 Surfing - a part of the cultural heritage of Africa, South America, and especially of the Pacific. A part of the Hawaiian culture, surfing almost died out after the Europeans reached the Hawaiian Islands - almost 90% of the native population died after Captain Cook reached the archipelago and brought Old World diseases. Only a few beach boys on Waikiki kept the tradition alive - until at the start of this century Duke Kahanamaku restored interest in the sport. For the first half of this century surfing was a cult revered by its practitioners, but then in the 1960 s [fueled primarily by Hollywood] surfing became an in thing. But the  Big Wave Rider  was still a loner, risking life and limb on runs such as the Banzai Pipeline - if you run the Pipeline you really do exist under a liquid sky.