Surfing and ocean-based death ritual: the paddle-out ceremony

Abstract

This paper is based on interviews with self-identified surfers from both Australia and Hawaii who have extensive histories of participation in the surfing funeral or post-funeral ritual of the paddle-out ceremony. The paddle-out is an ocean-based death ritual in which the deceased are symbolically, and often materially through cremains, placed in the ocean and farewelled through highly physical ritual actions. In a paddle-out, surfing communities located at specific, and sometimes multiple places, come together to acknowledge, remember and tell stories of a member who is missing in the line-up. As a rite of passage, the paddle-out does not neatly fit anthropology’s, and particularly van Gennep’s idea of the funeral as primarily a separation ritual. Indeed, our research suggests that ideas of separation and connection, departure and continuing to mingle with the living all operate in how the ritual is experienced and interpreted. While co-extensive with Hawaiian surfing traditions, the paddle-out is also an adaptive, modern, flexible ritual open to personalisation in its form and meaning. The paddle-out ceremony is a rite passage for both the living and the dead and the deeply physical nature of the ritual provides a transformational experience of emotional release while also creating and renewing bonds and group solidarity. The circle formation, a key symbolic practice in the ritual, is central to production and self-recognition of community as participants face each other with the bereaved often placed inside the circle’s centre in a visual, physical act of support. The deceased are also symbolically placed in the centre as the ritual mourns their loss and invariably celebrates their life and surfing identity.

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Mortality
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Surfing and ocean-based death ritual: the paddle-
out ceremony
Margaret Gibson & Mardi Frost
To cite this article: Margaret Gibson & Mardi Frost (2018): Surfing and ocean-based death ritual:
the paddle-out ceremony, Mortality, DOI: 10.1080/13576275.2018.1461816
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2018.1461816
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MORTALITY, 2018
https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2018.1461816
Surng and ocean-based death ritual: the paddle-out
ceremony
MargaretGibson and MardiFrost
School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
ABSTRACT
This paper is based on interviews with self-identied surfers from both
Australia and Hawaii who have extensive histories of participation in
the surng funeral or post-funeral ritual of the paddle-out ceremony.
The paddle-out is an ocean-based death ritual in which the deceased
are symbolically, and often materially through cremains, placed in
the ocean and farewelled through highly physical ritual actions. In a
paddle-out, surng communities located at specic, and sometimes
multiple places, come together to acknowledge, remember and
tell stories of a member who is missing in the line-up. As a rite of
passage, the paddle-out does not neatly t anthropology’s, and
particularly van Gennep’s idea of the funeral as primarily a separation
ritual. Indeed, our research suggests that ideas of separation and
connection, departure and continuing to mingle with the living
all operate in how the ritual is experienced and interpreted. While
co-extensive with Hawaiian surng traditions, the paddle-out is also
an adaptive, modern, exible ritual open to personalisation in its form
and meaning. The paddle-out ceremony is a rite passage for both
the living and the dead and the deeply physical nature of the ritual
provides a transformational experience of emotional release while
also creating and renewing bonds and group solidarity. The circle
formation, a key symbolic practice in the ritual, is central to production
and self-recognition of community as participants face each other
with the bereaved often placed inside the circle’s centre in a visual,
physical act of support. The deceased are also symbolically placed in
the centre as the ritual mourns their loss and invariably celebrates
their life and surng identity.
Introduction
This paper focuses on surng’s distinctive funeral ritual of the paddle-out ceremony in which
the ocean becomes a space for symbolically placing and farewelling the deceased through
highly physical ritual action, objects and storytelling. Death rites provide a safe structure
through designated roles in which to channel emotions through language, symbolic objects,
sounds, smells and action (van Gennep, 1977; Gerholm, 1988). We begin the paper by situ-
ating the paddle-out within the relevant literature before turning to provide background
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
KEYWORDS
Surfing; paddle-out
ceremony; rites of passage;
symbols; memory; place;
emotional geographies
CONTACT Margaret Gibson Margaret.Gibson@griffith.edu.au

