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The news this week, that the 12-year-old Tahitian surfer Kelia Mehani Gallina will become the youngest ever competitor in the WSL, and compete against our own Molly Pickum at the world-famous Teahupo’o break, rests on two wonderful historical foundation stones.
See, the world’s first surfing correspondent was none other than Captain Cook’s resident botanist Joseph Banks, as the Endeavour made its way to the Australian east coast to make its 1770 landing at Botany Bay, and stopped on the way at Tahiti.
Banks was out and about one morning, collecting botanical specimens, when his attention was arrested by the Tahitians doing something as curious as it was stupendous. Tell ’em, Joe:
“In our return to the boat we saw the Indians amuse or exercise themselves in a manner truly surprising. It was in a place where the shore was not guarded by a reef as is usual, but a great surf broke on the beach. The men sometimes 20 or 30 would take each the stern of an old canoe and wade with it to the outermost breakers, there wait for a large wave and at the moment it came, place themselves on the top of it, and were driven to the shore with incredible swiftness. Sometimes they were driven up far on the beach, and sometimes they would loose their canoe and be obligd to swim for it again; they seemd however to be so fond of this diversion that I have seen them continue it for hours.”
Surfing!
Isabel Letham, Australia’s first surfer.Credit: Fairfax
The Hawaiians were also aficionados and the sport made its true public debut in Australia on a January day of 1915, when a charismatic Hawaiian by the name of Duke Kahanamoku came to Sydney, and gave a demonstration of a great Hawaiian passion called “surf-shooting” to several hundred Sydneysiders gathered at Freshwater Beach. For three hours, Kahanamoku wowed the crowd with his skill, before calling for a volunteer. The 15-year-old Isabel Letham put her hand up! With great care, Duke took her out on his board, and turned as the wave approached.
“He paddled on to this green wave,” Letham would recount, “and, when I looked down it, I was scared out of my wits. It was like looking over a cliff. After I’d screamed, ‘Oh no, no!’ a couple of times, he said, ‘Oh, Yes, yes!’ He took me by the scruff of the neck and yanked me on to my feet. Off we went, down the wave.”
Her life would never be the same again. She was hooked, as was Australia in short order. Letham surfed right up to her mid-70s and when she died in 1995, the local board-riders paddled out beyond the breakers, formed a circle, and scattered her ashes in those same waters in which she had first surfed.
And now here we are, in 2025, a 12-year-old Tahitian girl, taking on the world’s best in her own waters.
Isabel Letham would be proud, and Joseph Banks thrilled.
The write-off for Paul Cully’s column, after the third Lions Test: “The Wallabies pushed the envelope with their aggressive style of play and the Lions folded faster than Superman on washing day.” GENIUS!
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt is claiming moral victory over the Lions: “We lost the first half of the series, I feel like we won the second half. I feel like we’ve grown into the series.”
Peter V’landys on the NRL’s next TV deal: “The Vegas experiment has worked. The Vegas games have certainly put us in the eyes of the streamers in America.” Peter, please. Your contention that the mere 50,000-odd Americans who watched the Vegas games on cable – and some seriously odd ones – has made the broadcasters say, “Hey, we need a bit of that action!” is absurd. Pull the other one.
The Wallabies dialled up the aggression against the Lions.Credit: Getty Images
David Warner on Joe Root’s chances in the Ashes: “Josh Hazlewood tends to have his number quite a lot. He will have to take the surfboard off his front leg.“ I’m not quite sure I get it. Do you?
Lewis Hamilton on not having it like he used to: “It’s me every time. I’m useless, absolutely useless. The team have no problem. You’ve seen the car’s on pole. So we probably need to change driver.”
Melbourne Swift Kate Moloney after they won the Super Netball title: “One more thing – how good is Plan A? We’re going to the pub.”
NRL journo James Hooper, after crashing his car and allegedly registering a reported .025 on the blood-alcohol test: “I’ve let the game of rugby league, my employers, my wife and kids down terribly. Clearly I’m not handling the tough side of the job. Hopefully this is the punch between the eyes that will set me straight.” It was remarkably similar to the self-immolation executed by former Fox Sports colleague Paul Kent in recent times.
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US Golfer Cameron Young on finally winning on the PGA Tour after seven runner-up finishes: “Where do I go? I’ve never done this before.”
The NRL throwing the book at the Panthers: “It is alleged the trainer unnecessarily interfered with and distracted Gold Coast Titans player Jayden Campbell as he was attempting a conversion kick, in breach of the NRL operations manual and NRL code of conduct.”
Panthers statement: “The club is adamant that the actions of the trainer were an honest mistake and there was no intent to breach the rules or gain an advantage. The trainer immediately apologised upon realising the error.” Fair enough, but Ronnie Palmer must have been out there for four or five decades and was never once within a bull’s roar of the kicker, yes?
