A Very Brief History of Surfing

The ancient art of surf or wave riding had been well-rooted in the culture of Hawaii and the rest of Polynesia by the time Captain Cook and his ships of discovery set foot upon those shores.

In an island environment so totally linked and affected by the surf, winds and tides, the movements of the surrounding waves could not help but be a source of legend and ritual.These were the days of long, heavy hardwood boards, carefully crafted and carved, with  no such things as leashes and rashguards.  The art and sport of surf riding was fraught with religious meaning and the colorful frills of mythology and island culture before the arrival of the European missionaries dampened the natives' perceptions and activities.

The first account of surf ridingby a "foreigner" was recorded in 1779 in  the ships log of Capt. Cook's ship the Discovery by her commander, Lt. James King:

But a diversion the most common is upon the Water, where there is a very great Sea, and surf breaking on the Shore. The Men sometimes 20 or 30 go without the Swell of the Surf, & lay themselves flat upon an oval piece of plan about their Size and breadth, they keep their legs close on top of it, & their Arms are us'd to guide the plank, thye wait the time of the greatest Swell that sets on Shore, & altogether push forward with their Arms to keep on its top, it sends them in with a most astonishing Velocity, & the great art is to guide the plan so as always to keep it in a proper direction on the top of the Swell, & as it alters its direct. If the Swell drives him close to the rocks before he is overtaken by its break, he is much prais'd. On first seeing this very dangerous diversion I did not conceive it possible but that some of them must be dashed to mummy against the sharp rocks, but jus before they reach the shore, if they are very near, they quit their plank, & dive under till the Surf is broke, when the piece of plank is sent many yards by the force of the Surf from the beach. The greatest number are generally overtaken by the break of the swell, the force of which they avoid, diving and swimming under the water out of its impulse. By such like excercises, these men may be said to be almost amphibious. The Women could swim off to the Ship, & continue half a day in the Water, & afterwards return. The above diversion is only intended as an amusement, not a tryal of skill, & in a gentle swell that sets on must I conceive be very pleasant, at least they seem to feel a great pleasure in the motion which this Exercise gives.

With the coming of the Europeans to Hawaii, the oppressions of the Calvinists in the 1800's, and the decimation of a great part of the island population by the spread of disease, alcohol and other scourages borught to the environment by the newcomers,  surfing and other cultural activities and sports went into severe decline and almost died out altogether.

It was in the earliest years of the 20th C that surfing began to return to its own as a sport, albeit without the religious and ritualistic strictures and connotations of the past. Jack London visited the Hawaiian islands and, in the company of journalist Alexander Hume Ford, met a young, enthusiastic and talented surf rider of Irish/Hawaiian extraction named George Freeth. Freeth intoduced London to surfing, spawning Jack London's story titled "A Royal Sport: Surfing in Waikiki" first published in 1907 and later, in 1911, integrated into "The Cruise of the Snark", where London writes:

As I write these lines I lift my eyes and look seaward. I am on the beach of Waikiki on the island of Oahu. Far, in the azure sky, the trade-wind clouds drift low over the blue-green turquoise of the deep sea. Nearer, the sea is emerald and light olive-green. Then comes the reef, where the water is all slaty purple flecked with red. Still nearer are brighter greens and tans, lying in alternate stripes and showing where sandbeds lie between the living coral banks. Through and over and out of these wonderful colours tumbles and thunders a magnificent surf. As I say, I lift my eyes to all this, and through the white crest of a breaker suddenly appears a dark figure, erect, a man-fish or a sea-god, on the very forward face of the crest where the top falls over and down, driving in toward shore, buried to his loins in smoking spray, caught up by the sea and flung landward, bodily, a quarter of a mile. It is a Kanaka on a surf-board. And I know that when I have finished these lines I shall be out in that riot of colour and pounding surf, trying to bit those breakers even as he, and failing as he never failed, but living life as the best of us may live it. And the picture of that coloured sea and that flying sea-god Kanaka becomes another reason for the young man to go west, and farther west, beyond the Baths of Sunset, and still west till he arrives home again.

Freeth traveled to California at the invitation of railroad magnate Henry Huntington, where he opened California's eyes to the sport and amazed onlookers with his prowess on the waves.  About that same time, Hume Ford was working in Hawaii to get greater recognition for this lost cultural activity, and was instrumental in the founding of the Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Club, dedicated to wave riding. Meanwhile,  native Hawaiians were joining the forces to form the Hui Nalu surf club, of which young Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, an excellent swimming and surfer, was a founding member.

As a competitive freestyle swimmer, Duke Kahanamoku attended the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm and later in Antwerp, bringing in gold medals both times. In 1917 Duke had his wave-ride of legend at Kalahuawehe, Hawaii, now known as Outside Castles, and he went on to participate in more Olympic competitions during the 20's. He exhibited his aquatic skills all over the globe and his abilities and style won him recognition in and out of the water.

The surf culture grew slowly throughout the 30's, 40's and 50's, bringing such names as Woodbridge Parker (Woody) Brown who, besides coming up with the design of the catamaran, revolutionized surfboard construction,  Rabbit Kekai with his new "hot-dog" riding technique, and John Kelly, founder of the "Save our Surf" environmental surfer's organization.  Surfing spread along the California coast and during the 50's and 60's, along with the surf movie and the songs of The Beach Boys, and Hawaii was attracting more and more attention for the big wave riders. who were pitting themselves more often again gigantic surf of Sunset Beach, Makaha and Waimea.

Since, technology has stepped in big time with the constant search for lighter and more streamlined boards made of fibreglass and revolutionary synthetic materials. Leashes, wetsuits, a variety of fins and board shapes and sizes have made the sport more adaptable to a variety of conditions, and the ease of travel afforded by modern transportation capable of taking the surf traveller halfway around the world for the sole purpose of finding the "perfect wave", have brought the thrill and rush and allure of surfing to a great many more people than ever before.