2 M. GIBSON AND M. FROST
on the dimensions of the ceremony. In the next section of the paper, we outline the ethno-
graphic methods utilised to provide data for the paper. In the two sections that follow, we
detail the symbolic and physical aspects of a ritual located in the ocean as a ‘natural symbol’
of both time and eternity, change and continuity (Douglas, 2004). As a funeral rite, the pad-
dle-out does not neatly t anthropology’s, and particularly van Gennep’s idea of ‘the funeral
as primarily a separation ritual’ (1977, p. 11). Our research suggests that the ceremony gives
rise to feelings of ongoing co-mingling between the living and dead in the watery, open
space of the ocean. We argue that the paddle-out is a exible ritual with plural symbolism
and interpretive meanings. Furthermore, we suggest that the ritual, in its contemporary and
global media context, has commonalities with Klass, Silverman and Nickman’s concept of
continuing bonds (2014) between with the living and the dead, and with modern funeral
rituals in which communal mourning is emotionally directed towards celebrating a life with
more personalised ritual forms (Carson, 2011; Ramshaw, 2010; Wolfelt, 2003; Wouters, 2002).
Situating the study in the literature
As an interdisciplinary study, this research brings into conversation three distinct bodies of
literature. The rst is classical sociological and anthropological research on grief and mourn-
ing including Durkheim’s idea that all rituals enact and reinforce bonds of community (1995).
We also utilise van Gennep’s idea of rites of passage and particularly the transitional stages
of ritual in which shifts in identity or status take place (1977).
The second body of literature informing our research is that concerned with the spatiality
of death (deathscapes) and remembrance as outlined by Romanillos (2014), and Maddrell
& Sidaway (2010). Maddrell’s work is particularly valuable as it accounts for the diversity of
memory-scapes in forms of connection to people and places in the mobilities of late moder-
nity (Urry 2007). Maddrell uses the concept of ‘emotional geographies’ to speak to both the
embedded and transitory states of remembrance and sadness attaching to places associated
with the dead and their memory. These can be the routine spaces of everyday life – homes,
parks, roads, railway stations, supermarkets and they can be those special places or objects
of personality, a shared way of life and identity (Maddrell, 2009, 2013; Maddrell & Sidaway,
2010). In surng communities, the deceased’s surfboard is a key object of the dead some-
times included in the paddle-out (Gibson, 2008) while the beach and ocean constitute a
signicant memory or grief geography: ‘The sea is not merely the physical medium in which
surng is undertaken, but, along with the beach, it is a place and setting of enormous per-
sonal signicance and meanings to surfers’ (Ford & Brown, 2006, p. 7).
The nal area of scholarship in which our analysis is embedded is work that has explored
the social and cultural dimensions of surng. Illustrative of this work is Bron Taylor’s descrip-
tion of surng as ‘an aquatic nature religion’ (Taylor, 2007, 2009) where the idea of the sacred,
the ineable and spiritual dimension of surng orients how surfers relate to the ocean and
to each other through ritual. This conceptualisation of surng has been furthered in a wide
range of studies which have examined the gendered and raced histories of beach spaces and
surng cultures (Booth 2001a, 2001b, 2013; Franklin, 2012; Laderman, 2014; McGloin, 2005,
2007; Moreton-Robinson, 2011; Olivier, 2010; ), analysed surng lms and books (Booth, 1996,
2008) and detailed the experiences of male surfers (Evers, 2009). Despite the fact that numer-
ous writers have made an explicit connection between the spiritual and surng (e.g. Kerby,
2010; Lauricella, 2011; Luhr, 2015; Roy 2014; Shaw, 2014; Shaw & Francis, 2014; Taylor, 2007,

MORTALITY 3
2009; Weinberg, 2013; Wright 2005), research on paddle-out ceremonies is scarce. Indeed, in
our examination of surng research, we have found only fragments of images and brief
descriptions of paddle-outs (Kerby, 2010; Wright 2005; Timmons, 1995).
The paddle-out ceremony: background
The paddle-out ceremony diers from other types of ocean rituals of death focused on
disposal such as those undertaken in naval and maritime ceremonies (Stewart, 2005) and
those that occur as the ashes of the deceased are scattered in the ocean. The paddle-out
ceremony may include the disposal of remains, an event that is labelled a ‘secondary funeral’
(Walter 1994, p. 183) but it is not necessarily a disposal ritual. Instead of the remains, the
paddle-out ceremony may involve other symbolic objects in place of the body or remains.
Such occasions are named as memorial ceremonies (Pine, 2015).
Paddle-outs also include events that are post-funeral or stand-alone ceremonies. Like
many death rituals, the paddle-out enables the dead to be placed somewhere connected
to their biography within living, grieving communities. In paddle-out ceremonies, it is a
surng community which gathers to memorialise the dead. This is a community which may
be segmented by beach, region, state or country but also have diversities of membership
traversing local and national geographies enabled and produced through surng social
media, tourism and competitions. With 71% of our earth comprised of ocean (Denny, 2008),
surng communities are also sometimes conveyed as an international collective and even
family. Furthermore, the surng community may encompass a range of organisational struc-
tures such as surf lifesaving clubs and local industries of surf shops and cafes.
Paddle-out ceremonies typically begin as a gathering of friends and family of the deceased
at a beach service. Sometimes prayers, eulogies and condolences are given. The ritual can
include religious leaders when the deceased or their family identies with or belongs to a
particular formal religion. As Figure 1 shows, the deceased’s surfboard is sometimes placed
within a circle of surfboards. The surfboard represents the deceased symbolically surrounded
Figure 1.Heff (2014). Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau opening ceremony, blessing before the paddle-
out. Retrieved from http://xgames.espn.go.com/xgames/gallery/12068827/image/1/eddie-aikau