England captain Ben Stokes after they drew 2-2 with India: “It’s been an incredible series – the commitment and energy has been outstanding. We’re bitterly disappointed we couldn’t get the series win but myself being a massive advocate of the game of Test cricket, this series has been an unbelievable advert for it across the world. All the doubters saying it’s dying a death, this series has said the opposite.”
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin last Saturday: “I’m the coach of the Melbourne footy club. I’m proud to be able to do that. Clearly, I’ve got a clear plan. I’m well-supported by the board in terms of where we’re heading and what we’re trying to achieve.”
Goodwin on Tuesday after he was sacked: “Obviously I got that wrong. Clearly the club are taking a different approach – and I totally respect that decision.”
45-year-old Venus Williams, playing tournament tennis again: “Winning and losing knows no age. All that matters is that I’m prepared and ready. And the longer I play, the more I get into it, the more I train, the better I get.”
Chris Woakes on batting with a dislocated shoulder to try help England win their final Test against India: “I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I didn’t try. You just know you’re part of something bigger. It’s not just you that you’re playing for out there. It’s your team and your teammates, all the hard work and the sacrifices they put in, the people watching at home and in the ground. You just feel a duty to do it for everyone.”
Wallabies. Beat the British and Irish Lions in the Third Test, to restore order, honour, and the general rightness of things. Played in a manner to give hope for the future, and the home World Cup in 2027. You heard me.
Melbourne Vixens. Won their three finals by a combined four goals, claiming the title after defeating the West Coast Fever in a fantastic grand final.
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The Australian Icelandic Horse team. Laura Hall, Eira Backan and Birgit Kossmann, with team leader Susanna Wands and coach Anna Eschner, have been knocking their socks off, and their hooves, this week in the World Championships for Icelandic Horses, being held in Switzerland. It is the first time an Australian team has qualified, and there has been huge media about it locally. And they’ve done well!
Titans and Rabbitohs. Will fight out the NRL’s “Spoon Bowl” on Sunday. Could supercoach Wayne Bennett be looking at his first wooden spoon?
English Premier League. Starts next Friday night, UK time, as Liverpool host Bournemouth. Be still, my beating heart.
RIP Sam Backo. Rugby league icon passed away aged 64. They could chisel on his tombstone: Good man, great player, widely loved, an Australian original.
Football has a new home. Stream the Premier League, Emirates FA Cup, J.League and NWSL live & on demand, including Premier League with 4K, from August 2025 on Stan Sport.
Loading
The news this week, that the 12-year-old Tahitian surfer Kelia Mehani Gallina will become the youngest ever competitor in the WSL, and compete against our own Molly Pickum at the world-famous Teahupo’o break, rests on two wonderful historical foundation stones.
See, the world’s first surfing correspondent was none other than Captain Cook’s resident botanist Joseph Banks, as the Endeavour made its way to the Australian east coast to make its 1770 landing at Botany Bay, and stopped on the way at Tahiti.
Banks was out and about one morning, collecting botanical specimens, when his attention was arrested by the Tahitians doing something as curious as it was stupendous. Tell ’em, Joe:
“In our return to the boat we saw the Indians amuse or exercise themselves in a manner truly surprising. It was in a place where the shore was not guarded by a reef as is usual, but a great surf broke on the beach. The men sometimes 20 or 30 would take each the stern of an old canoe and wade with it to the outermost breakers, there wait for a large wave and at the moment it came, place themselves on the top of it, and were driven to the shore with incredible swiftness. Sometimes they were driven up far on the beach, and sometimes they would loose their canoe and be obligd to swim for it again; they seemd however to be so fond of this diversion that I have seen them continue it for hours.”
Surfing!
Isabel Letham, Australia’s first surfer.Credit: Fairfax
The Hawaiians were also aficionados and the sport made its true public debut in Australia on a January day of 1915, when a charismatic Hawaiian by the name of Duke Kahanamoku came to Sydney, and gave a demonstration of a great Hawaiian passion called “surf-shooting” to several hundred Sydneysiders gathered at Freshwater Beach. For three hours, Kahanamoku wowed the crowd with his skill, before calling for a volunteer. The 15-year-old Isabel Letham put her hand up! With great care, Duke took her out on his board, and turned as the wave approached.
“He paddled on to this green wave,” Letham would recount, “and, when I looked down it, I was scared out of my wits. It was like looking over a cliff. After I’d screamed, ‘Oh no, no!’ a couple of times, he said, ‘Oh, Yes, yes!’ He took me by the scruff of the neck and yanked me on to my feet. Off we went, down the wave.”
Her life would never be the same again. She was hooked, as was Australia in short order. Letham surfed right up to her mid-70s and when she died in 1995, the local board-riders paddled out beyond the breakers, formed a circle, and scattered her ashes in those same waters in which she had first surfed.
And now here we are, in 2025, a 12-year-old Tahitian girl, taking on the world’s best in her own waters.
