We know that George Q. Cannon – missionary to Hawaii and England; newspaperman in California; Territorial Utah’s non-voting delegate to Congress; and longtime apostle and member of the First Presidency – was a swimmer and a general enjoyer of water sports.

While on a mission to England in 1864, Elder Cannon had a close call while swimming:

We went in the afternoon and had a bathe in the sea. There were eight of us from the Valley and two or three native elders. There was a boat anchored out a tolerably good distance from the shore to which two or three of the brethren swam.

Being warm I did not go into the water as soon as the rest and when I saw them sitting there I swam out to them and climbed on to the boat. Just as I did so, the owner of the boat seeing us, shouted to us to get off the boat.

When I jumped back into the water, feeling much out of breath, I turned over on my back and swam for a little distance; but upon perceiving that I did not make headway in the direction I wished, owing to the drifting of the tide, I turned over again. After swimming about half way back, I found my breath failing me so fast that I thought I would scarcely reach where the landing. Not wishing to go under without the brethren knowing my position, as they were all busy swimming and playing close to the bath-house and were not noticing me, I called to them to come and help me.

My call for help scared them considerably and three of them: Bro’s. Jonas N Beck, David P. Kimball and John W. Young, immediately started towards me. Bro. Beck being the nearest reached first and he, and afterwards Bro. David, put their hands as though to sustain or help me. When I felt their hands touched me they disturbed and embarrassed me, and I told them not to touch me. They then swam alongside of me, Bro. John W. Young telling me to take it easy.

Their presence encouraged me and I kept on and finally reached the platform from which we started to swim, Bro. Bird was standing there and he stretched out his hand which I grasped, and felt wonderfully thankful and relieved upon landing. After getting ashore I was seized with cramp so severely that I could not dress for some time.

In the summer of 1875, he visited the hot pots of Midway, Utah and recorded a swim there:

Afterwards we drove over to Midway where there are very singular springs. There are several mounds which look like inverted cauldrons with holes in the bottom. In these is warm water, which runs off and as it runs deposits a sediment which constantly increases the mounds in height. The ladies withdrew from one of them and Bro. Cluff and myself dived in. The water was about 30 feet deep, warm and pleasant, and although not very large is a beautiful place to swim in.

Elder Cannon apparently had learned to swim in his youth, before his mission to Hawaii, because his record of that mission includes this comment following a description of the outrigger canoes used in the Islands:

When I looked at these men perched on the deck of the canoe, it looked like going to sea on a log; and had I not been familiar with the skill of the natives in managing their canoe, and had some confidence in my own powers as a swimmer, with them to aid me in the water, I should scarcely have ventured in such a craft as this was.

He did admire the water skills of the Hawaiians, including women: “The swimming and diving of some of the women, surprised me; they appeared to be almost amphibious.”

So it seems perfectly naturally for Editor Cannon of the Juvenile Instructor to publish an illustrated description in the summer of 1887 of a Hawaiian sport he called “surf-bathing” or “surf-swimming”:

SURF-BATHING ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

One of the principal amusements of the natives of the Sandwich Islands is surf-swimming, a sport which is not unattended with danger, but in which they have acquired great skill. Swimming is considered a necessary accomplishment by the inhabitants of those islands, and from early childhood both males and females become accustomed to the water; so much so in fact that there seems to be no idea whatever of there being danger on or in the water. Nor do they seem to realize the fact that people grow to man and womanhood in other parts of the world without being able to swim.

“Captain Cook’s Voyages” gives an account of this pastime, which we have illustrated in the accompanying engraving:

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The surf, which breaks on the coast round the bay, extends to the distance of about one hundred and fifty yards from the shore, within which space the surges of the sea, accumulating from the shallowness of the water, are dashed against the beach with prodigious violence. Whenever from stormy weather, or any extraordinary swell at sea, the impetuosity of the surf is increased to its utmost height, they choose that time for this amusement, which is performed in the following manner:

Twenty or thirty of the natives, taking each a long narrow board, rounded at the ends, set out together from the shore. The first wave they meet they plunge under, and, suffering it to roll over them, rise again beyond it, and make the best of their way by swimming out into the sea. The second wave is encountered in the same manner with the first; the great difficulty consisting in seizing the proper moment of diving under it, which, if missed, the person is caught by the surf, and driven back again with great violence; and all his dexterity is then required to prevent himself from being dashed against the rocks. As soon as they have gained, by these repeated efforts, the smooth water beyond the surf, they lay themselves at length on their board, and prepare for their return. As the surf consists of a number of waves, of which every third is remarked to be always much larger than the others, and to flow higher on the shore, the rest breaking in the intermediate space, their first object is to place themselves on the summit of the largest surge, by which they are driven along with amazing rapidity toward the shore.

If by mistake they should place themselves on one of the smaller waves, which breaks up before they reach the land, or should not be able to keep their plank in a proper direction on the top of the swell, they are left exposed to the fury of the next, and, to avoid it, are obliged again to dive and regain the place from which they set out.

Those who succeed in their object of reaching the shore have still the greatest danger to encounter. The coast being guarded by a chain of rocks, with here and there a small opening between them, they are obliged to steer their board through one of these, or, in case of failure, to quit it before they reach the rocks, and, plunging under the wave, make the best of their way back again. This is reckoned very disgraceful; and is also attended with the loss of the board, which I have often seen, with great terror, dashed to pieces at the very moment the islander quitted it. The boldness and address with which we saw them perform these difficult and dangerous manoeuvers was altogether astonishing and is scarcely to be credited.

These swimmers used often to pass nearly a mile seaward, in order to enjoy the rapid motion of their return as long as possible. Both sexes and all ranks unite in it, and even the very chiefs themselves, who have attained to the corpulency which they so much admire, join in the game of surf-swimming with the meanest of their subjects. Some of the performers attain to a wonderful degree of skill, and, not content with lying on the board, sit, kneel, and even stand on it as they are hurled shoreward by the giant waves. The boards are of various sizes, according to the age and stature of the owner. For adults they are about six feet in length. They are slightly convex on both sides, and are kept very smooth—all surf-swimmers cherishing a pride in the condition of their boards, and taking care to keep them well polished and continually rubbed with cocoa-nut oil.