master, who would later go down in history as captain of the mutinous crew of the Bounty, was sent ahead to check the depth of the bay and to find fresh water, thus becoming the first European to actually set foot on Hawaiian soil.



Cook invited one of the Hawaiian elders to dine with him and received a pig and a red tapa cloak in return. Lieutenant James King kept detailed journals of the proceedings. When Cook went ashore, with King in the retinue, King wrote, "...[We] were received by 3 or 4 men .....who kept repeating a sentence wherein the word E Rono was always mention'd, this is the name by which the Captn has for some time been distinguish'd by the Natives."



Early historians determined that Cook had been mistaken for the god Lono, most closely associated with the makahiki, but later scholars and Hawaiians cast doubt on the idea. One theory sometimes advanced is that Hawaiians were saying, "E rono," translated as "listen" or "attention," which they called out to attract the crowd's attention to Cook's presence and his important stature.



Cook was led to a heiau, the same rock temple called Hikiau that can be found at Kealakekua Bay today, to take part in an elaborate ceremony, at the conclusion of which he was made to bow to the ground and kiss an image of the war god Ku.



Cook was not the only one to be treated with honor; Captain Clerke was also led to the temple, and a small pig was sacrificed to him, accompanied by an elaborate ceremony and chanting.



Nine days passed before the Big Island king appeared, accompanied by a long line of sailing and paddling canoes. The British were surprised that the king was none other than their old friend Kalaniopu'u, who had settled in the village where about 125 dwellings were occupied by chiefs. This is the same area that holds the monument to Captain Cook today.





The following morning, the king boarded the Resolution from his own 70-foot canoe. He was surrounded by chiefs attired in bright red-and-yellow feather cloaks and helmets and accompanied by canoes carrying chanters, feather idols, and provisions.





While their ships were repaired, the British camped in a nearby sweet potato field, and some attempted to learn about the Hawaiian culture; others, like Surgeon's Mate David Samwell, learned lascivious songs from the young Hawaiian women and enjoyed feasts and boxing exhibitions, typical makahiki past times.



When Cook ordered the king to purchase the wooden railings atop the heiau they were freely given, possibly because the makahiki season was drawing to a close and the ceremonial structures would soon have been dismantled anyway. The British ships sailed away on February 4, but within days a gust of wind had broken the Resolution's main mast and Cook had to return. By then the time of peace was past.



The mast was hauled ashore; all the while, Islanders continually pilfered from Cook's ships. When an Islander was spotted making off with a pair of blacksmith's tongs from the Discovery, British sailors rowed ashore in pursuit of his canoe. They tried to confiscate his canoe to hold until their tongs were returned, but the canoe's owner came out and was struck with an oar. Hawaiians retaliated by throwing stones.



Cook, with Lieutenant King and a marine, came down the beach to intervene, and the three Britishers set off in pursuit of the man with the tongs, but they were misled and laughed at by the Hawaiians. Cook ordered the sentries to reload their fine-shot to the more deadly ball ammunition.



When a boat was discovered missing from the Discovery on February 14, ill feelings escalated. The British fired cannons at canoes in the bay and Cook went ashore with some sailors to try to bring Kalaniopu'u back to the Resolution as a hostage. A crowd had gathered by the water's edge when, at the far end of the bay, a shot rang out from one of the British boats, and the chief Kalimu, standing in his canoe, was killed. The Hawaiians began to don their war clothing and, when a challenging motion was made toward Cook, he turned and fired his musket. Then his marines fired. When the king's guards charged, the marines, who had no time to reload, headed for the water. Many of the men, like Cook, could not swim.





The death of Cook, February 14, 1779. Painting by Herb Kawainui Kane.

The recorded details are not exact, but it is thought that Cook was struck with a club from behind, then stabbed repeatedly with an iron dagger that had been obtained from the British in trade by a chief named Nua.





Following Cook's death, five British sailors were killed, and four Hawaiian chiefs and thirteen kanaka maoli (commoners) died, before cannon fire from the British ships forced everyone to leave the beach. Captain Clerke, suffering from tuberculosis, took command and had repairs completed to the foremast on deck. He asked repeatedly for Cook's body, only to learn through friendly Hawaiian priests that it had been cut into pieces and the bones stripped of flesh; as was the Hawaiian custom in the treatment of the remains of a high chief. Islanders believed that the keeper of such bones inherited the mana, the spiritual power, of the deceased.





