Moldy Peaches

Hawaiians are known for being a little different. Maybe it is the island air? All the tourists? Is it a disconnect from land? Whatever the reason, their contribution to sport is certainly different.

Lava sledding, a long dormant sport, is undergoing an attempted revival. The sport sees competitors reach the top of a slope, stand up, lie down or kneel atop hardwood sleds -- often carved from kauila or ohia trees and measuring 12 feet long by 6 inches wide -- and speed down the man-made courses of hardened lava rocks sprinkled with grass.

Who exactly made lava sledding dormant? The risk averse Christian missionaries who brought Christianity to Hawaii and saw the sport as "a frivolous waste of time.

Now, Tom "Pohaku" Stone, who is fond of barreling down grassy slopes aboard ti leaves and banana stumps, is attempting to bring it back. What began as childhood fun on a natural roller coaster has evolved into an academic and cultural journey aimed at reviving the 2,000-year-old Hawaiian tradition of he'e holua, or Hawaiian lava sledding.

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