Isabel Letham would be proud, and Joseph Banks thrilled.
The write-off for Paul Cully’s column, after the third Lions Test: “The Wallabies pushed the envelope with their aggressive style of play and the Lions folded faster than Superman on washing day.” GENIUS!
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt is claiming moral victory over the Lions: “We lost the first half of the series, I feel like we won the second half. I feel like we’ve grown into the series.”
Peter V’landys on the NRL’s next TV deal: “The Vegas experiment has worked. The Vegas games have certainly put us in the eyes of the streamers in America.” Peter, please. Your contention that the mere 50,000-odd Americans who watched the Vegas games on cable – and some seriously odd ones – has made the broadcasters say, “Hey, we need a bit of that action!” is absurd. Pull the other one.
The Wallabies dialled up the aggression against the Lions.Credit: Getty Images
David Warner on Joe Root’s chances in the Ashes: “Josh Hazlewood tends to have his number quite a lot. He will have to take the surfboard off his front leg.“ I’m not quite sure I get it. Do you?
Lewis Hamilton on not having it like he used to: “It’s me every time. I’m useless, absolutely useless. The team have no problem. You’ve seen the car’s on pole. So we probably need to change driver.”
Melbourne Swift Kate Moloney after they won the Super Netball title: “One more thing – how good is Plan A? We’re going to the pub.”
NRL journo James Hooper, after crashing his car and allegedly registering a reported .025 on the blood-alcohol test: “I’ve let the game of rugby league, my employers, my wife and kids down terribly. Clearly I’m not handling the tough side of the job. Hopefully this is the punch between the eyes that will set me straight.” It was remarkably similar to the self-immolation executed by former Fox Sports colleague Paul Kent in recent times.
Loading
US Golfer Cameron Young on finally winning on the PGA Tour after seven runner-up finishes: “Where do I go? I’ve never done this before.”
The NRL throwing the book at the Panthers: “It is alleged the trainer unnecessarily interfered with and distracted Gold Coast Titans player Jayden Campbell as he was attempting a conversion kick, in breach of the NRL operations manual and NRL code of conduct.”
Panthers statement: “The club is adamant that the actions of the trainer were an honest mistake and there was no intent to breach the rules or gain an advantage. The trainer immediately apologised upon realising the error.” Fair enough, but Ronnie Palmer must have been out there for four or five decades and was never once within a bull’s roar of the kicker, yes?
England captain Ben Stokes after they drew 2-2 with India: “It’s been an incredible series – the commitment and energy has been outstanding. We’re bitterly disappointed we couldn’t get the series win but myself being a massive advocate of the game of Test cricket, this series has been an unbelievable advert for it across the world. All the doubters saying it’s dying a death, this series has said the opposite.”
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin last Saturday: “I’m the coach of the Melbourne footy club. I’m proud to be able to do that. Clearly, I’ve got a clear plan. I’m well-supported by the board in terms of where we’re heading and what we’re trying to achieve.”
Goodwin on Tuesday after he was sacked: “Obviously I got that wrong. Clearly the club are taking a different approach – and I totally respect that decision.”
45-year-old Venus Williams, playing tournament tennis again: “Winning and losing knows no age. All that matters is that I’m prepared and ready. And the longer I play, the more I get into it, the more I train, the better I get.”
Chris Woakes on batting with a dislocated shoulder to try help England win their final Test against India: “I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I didn’t try. You just know you’re part of something bigger. It’s not just you that you’re playing for out there. It’s your team and your teammates, all the hard work and the sacrifices they put in, the people watching at home and in the ground. You just feel a duty to do it for everyone.”
Wallabies. Beat the British and Irish Lions in the Third Test, to restore order, honour, and the general rightness of things. Played in a manner to give hope for the future, and the home World Cup in 2027. You heard me.
Melbourne Vixens. Won their three finals by a combined four goals, claiming the title after defeating the West Coast Fever in a fantastic grand final.
Loading
The Australian Icelandic Horse team. Laura Hall, Eira Backan and Birgit Kossmann, with team leader Susanna Wands and coach Anna Eschner, have been knocking their socks off, and their hooves, this week in the World Championships for Icelandic Horses, being held in Switzerland. It is the first time an Australian team has qualified, and there has been huge media about it locally. And they’ve done well!
Titans and Rabbitohs. Will fight out the NRL’s “Spoon Bowl” on Sunday. Could supercoach Wayne Bennett be looking at his first wooden spoon?
English Premier League. Starts next Friday night, UK time, as Liverpool host Bournemouth. Be still, my beating heart.
RIP Sam Backo. Rugby league icon passed away aged 64. They could chisel on his tombstone: Good man, great player, widely loved, an Australian original.
Football has a new home. Stream the Premier League, Emirates FA Cup, J.League and NWSL live & on demand, including Premier League with 4K, from August 2025 on Stan Sport.
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