Animosity continued, with Hawaiians on shore taunting the British sailors, until three days later. On the 17th of February, Clerke fired cannons toward the shoreline. Two chiefs came to the ships to discuss peace, but that same evening, British sailors who came onshore to replenishing their fresh water, were pelted with rocks. The sailors burned an unprotected village and cut off the heads of two Hawaiians, displaying them on poles, until Captain Clerke had them deposited into the ocean to show that the British were not cannibals.



The following evening, a truce was declared. Some of the remains of Captain Cook were returned to the British, which Clerke deposited in a weighted box and sank in Kealakekua Bay. Kalaniopu'u is said to have kept Cook's long bones and jaw, and the young warrior Kamehameha was given the hair.



The Hawaiians questioned what the British would do and they wanted to know when Erono would return. In early history books, these questions were often said to indicate that the Hawaiians considered Cook the god Lono, while others say it only indicated they feared retribution from Cook's ghost, as ghosts were very real to them.



Clerke and his men sailed north after further provisioning off Kaua'i, but Clerke died off Siberia before returning to his native land. In England, the story of Cook became a legend, and he was immortalized in books and in a French stage play: "La Mort du Captain Cook". The story that Hawaiians believed Cook was their god Lono was commonly accepted. With the blurring of history, it is a question that probably never will be settled completely.



I believe that James Cook is the embodiment of Lono.  Hunter S who is as whacked as a human can be/ wrote one of his " Fear and Loathings"  called "  The Curse of Lono"!  It's not just that!  I lived on Kauai for twenty years.  I became a sailor from a surfer/diver/fisherman.  I married my wife in Australia and continued to N.Z.  I sailed through the " South Seas"!  I married a " Kiwi"!  What did I learn in my travels?  Captain Cook has a statue or a pass everywhere I've been.  I visit my sister in Anchorage, Alaska and there is James.( a statue )  I sail to New Zealand and here is- the "Cook Straits", seperating the North Island from the South!   My wife delivers a boat to Cooktown, Aus, where after sailing through one of the two passes (Grafton)he finally ran aground, off loaded cannon, ballast- goes up the river and fixes (as in survives ) his boat so that the town with a museum is named " Cooktown"! I sailed from Samauri to Cairns and even with a chart that was a bad ass entry!  But Cook found that entry by exploration!  He designed the charts that I read! Yea, Jim is "ono"with the " L "!!  Everywhere I sailed in the Pacific Ocean or have been, I run across his name.  He died when he was 51 but oh! how he lived!  This man covered a lot of territory and did it with style.  He was a smart sailor that left a heritage to be admired and to be lived up with!  So be it!

A rock to return to

I am caught inside but so is Jim Pollock and Ambrose Curry! Does that make it better? No! It makes it more problematic! Hanalei Bay is a wave with nuances depending on the swell direction, tide and what the originater of the swells is capable of generating. If it is a giant northern swell from a storm in the Aluetians maybe we move over to " The Left's In The Center Of The Bay "! No fun getting caught inside there either! When you are surfing Hanalei 6' to 8' feet with an occasional 10-12' it is a harry adventure! So ambrose, jim and I catch 6 waves apiece while Ralph Young and Rick Mc Duff and more are sitting and waiting and waiting and sometimes waiting even longer! We aren't! But here is the price you pay! When an outside set announces itself you can feel it before you see it. You begin to paddle frantically as you watch a mountain shape itself before your very eyes. You decide that you can make it over the first one, knowing there is another and another behind the visual. So what are your choices? It is way to late to buy a bigger board! Do I want to go over the falls with a board cord tied to my leg? Is it time to sing a CSN and Y song, " rejoice, rejoice, you have no choice, but to carry on!!!! Good-bye Jim! He didn't make the first big wave! Damn close! " Good from far, but far from good! Shit, I didn't make the 2nd biggie and almost died being held under water with my board crushing me, holding me by the pressure of the force of water on the bottom of the ocean's floor until I almost was forced to inhale salt water. Almost-again! Ambrose made it outside of that particular series of mixed size waves. But I saw him take off on a wave I didn't think he could make. He made the take-off and bottom turn and was driving towards me when it closed. I think my view was better than his. I watched the wave pass him so that he was going faster than the board he was riding was designed for. He didn't make it but he was tubular for an extremely long time, so long that I, watching my friend, forgot where I was an got sucked over the falls at intersections. It's really shallow there. Sometimes it is more fun watching a friend get the ultimate ride and you getting sucked over the falls is a price worth paying. We all have gone on to surf another day. I think I need to return to a rock, " The Jewell of the Pacific", The Garden Isle, Kauai No ka Oi!!! Aloha pumehana