4 M. GIBSON AND M. FROST
by the group and well as being a signicant totemic object of surng itself. Following this,
members of this gathering can then opt to paddle a surf craft out past the breaking waves
and once again gather as a group. Regularly, this assembly takes the form of a circle by the
participants joining hands, and sitting on their surfboards. Other ritual practices are the
spreading of cremated ashes, verbal expressions of prayer and reection, splashing of water,
group vocalisation of cheering and chanting and the throwing of owers or other symbolic
objects into the water. Finally, the ritual concludes by the surfers returning to the beach by
catching a wave in recognition of their deceased friend, family member or mourned surng
icon.
Paddle-outs are now routinely lmed using mobile phones and GoPro cameras from
below, or helicopters and camera drone technology from above. Uploaded on Facebook,
Instagram and YouTube and dedicated surng social media sites, they produce and enable
global distributive networks of mourning and memory, particularly in the case of deceased
and iconic professional surfers (Thorpe, 2015).
Method and sample
In this paper, the two authors have placed their focus on surng communities to include
only ceremonies conducted by surfers for surfers. The project utilised ethnographic, heuristic
and narrative methods to capture the ‘lived experience’ of being a surfer in a paddle-out
(Holt, 2012; Lauricella, 2011; McGloin, 2005). This approach is common in studies of rituals
associated with grief, bereavement and mourning (Carson, 2011; Riches & Dawson, 1996).
Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 12 participants between 2013 and
2016 (eight Hawaiian and four Australian) who have been actively involved in the process
of board riding in the ocean over an extended period of their lifetime (see Appendix 1). The
sample development began by ringing and emailing existing acquaintances within the surf-
ing industry. This ‘knowledge of insiders’ initiated a purposeful, snowball sampling method
(Atkinson & Flint, 2001, p. 1). In interviewing we captured rich stories of paddle-outs to
include detail about the space of the ocean, symbols and their meaning, ceremonial roles,
emotions, physical sensations and social interactions.
All interviewees were residents of either Hawaii or Australia. These two multicultural and
geographical regions were chosen for various reasons. Firstly, there is evidence, albeit fairly
limited, that the paddle-out ceremony originated in Hawaii in its indigenous surng culture
(Timmons, 1995). Consequently, it was speculated that this more established cultural history
would enable Hawaiian interviewees, particularly those who identify as indigenous, to give
narratives and reections through a particular cultural lens. Secondly, within this archipelago
of islands, the zone of the ocean and waves are known as po’ina kai, and have remained a
cultural sanctuary for Hawaiian surfers, and historically the one place that colonial hierarchies
and Christian missionaries were not able to completely dominate (Walker, 2011).
Historically, Hawaii functions as modern surng’s origin story, providing a geographical
anchor and site of pilgrimage. The dynamics of surng’s translation from its Hawaiian roots
is continuous and extensive with Hawaii’s geographical incorporation into America as a state,
and surng’s cultural appropriation and translation into the Californian dream in the 1950s.
As Laderman writes: ‘as Hawaii became American, so too did surng’ (2014, p. 17). The history
of modern surng beyond its Hawaiian roots is a complex, vast process of its embedding
within the logics of capitalism, tourism, commodication and popular culture (Anderson

MORTALITY 5
2014; Booth, 1994, 1996; Evers, 2009; Kerby, 2010; Lauricella, 2011; Luhr, 2015; Roy 2014;
Shaw, 2014; Shaw & Francis, 2014; Stranger, 2013; Taylor, 2007, 2009; Weinberg, 2013).
America (and particularly California) and the east coast of Australia are generally regarded
as two key geographies in modern surng evolution with intersecting histories of cultural
exchange. Surng is a global phenomenon, and cold climate surf zones have also emerged
with places such as Norway (Langseth, 2012), part of surng’s geographical expansion and
cultural articulations.
The Australian perspective of this research is also relevant as surng is a signicant aspect
of a larger sociocultural identication and geographical concentration in coastal and water
proximity dwelling. As another geographic entity (with Hawaii and California) which borders
the Pacic Ocean, Australia has its own extensive cultural history of surng mapping into
local communities and beaches. Colonialised by the British after Captain Cook’s landing in
1778, Hawaii is also geographically linked to Australia in the journey and impact of British
territorial expansion and colonialism through the Pacic Ocean. In historical accounts of
Australian surng, it is seen as ‘taking o’ as a sporting movement from the impact of Olympic
Hawaiian swimming champion and surfer Duke Kahanamoku’s demonstration of surng at
Dee Why Beach 6 February 1915 to mass, enthusiastic crowds (Laderman, 2014; Osmond,
2011; Stedman, 1997; Timmons, 1995). However, Osmond argues that Kahanamoku’s cen-
trality in Australia’s surng evolution has become mythologised. He re-inscribes a central
place to Manly surf lifesaver Tommy Walker as a home-grown, yet overlooked, pioneer of
surng who gave demonstrations in Sydney long before Kahanamoku’s arrival in December
1914. McGloin approaches the narrative of Kahanamoku and his mythic placement as the
‘father of surng in Australia’ (Osmond, 2011) in an Australian indigenous historical and
political context arguing that ‘this modern marking of surng’s ocial beginnings serves to
elide many oral histories of coastal dwelling Australian Aboriginal people who enjoyed the
leisure of surng prior to European invasion’ (2007, p. 96).
All interviewees in the sample had ocean-based vocations and a strong knowledge and
aliation with their own local surng communities. They were also people that had travelled
to various surng destinations around the world and had engaged with other surfers from
dierent cultural backgrounds. Their extensive level of experience in paddle-out ceremony
also guided the choice of interviewees. The timeline of experiences extended from 1968
onward with attendance at separate ceremonies ranging between ten and eighty. While the
sample is largely made up of older middle-aged males – only two women, both Australian
residents are included – the paddle-out ceremony itself is inclusive of men and women as
both the deceased mourned and ritual participants. However, surng remains a largely
male-dominated professional sport and leisure activity (Franklin, 2012; Waitt, 2008) and the
sample reects this social reality.
Ceremonial symbols
Cook and Walter (2005) highlight the increasing prevalence of personalised secular funeral
rituals. While not a funeral ritual as such, the paddle-out ceremony is demonstrative of the
way in which memorial ceremonies are becoming imbued with symbols relevant to the
deceased and the mourners, rather than those agreed upon by a dominant religious group.
During interviews, it became apparent that the symbolic object of the lei with its origin in
Hawaii is often incorporated into Australian ceremonies. Dating back to ancient times, the

