Ever wondered who to blame for a flat ocean, or a six-foot cyclone swell?

A punter who clearly has a working relationship with Huie

Since the dawn of surfing, surfers have had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the man in the sky, Huey or Huie.
When the waves are good, we praise his generosity, kiss his feet and apologise for any sin we may have committed in his garden of Eden.
When the waves are bad though, surfers sacrifice boards, goats and throw middle fingered salutes at old Huie in an act of desperation to feel his wrath. But who is he? Where did he come from? And how can I get his phone number because I think we need to have a chat…

ABC News recently uncovered the story of Huie  which dates back to the late 1800’s.

As reported by the ABC –

The Australian term to appeal for rain “Send her down Huie” has its origins in the Riverina, according to an ABC researcher.

The Presenter of Radio National’s Bush Telegraph program, Michael Cathcart said surfers invoke Huie to call up the waves and Australian pilots in World War two saw Huie as their protector.

He said the dictionary is unclear about the origins of the phrase.

But Mr Cathcart says he has found the name Huie comes from a Narrandera settler John Ziegler Huie.

His granddaughter Shirley Huie says it is a family legend.

“I’ve known it since I was a child,” she told ABC Radio.

“They always said there’s grandpa again, ‘Send her down Huie’.

“And because he also managed another property called Cannonbar, the story was he used to fire the cannon off into the clouds to bring the rain down,” said Ms Huie.

“That may not be true but that was what the family said,” she said.

Mr Cathcart said there is evidence the cannon existed and that it was fired into the clouds, but it was mainly used against the Aborigines.

He quoted the Bulletin from the early 1900’s.

“It says that in 1888 when working on a station in western New South Wales, the manager of Cannonbar station, which is John Huie the second, Shirley’s grandfather, would on rare occasions that a cloud appear, roll out a cannon, he would point it towards the cloud, set it off and shout ‘Send it down’, in an attempt to get it to rain.” said Mr Cathcart.

“That’s right,” agreed Shirley Huie.