Rock Island Fever

What the hell is " rock Island fever"? Is it like " cabin fever"? Oh! It might be like " Saturday Night Fever"! UH-H-H-H! Yea, that's it! All of a sudden ( years) time just slides away from dreamers, who have not fulfilled anything on their wish list! So they just pass on to their children their frustrations or a few geological, political/teritorial-historical, racial realities that they, the parents, thought might help that child along it's way, empowering said child to grow to a better emotional and physical understanding than they ( the parents) had the opurtunity to achieve! Rock fever is when your parents take you to an airport on your island. They celebrate with their neighbors as 14 children, harvested, to fight for their country get on an airplane to fight a battle against " the enemy"! Was Viet Nam our enemy? So if your boy survives I guess he is free of rock fever! Then they go to college on the G.I. Bill. He marries a haole on the mainland and they live happily ever after with the law degree and their 2.2 children somewhere over the rainbow! So you are free now of rock island fever. You can go visit your grandchildren in Nebraska or Kansas or Iowa! Their religion and values have changed but there are very few rocks because they have been moved. I've never had rock island fever, though on the island of Kauai, there is only eighty miles of road. Within the sphere of weather, humidity, time, climate, temperature, swells, views, people, beaches, elevations,it changes driving back! Whew! It is a very large small island! How does one get bored living in Paradise? Where is paradise? Aloha

surfing Hanalei

River water is cold and fresh. Papio later ulua do the fresh water salt water thing. It is a long way to impossibles. I don't know why it is called that I lied. (to you). Why is innersections not enter sections? Actually certain swell directions make it enter sections! But when Hanalei connects it is one of the most powerful and longest rides that exist anywhere. I'm a goofy-foot. Like Gerry Lopez only he has always been a lot smoother than me. I always loved his style. Carlos Andrade is a smooth goofy-foot also. Beaver( Jim Demoral), David Abbott( abaldo)and Tim McKenna could handle also. Jim pollack, Ambrose Curry and myself loved inside Hanalei! While Ralph Young and Rick McGruff (Mc Duff) ( best steak cooker that ever lived)would wait and wait( righteously so) us guys would be ripping the 6 to 8 footers until the big weinee would catch us inside and over the falls at least two of us would go!And there is Ralph on the wave of the day! So what we were strong! In the day, before whore cords, it would not be unusual to swim for your board five times. I loved getting older and wiser. It got to a point where we were getting boats. Ralph would motor out and drop a pick with four of his friends. Save the long paddle! The looks one got if one was lucky enough to be in the boat! Surfing changed immensely when board cords announced their pressence. At Hanalei, just to paddle out for a novice surfer was an event. When a novice lost his board at " The Bay", you simply didn't see him again. Long paddle, long swim. It's funny looking back, remembering the reef walk, or back doors, or full swim because your board was in the channel on it's way to Wainiha or Niihau!!! Hanalei is still there. When it connects through the bowl almost to the pier your legs are shaking bra! It is a long ride doing different things. One thing that always got to me though! You make this incredible take-off, you are screaming through sections closing out but just enough to reach and stretch reach the bowl and Joe Bogest or someone like him takes off in front of you. Why didn't I kick out?Because I always wanted to shoot the pier! Just joking. I've sailed half way around the world. Hanalei is still the prettiest place and the overall greatest wave I've ever seen. I've seen Joey carve at twenty! Rusty Miller and mike Doyle were there. So was Gary Fodor and Mike Mc Clellen. So was Jimmy Lucas, Jeff Hay,Leon Thomkins,David Abbott,Bubby Yarbouro, Robbie Bryson, Coy Ardledge, Hila monster ( Randy Mills) John McCelgan ( frog)and more!!!! I've surfed Sunset Oahu, Hanalua Maui, and Hanalei Kauai. Which do you favor? Aloha no ka ko