6 M. GIBSON AND M. FROST
lei is a oral garland whose original purpose was as an oering to the gods and a symbol of
love and friendship. The lei is used for both greetings and farewells. All interviewees from
Hawaii commented that before releasing the owers into the water the string of the lei must
be removed, as to not harm the turtles and sea life.
Another signicant symbol used in the paddle-out ceremony is the circle shape made by
the group beyond the break. Circles have a long history in healing rituals and magical think-
ing (van Gennep, 1977) and talking circles have been a noteworthy aspect of many indige-
nous cultures. For Ben the circle was linked to his Hawaiian heritage as part of his family
culture of intergenerational custom and custodianship:
Ben: There’s always a family connection into the circle and the circle is about family. When a
person passes away we practice ‘pule’. In a place of prayer, we also make a circle. In a family
when we eat there is always a circle, so there’s a place of unity. The ashes go in the middle of
the circle to be the focus for everyone. It’s all about relationship, the common factors of unity,
family and passing on knowledge. (2013)
Other interviewees echoed the sentiments that Ben made about the concept of unity and
feeling connected to a larger group when in the circle. For example, Bill commented that
even ‘conicts and rifts between people just fall away when you are in the circle, they don’t
matter anymore’ (2015). The circle creates unity without division and also connects to the
Durkheimian notion of the ritual eect of transcendence of self into a higher form of collec-
tive feeling (1995). Rod adds a practical insight that ‘the joining of hands in the circle forma-
tion keeps the circle together and stops it from drifting in ocean currents’ (2015). The image
below (Figure 2) taken of the paddle-out ceremony of famous professional surfer Andy Irons
demonstrates the circle formation and its often very extensive size in the case of signicant,
global gures of surng culture and community.
The interviewee, Fred, identies the circle as an extension of the symbolism of the lei,
which is the ‘continuous nature of life’ and of the unity and relationships within that life (5
December 2013). The disposal of ashes, if applicable, in the centre of the circle makes the
deceased the central focus. One can also interpret the paddle-out as a ritual embracing the
natural transitional state of the ocean itself. The circle serves to frame and symbolically secure
Figure 2.Cestari (2010). Rincon, Puerto Rico – One of many memorial paddle-outs for the late pro surfer Andy
Irons. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/paddle-out-surf-memorial_n_6279816.
html?section=australia

