Surfing Surfing History

So you wanted to unwind the wave to the beginning of surfing. Surfing has a long history in every culture that has been by an ocean. It has shaped the government's of ancient Hawaiians. It has now formed into a multi billion dollar industry that dominates the gear needed to surf along with the competitions. It has become a family pastime that started in the fifties and that is still thriving still today.

Surfing came to be when polynesian explorers 4000 years ago found Hawaii and settled it. The people there became shut off from the outside world and self sufficient. There rode boards made of tall trees. Some of their boards would be 20 feet in length. These type of boards were reserved for royalty. The commoners would ride boards 8 to 14

feet that could be stood up on. Children would ride boards that were 4 to 6 feet in length that were meant to be laid down upon (known today as boogie boards). (Surfing for Life)
In 1778 Captain Cook had the first documented connection with the hawaiians in 4000 years. He found it on his way from Tahidi to the North West Coast. Captain Cook went to the islands for a second time. This time he tried to get there from Alaska.(Surfing for Life) He was killed by hawaiians because he was holding the chief captive for a stolen boat. The first surfing was documented by Lieutenant King James. He documented that they would surf standing up or laying down on their board. (Club of the Waves)
Surfing was a way for royalty to differentiate themselves from the common people. This was also a way for common people to make a name for themselves. Shop owners would promote their business by surfing well. (Surfing for Life) The idea of standing on a surfboard was developed in Hawaii. Surfing was a way to settle disputes. Betting would occur whether it was an animal or money. At time more major things would be decided such as life or love. In the making of a surfboard sacrifices would be buried in the place where the tree once stood. Most great chiefs were renowned surfers. (Club of the Waves)
Hawaiian chiefs would surf to stay in top condition incase a war broke out. The word surfing came from the Hawaiian word “he’e nalu” or wave sliding. (Club of the Waves) The hawaiians would surf in different ways. One was two competitors would catch a wave and who ever got to shore first would win the competition. (Surfing for Life) Another was one person would start at the top of a hill and one in the ocean and when the surfer caught a wave the person the hill would ride down in a sled and who ever got to the shore line first won. Surfing was not just all competitions their was a sense of recreation to the way that the early surfers surfed.
In ancient Hawaii surf boards reserved for royalty could weight up to 150 pounds. Out of all the people in the tribe the chiefs where the people who surfed the most. A british writer in London,England wrote an article titled “A Royal Sport; Surfing at Wai Kiki”. A hawaiian named Faye Bairdfaser paved the way in the new surfing community for women to ride waves. In the surfing world at that time men dominated the competitions and the majority of the percentages. (Holden 16)
The word surfing came from the Hawaiian word “he’e nalu” or wave sliding. Ancient hawaiians believed that the sea had a persona. Ancient hawaiians would engage in ritual chants and dances to get the sea to provide good surfable waves. The Ancient hawaiians saw surfing as a way to resolve conflict and disputes.(Brimmer 13)
In the late 1800s and the early 1900s there were very few females who surfed along this time period. The few women who surfed would surf alone or with a group of boys. Mary Ann Hakinswas was one of the first woman to surf. Many of the first girls who surfed would go surfing with their boyfriends because the boards would weigh 100 lbs. An australian girl named Isabel Letham was the first documented girl to stand up on a surfboard. (Southerden 13)
Most girls would tandem surf with their boyfriends. Tandem riding is where there is two people on one board at the same time. The surfer Duke Kahamonto popularized tandem surfing when at the end of this demonstrations he would ask a girl in the crowd to surf with him. (Southerden 16)
Australians were not introduced to surfing until the early 1900s when Duke Kahamonto was there for a swim race. In australia security was very strict about where you could surf and where was not allowed. In some places along the coast guards would hold your board ransom for money if they caught you surfing in the wrong spot. Most Australians would ride laying down before Duke showed up and showed them the way that the hawaiians surfed. (Southerden 14)
At the turn of the 20th century people started to take trips to Hawaii breathing life into the almost forgotten world of surfing. In 1907 the first documentation of surfing in the United States of America. In the beginning of the 20th century surfing was an unorganized affair. Most beaches at the time did not have separate areas for swimming and surfing. There are very few reputable photos of surfing at that time because the leading camera technology was black and white. Surfing along the Californian coast was reliant upon the huge redwood trees to hand carve boards out of. Replica boards made today out of the same material can weight up to 100 pounds. (James 9)
In 1920 there were about 200 surfers on the coasts of Hawaii and California. Most of these surfers where beach boys. The surfers in California had learned their craft from the Hawaiians by traveling to Hawaii and seeing it or seeing a native hawaiians do it in California. A woman owned a huge stretch of prime surfing land in California. When the government build a road through it the secret was out about some of the best waves in the world. (James 9)
Duke Kahanamoku was a boy who grew up in Hawaii and went on to do everything from winning olympics to inventing tandem surfing to showing the australians how to surf. His life on the sea began when he first learned how to swim. His mother said that he could swim out as far in the water as he wanted as long as he could swim back to shore under his own power. Before long Duke was skipping school to go and swim for hours a day. (Crown 3)
When he was in his teens Duke was a beach boy who spent his days surfing and swimming in the coastal water of Hawaii.

He also would make and sell surfboards along the beach. When he was in his late teens he saw professional swimmers in Hawaii with their swim coach. The swim coach recognised his natural ability. The swim coach timed him in the 100 meter freestyle and could not believe what he saw, Duke had broken the world record. (Crown 3)

In the following years Duke Kahanamoku would become one of the best swimmers that the world had ever seen. After his professional swimming career had ended he began to show people around the world the sport of surfing. His efforts to show the world surfing lead most of the major surf capitals to become who they are today. (Crown 3)

Surfing today has become a billion dollar enterprise. Many leading companies will sponsor huge events. Today there are many types of surfing boogie boarding and windsurfing are among them. Now thousands of boards and wetsuits are made a year. Vs the old long wooden boards people today ride boards 6 to 7 feet long. Today millions of people surf every year. Now people will surf for a living making money off of endorsement deals. With the addition of tow in surfing now surfers can ride some of the biggest waves on the

planet.