An entry in the logbook of Lieutenant King, commander of the "Discovery" - one of the ships in the expedition to the Pacific, James Cook. Hawaii, March 1779:

"Surf in the bay begins approximately 150 meters from the shore. And huge waves, revealing the extent of his approaching the bottom, with incredible fury fall on the shore. Every time a storm or after any weather disturbances in the ocean, when the force of the surf increased height wave reaches epic proportions. And then the natives satisfied risky entertainment: twenty or thirty natives, each with a long narrow board, rounded at the ends, rush

It is that Kauai is the largest canyon in the Pacific. The canyons are formed by a process of erosion, but that of Waimea has also been created by the collapse of a volcano that gave birth to Kauai (the oldest island of the archipelago of Hawaii). The Waimea River has subsequently caused an incision, the rest of the canyon has continued to be carved by rivers and floods from the summit of Mount Wai'ale'ale, there are several million years. (more...)