MORTALITY 7
a uid environment without edge or boundary. The circle thus brings order, containment
and unity where it is by nature, as nature, unbound.
When in a formation, the surfers usually splash water, cheer, and chant. Interviewees
explained that these actions are a form of emotional release and catharsis as well as con-
veying a clear message to those on the beach that the ashes have been released (if applica-
ble), or that the circle has concluded and that they are ready to paddle back to shore. The
centrality of the circle in paddle-out ceremonies and its value for participants were elabo-
rated upon by May, a 36-year-old surfer from the Gold Coast, Australia. She has a strong
anity with her local beach where her father took her when she was a child and gradually
taught her to surf. Her story is one of an inter-generational transference of surng as a skill
and shared identity between a father and a daughter. While Ben’s inter-generational con-
nection to surng and the paddle-out is through his familial cultural heritage, May’s comes
from her father’s surng identity/lifestyle handed down to his daughter. In reecting on her
father’s ceremony, she explained the signicance of the circle imagery and how it assisted
her emotionally during what was a profound time of loss and grief:
May: We formed a huge circle. We had owers that we threw all around us in the water. Everyone
held hands, and somehow the circle comes together. In this case, I was in the middle of the circle.
But I’ve been part of the circle a couple of times, and it always amazes me how so many people
can make a circle while balancing on boards, with the water pushing against you, and holding
on to your owers, it’s no easy feat. I had Dad’s ashes with me in a plastic, waterproof box. While
the circle formed, A and I paddled into the middle of it with Dad’s brother and stayed right in the
centre of the circle. My sister and I took turns in pouring his ashes into the water, and I remember
saying goodbye as I did it. It was obviously really emotional, I knew he was gone then. I was
crying. But I was happy he was going to the right place with all of us around him. It made me
feel safer, and so supported. I didn’t have to say goodbye on my own. There was so much love in
that moment. I don’t think I could have scattered his ashes there on my own. Everyone splashed
the water together, lifting arms and hands up to the sky, whistling, cheering, saying we loved
him, throwing owers. A moment of pure emotions – happiness and sadness in one. I think we
repeated it three times, the splashing and the holding of the hands and lifting them up. Then,
everyone started to paddle in and catch and share riding a wave together. I remember catching
a wave with A, and we were laughing and so happy. Everyone was catching waves around us,
and again, just cheering and laughing and sharing. (2016)
In this story, May and her sister, along with their father’s brother play a key role in the centre
of the circle. The circle constitutes a zone of safety and comfort where May doesn’t feel so
alone. In this rite of passage, May gives an account of a transitional moment (van Gennep,
1977), a change that takes place in herself during the ritual – after spreading the ashes and
saying goodbye, she says: ‘I knew he was gone then’. May’s father has transitioned into
another place. The ritual has worked in that she believes that he is in ‘the right place’ rather
than a wrong place. And perhaps more signicantly, it is May who has physically transitioned
through her father’s departure. His departure is her arrival – there is the interplay of both
spatial and temporal dimensions. Rites of passage, as van Gennep argues, are spatial-tem-
poral orientations and practices for mental and emotional transitions that are essentially
about movement and change (1977).
The paddle has many transitional phases not least of which is the crossing back onto the
shoreline of the beach. The protocols of surng, and the jostling of each surfer for their own
wave, would normally preclude the practice of riding a wave together. The paddle-out
authorises a practice of wave sharing that is joyous and celebratory as the ritual concludes.
Similarly, other sociocultural manifestations within surng such as sexism, violence through

8 M. GIBSON AND M. FROST
localism and jostling in the line-up for the best waves (Olive, 2016) have no place in this form
of community and sharing space in the ocean. Interviewee Bill comments that ‘everyone in
the circle is equal, nobody is dened anymore, everything is uid, just like the ocean’. (2015)
The interviewee Michelle gives a poetic account of her tears and embodied emotions:
Michelle: Your tears blend into the ocean and there is the sweet relief of ducking your head
under the wave to wash away the surface sadness. The sensation of paddling and breathing
gives you a chance to collect yourself before you form a circle and sit up and take the hand of
the person next to you. (2016)
The tears in the ocean, the indivisibility of salty tears into salty water reminds us that ocean-
based funerals connect humans to a large percentage of our corporeality as water. The body
is highly active in a paddle-out and holding hands in a circle, produces transferrable, shared
energies and aective states. One morning at Waimea Bay the second author met with Jim.
She had not previously arranged the interview but knew that he worked there as a lifeguard.
She was familiar with the story of his father who was a big wave surfer at Waimea Bay with
Eddie Aikau and also a deep-water diver. In 1976, when Jim was six years old, his father went
on a deep-water dive for black coral o the coast of Maui and never resurfaced. Waimea Bay
had been a special place for his father and Jim nds a continuing bond through the meeting
and immersion of the body and the ocean. The physicality of this connection is notable – it
is by touching the water and that he is able to touch his dad:
Jim: With my dad and Eddie, whenever I’m surng during the day, I just put my arms down in the
water and give them a hug and it gives me strength. If I ever need to get some extra strength I
feel his energy through the ocean. (2013)
Jim’s sense of a continued connection in the ocean with his father, the physicality of that
connection, emphasises very powerfully the case for continuing bonds – that bereavement
is not about just letting go but rather nding knew pathways or understandings of how to
maintain connection – what Walter phrases as ‘letting go and holding on’ (Walter, 2007). In
1998, Ben’s close friend Rell Sunn passed away from cancer. Rell was a well-renowned female
professional surfer. Before her death, she had been adamant about the precise location she
wanted her ashes spread. On the day of her paddle-out ceremony, there were huge swells
and rain:
Ben: Her funeral was massive and the waves were giant. So with her one [ceremony], everyone
came to the beach and it was dierent because people couldn’t paddle-out in the ocean so they
stayed on the beach and held hands in the circle. When Rell was alive she was really specic.
She would be out there with me surng and she would be like “When I pass away B, I want to be
right here”. So there’s a blowhole with a lava tube. It blows up and that’s where the wave breaks.
So she said, “I want to be here, not here but right here”. (2013)
In this interview, a very specic place is marked for the scattering of ashes – ‘I want to be
here, not here but right here’. This specicity speaks to the way surfers have detailed, embod-
ied cartographies of ocean spaces as places of self and soul. Rell wants her ‘soul place’ to be
known with exactitude. Due to the large surf, Ben and three other experienced crewmem-
bers, including Rells’ daughter and husband, paddled an outrigger canoe to the designated
spot. He continues:
The sets came and we just hung in. In the canoe we were going to get a wipe-out so we hung in
and a small wave came and it just boiled up right there. We poured her ashes and it created a big
balloon like a ower over the boil, her ashes. And then the next wave was like a six-foot bomb so
we spun around and surfed it all the way across the beach and hit the shoreline and everyone
cheered and once the canoe came up then everyone went out and caught a wave for Rell. (2013)

MORTALITY 9
In this example, the ritual requires risk and skill on the part of participants and there is a
sense of the drama of the ocean itself. The wave that is caught in the paddle back to shore
is usually done on behalf of the dead in their memory. Using one’s own body as a substitute
for the deceased and in their honour is an important aspect of the commemorative ritual.
The paddle-out ritual thus oers an important insight into the symbolic ways in which mobil-
ity can occur after death itself. The possibilities for symbolic mobility should be understood
alongside those for physical mobility such as the transportation of bodies or attendance at
funerals (e.g. Jassal, 2015).
Ceremonial leadership
Interviewees reected that paddle-out ceremonies that were less successful usually had
been a result of participants not knowing what they were supposed to do. In order for ritual
to facilitate processes of transformational experience, leadership, formality and structure
are required to create shared meaning, gravitas, a sense of sacred ceremonial purpose where
aective states can emerge. When this was absent, interviewees were disappointed and felt
that the ritual had failed.
Tellingly, it was the Australian participants – rather than their Hawaiian counterparts –
who recounted stories of paddle-out ceremonies going awry. Illustrative was Nate a 57-year-
old surfer from Sydney, Australia whose rst involvement in a paddle-out ceremony was
when he visited Hawaii in 1994. Since then, he has noticed an increase in the frequency of
paddle-out ceremonies in Australia. The rst Australian paddle-out he took part in was in
1998. He reects on the need for ceremonial leadership to keep them in order:
Nate: There doesn’t seem to be any set formula. Us surfers are a bit of a disorganised bunch by
nature, but there denitely needs to be someone in control. Maybe an elder to run it… As they
grow in size they can become disjointed and confusing. (2014)
This quote reects the image of surfers as not easily operating under prescribed rules and
protocol. Existing literature suggests that surfers in fact to operate under shared codes of
conduct, but that these are informal and breaches are common (Olivier, 2010). In Australia,
the challenge of leadership is perhaps partly a function of a specic cultural absence of
biography within this ritual form that was more evident in the lives of indigenous Hawaiian
surfers interviewed. The elder structure in Native Hawaiian culture provides a ready-made
leadership structure that is not as available in the Australian context outside of organisational
structures such as surf lifesaving clubs or board riding clubs. However, based on our research,
the paddle-out ceremony seems to be a specic situation where surfers generally see the
need for guidelines and leadership. Nate then tells the story of a recent paddle-out that,
with his brother, he helped organise and lead, putting clear structure into action:
Nate: Some speeches were made on the beach by M’s mother and brother and a couple of friends,
we briefed everyone about what to do next, then all the paddlers led down the passage and
out through the archway, picking up boards and stones as they did. T and I were in charge of it
from now on; we gently ushered people out toward a spot about eighty metres oshore and
guided them into a circle. This always takes a few minutes. Many people are uncertain as to their
place in the circle, uncertain even about holding hands with the people on either side of them. I
went around the circle on the outside a couple of times on my big racing paddleboard, talking
people into the situation as gently as I could. Once we were all arranged and facing each other
(the circle had a diameter of maybe forty metres) I called everyone to attention and reminded
them of why we were here together. Then T spoke briey about M and picked various people

10 M. GIBSON AND M. FROST
in the circle to oer up their own memories. Some people were very shy but warmed into it as
they realised this was a place without judgement. Then we led everyone in a big cheer for M, and
we all ung our memory stones into the circle. T and I shepherded everyone back to the beach
in their own time. The feeling afterwards was a sense of fullment and release, a bonding, and
deep happiness for the life led by the deceased and shared by us all. (2016)
In this example, each participant brings from the shore into the ocean, the ritual object of
memory stones. The stones are a collection of memories symbolically shared by their placing
in the circle. Some of the memories represented by the stones are spoken out loud and thus
verbally shared as well. The concept of making a tangible oering or releasing a symbolic
object during the ceremony is deeply embedded in Native Hawaiian culture through a con-
cept known as ho’okupu (Pukui & Elbert, 1986). A ho’okupu refers to an oering or gift and
when used in a paddle-out ceremony, it often acts as a gift to the ocean gods, ancestral
spirits known as aumakua, or is representative of deceased person’s values and beliefs.
Interviewee Jim made it very clear during the interview that ‘the deceased persons ashes
are not the ho’okupu, people use owers, lava rocks wrapped in a ti-leaf, and even money
during ceremonies as an oering to honour the deceased and give thanks to the ocean
where they now reside’ (2013). Over and above any culturally embedded leadership, to lead
successfully one must have the respect of participants and the right personality style to lead
eectively. This is certainly shown by Nate who is aware that he has to lead as participants
don’t necessarily know what to do.
The leader at a paddle-out ceremony is not necessarily male as was demonstrated when
Marion Lyman-Mersereau, who led the 2015 beach service for Fred Van Dyke a teacher,
author and one of the Californian born pioneers of big wave surng in Hawaii (Warshaw,
2015). Jack, also from Hawaii has had numerous experiences with paddle-out ceremonies
as a participant and in a leadership role, and recalls one ceremony where the deceased had
been very specic about not only what he did want at his ceremony but also what he didn’t
want. Jack was able to abide by these wishes and omit parts of the ceremonial eulogy and
beach service that are often included:
Jack: Before we left the beach, I gathered everyone and explained B’s last wishes. He didn’t want a
service, he didn’t want a minister or a priest, and he didn’t want anyone to say a few words about
him. All he wanted was for his friends to paddle his ashes out and scatter them. I told everyone
exactly what we were going to do: paddle-out, form a circle around his girlfriend, and when she
scattered his ashes, we would throw our owers into the circle, splash water into the air, and
make some noise. It went well. I’ve learned that paddle-outs work best if someone’s in charge
and explains exactly what’s going to happen before everyone gets in the water. Completing
the paddle-out by riding a wave back to shore added a special touch to the event and really
lifted everyone’s spirits. (2013)
This example illustrates the exibility that is gained through strong leadership, rather than
prescribed protocol where the deceased’s wishes are respected. This also speaks to a wider
trend in personalised funeral, burial and disposal practices which are more biographically
authentic and meaningful to the belief and values systems of the deceased (Carson, 2011;
Ramshaw, 2010).When asked about their own choices of ceremonies and placement of cre-
mated remains, all interviewees responded that they would like a paddle-out ceremony.
Some gave specics about where they would like it and whether they would like their cre-
mains scattered during the ceremony. All interviewees expressed a strong connection to
particular beaches or surf spots of biographical importance. These were viewed as valuable
for families and friends when they die, giving them a physical space for connection and
memory. Ben explains this basis of choice in the following:

MORTALITY 11
Ben: For my funeral, I told my kids, my umbilical cord is out at the point but when I pass away my
son and daughter are to catch a giant wave that starts at that point and ends on the shoreline
because catching waves here has been a huge part of my life. And as they catch the wave I want
them to spread my ashes along the face of the wave. (2013)
Ben’s reference to his umbilical cord is representative of a dierent life cycle ritual within the
ocean environment that is used by some Native Hawaiians. The piko or dried umbilicus is
placed within the reef as a symbolic way to reconnect the child to the place where their
ancestor’s ashes are scattered or bones were placed. In other words, birth and death rites
come together in the ocean as a symbol of the unity of death in life and life in death. There
is also the concept of spreading ashes in dierent locations and having paddle-outs in dif-
ferent locations simultaneously. For many surfers, there is more than one surng spot that
holds signicance and biographical connection. Nate’s friend M had asked for his ashes to
be spread at three dierent surng locations around the world. They were fortunate to be
able to run paddle-out ceremonies at two of these locations, those being in Sydney and Bali,
concurrently. This spreading of ashes is part of the mobility of sur ng biographies in a mobile
world of geographical mapping of identities that have the socio-economic capacity for
leisure and sporting travel in the rst place (Anderson, 2014; Thorpe, 2014; Sheller and Urry,
2006). It also demonstrates Jassal’s important insight on the mobility of places of death in
a world of mass human travel and migration (2015).
At a paddle-out ceremony the second author personally attended on the Gold Coast
(2013), a close friend of the deceased who couldn’t attend posted a photo on Facebook of
himself paddling out on a lake in Vancouver in honour of his friend. This geographical dis-
tance was mediated by digital convergence in which the mobile phone and social media
produced a connective, shared ritual process across time-space dierences. Photographs of
the ritual at the Gold Coast were also uploaded and shared on Facebook. This highlights the
merging of existing ritual tradition and digital communication within the context of what
Walter (2007) has described as ‘postmodern grief’.
The concept of continuing bonds (Klass et al., 2014) is strongly reinforced in the location
of the ocean. Interviewees also expressed that the powerful memories of surng and having
fun with the deceased in a particular place was strengthened even more after the paddle-out
ceremony in that same location. It became a space that they could talk to the deceased,
touch them by touching the water, and feel a sense of communion. In the interviews, we
have been able to show here (and in others not represented) self-transformation through
group ritual and sense of having created a legacy to the memory of dead. As Nate said: ‘The
feeling afterwards was a sense of fullment and release, a bonding, and deep happiness for
the life led by the deceased and shared by us all’ (2016). And May said: ‘Everyone was catching
waves around us, and again, just cheering and laughing and sharing’ (2016). Maddrell (2013)
highlights the possibility of absent presence in spaces which were once inhabited by the
deceased. The experiences of surfers involved in paddle-out ceremonies provide an impor-
tant contribution to our understanding of the way in which mourners negotiate this
absence-presence in a ritualised way.
Conclusion
This article has contributed not only to the very limited literature existing on the paddle-out,
but also to broader discussions about the moral and even religious nature of surng (e.g.

