Surfing Pele's Volcano

Today on the dive boat the driver, named Nue, told me how he accompanied his cousin, a professional surfer, to ride a surfboard to the boiling water where the lava is going into the sea! I wrote it up for the story blog, but I'm putting it here too, as it's really neat.

Nue is an expert at surfing with a long paddle, and so is his cousin. On their adventure, Nue was in a kayak, his cousin on a surfboard. The water was boiling hot as they approached the lava flow.

The surfers first made an offering to Pele of a ti leaf with some fruit or flowers. In this video, you can first see him walk up with this offering. There are also other parts about riding a surfboard with a long paddle. Nue is very good at doing this too.



A news story about Nue and CJ Kanuha appeared in a Hawaii newspaper. The picture shows Nue, as he was telling me this story while we were on the dive boat today: