George Gilbert was a midshipman on HMS Discovery during Captain James Cook's final voyage through the Pacificc. The exact date of this entry is unknown, but it was written in February 1779, and Cook was killed on the 14th of that month. As surf scholar Patrick Moser noted in his book Pacific Passages, Gilbert's final sentence, below, suggests that some of Cook's sailors tried their hand at paddling the local's surfboards.

Several of those Indians who have not got Canoes have a method of swimming upon a piece of wood nearly in the form of a blade of an oar, which is about six feet in length, sixteen inches in breadth at one end and about 9 at the other, and is four or five inches thick in the middle, tapering down to an inch at the sides. They lay themselves upon it lengthways, with their breast about the centre; and it being sufficient to buoy them up they paddle along with their hands and feet at a moderate rate, having the broad end foremost; and that it may not meet with any resistance from the water, they keep it just above the surface by weighing down upon the other, which they have underneath them, between their legs. These pieces of wood are so nicely balanced that the most expert of our people at swimming could not keep upon them half a minute without rolling off.

1779: EXPLORER GEORGE GILBERT, KEALAKEKUA BAY, HAWAII. BLIMEY, HOW D'YE PADDLE THESE THINGS?

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