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In
papa holua, participants rode a 12-foot long, 50-pound "sled"
the width of a ski down a rocky slope. But that's not
all -- riders would run a few steps with sled in hand, then
dive chest-first onto the papa holua for their face-first
ride down the mountain. Some would even ride standing up!
Professor
Tom Stone of the University of Hawaii, who also happens to
be an established surfer, is the current expert on this long-lost
sport and is almost single-handedly trying to revive it. Said
Stone, "It's like sledding on your stomach ...
You're doing 40 miles per hour, just four inches off the ground."
Stone
has already taught 250 students the unique art of how to build
and ride papa holua, and has built more than 100 sleds himself.
He believes the sleds were first used as tools to move tree
logs, and then were adapted to be used in "a ritual
by which Hawaiians put their lives in the hands of the gods."
That
sounds like a rather accurate description.
Stone's
ultimate goal? To encourage local Hawaiians to hold their
own papa holua competitions once again, and then add in a
touch of his own flare: a competition between a sled rider
and a surfer in which, after a flag is dropped, a rider races
down a mountain and a surfer rides a wave, both to a designated
spot on the beach. The winner is the first one to make it
to the spot first ... or at least in one piece.
If
you're thinking of taking up this sport, perhaps you'd
like to start with one slide at Kahikinui on Maui. It's
5,000 feet, or nearly a mile, long. In all honesty, though,
SixWise.com highly recommends you do NOT try this at home -- or
at work, or on your next vacation to Hawaii.
If
you're itching for your own version of papa holua,
you're better off grabbing your old trusty snow sled
and heading off to that hill down the street. Then, if you're
really daring, you may want to try it stomach-first, but you
didn't hear that from us!
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