12 M. GIBSON AND M. FROST
Weinberg 2013; Olivier, 2010). The ritual of the paddle-out is an important aspect of the
moral landscape of the surng community. In exploring this deeply spatialised ritual, this
article has also contributed to our understanding of ‘emotional geographies’ and spaces of
death and memory (Maddrell, 2009, 2013; Maddrell & Sidaway, 2010). Finally, this article has
demonstrated that the paddle-out has been adapted to a digital world, contributing to our
understanding of the way in which geographically dispersed communities may engage with
the challenges of ‘postmodern grief’ (Walter, 2007).
The paddle-out is a global surng ritual of mourning, farewell and symbolic placement
of the deceased into the space of the ocean at a beach or beaches connected to local, tourist
and mobile biographies of surng. While it can be seen as a disposal ritual when it includes
the scattering of ashes, it is as much about placing the dead in a spiritual home or signicant
place of the deceased’s identity and how they will be remembered. Sometimes, there are
multiple, even concurrent rituals for the deceased whose biography or fame in the world of
professional and non-professional surng, spans multiple geographies and communities.
The paddle-out ceremony is a rite of passage for both the living and the dead and the
deeply physical nature of the ritual provides a signicant transformational experience of
both emotional release while also creating and renewing bonds and group solidarity. The
movement from the beach into the ocean for the participants is a series of threshold crossings
(as discussed earlier) from one state of embodiment into another. Walking along the beach
with surfboards in hand, the participants of the ceremony transform from standing with
their feet on the ground into an embodiment of oating and immersion within the ebb and
ow of waves, tidal currents and ocean life forms. The dead symbolically taken out into the
ocean with or without cremains are the central subjects of a ritual that releases or places
their spirit into a meaningful biographical space. The mourners as surfers are acknowledging
and retracing an existing memory-space, which reconnects with the deceased in an immer-
sive mode of embodied existence. The paddle-out ritual embraces the temporality of an
individual life amongst family, friends and community within the timelessness and eternity
of the ocean. It celebrates and acknowledges the human condition of mortality in a nature-
based, highly physical and aective ritual process.
Disclosure statement
No potential conict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Margaret Gibson is a senior lecturer in Sociology in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social
Science, Grith University, Australia, and member of the Grith Centre for Cultural Research. Her
research focuses on objects of mourning, memory and memorialisation and the transnational, social
interface of online mourning and memorialisation practices. She is the author of Objects of the dead:
mourning and memory in everyday life (MUP, 2008) and co-author of Living and dying in a vir tual world:
Digital kinships, nostalgia, and mourning in second life, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
Mardi Frost is a PhD candidate at the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Grith
University, Australia. Her thesis explores the biographical signicance of the ocean in people’s lives
and how it is transformed in meaning, memory and attachment when it becomes a space of death and
loss. She is also a professional counselor and author of The grief grapevine: Facebook memorial pages
and adolescent bereavement. Australian journal of guidance and counselling, 24(2), 256–265 (2014).

MORTALITY 13
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Appendix 1. Interview sample
Participant Interview method Gender Years surng Age
State/Country of
origin
Number of
paddle-outs
attended (approx.)
Bill Face to face Male 54 64 Hawaii. USA 15–20
Ben Face to face Male 48 54 Hawaii. USA 20–30
Mitch Phone/email Male 50 68 Queensland, Australia 10–15
Dane Face to face Male 50 55 Hawaii. USA 15–20
Rob Face to face Male 50 54 Hawaii. USA 100
Jack Face to face Male 55 67 Hawaii. USA 20–30
Jim Face to face Male 40 45 Hawaii. USA 15–20
Nate Phone/email Male 48 57 N.S.W, Australia 10–15
Rod Face to face Male 60 65 Hawaii. USA 40–50
Fred Face to face Male 51 55 Hawaii. USA 20–30
Michelle Phone/email Female 28 46 N.S.W, Australia 10–15
May Phone/email Female 30 36 Queensland, Australia 5–10