He’e nalu

(Written for short-short fiction course focusing on writing from an image)

He has been awake for hours and the rising sun warms his tanned face. His bleached hair is tossed to the side and he continues waiting. Sitting cross-legged, he looks at her sensuous curves, watching her every move. His heart throbs and seems to clump in this throat. This is it! He has played the scene a thousand times over and yet is still flooded with fear and respect.

She whispers to him and eventually her pouty lips gently break and rustle upon the sesame seed granules of beach. He has come to this one spot, the place where his mind has drifted to again and again; where he hopes to turn his pipe dream into reality.

The odor of touristy coconut balm hangs in the air as he fixes his gaze on the blatantly real 10-foot swells. Butterflies churn in his gut, but he defies defeat. And with one quick motion he swiftly glides into the liquid blue and paddles his way to dance with the unpredictable.

"He'enalu, a Hawaiian term adopted by ancient poets to describe their spectacular sport of surfing, is a word rich nuance. Like many subtleties expressed by this highly-evolved civilization, the world for this popular form of recreation is rich in what Hawaiians call kaona, or hidden meaning. The first half, "he'e," can mean for instance, "to change from a solid to a liquid form, or to run as a liquid"; the second part, "nalu" can refer to the surfing motion of a wave, or the foaming of a wave, hence he'enalu, wave-sliding. " www.surfart.com