Development and History of Surfing
The Invention of the Modern Sport of Surfboard Riding
Nov 18, 2008
Surfboard riding is a modern sport with millions of devotees. It is a simple pastime: all that is needed is a clean wave and a board to feel at one with the ocean.
Surfing has even become an international business with its own World Championship.
But where did this technique come from? Who thought of riding the clean swells on a plank of wood?
Water Sports From The South Pacific
Surprisingly, this sport has its origins in that vast area of the planet called the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific nations might not be the centre of the world economy or produce resources used by all nations, but the culture and traditions of the region have developed into sports that are well entrenched in western society.
Surfing Developed In Hawaii
The modern sport of surfing was developed in Hawaii. The Hawaiians have been riding the waves, or as it was originally known, he'enalu for thousands of years. The Hawaiians shared the sea and the waves with their god Kanaloa, lord of the ocean. They performed rituals on the land and the waves to please the god. Feasts and competitions were based around the surf. Beaches were set aside for royalty where the punishment for a commoner caught surfing was death.
Captain Cook First European To Witness Surfing
Captain Cook and his crew were the first white people to witness surfing when they arrived in Hawaii in 1778. Cook wrote of his observations in Volume 3 of A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean: '... their first object is to place themselves on the summit of the largest surge by which they are driven along with amazing rapidity towards the shore.'
Duke Kahanamoku Takes Surfing To The World
Surfing began its worldwide lift in popularity in 1915 when Hawaiian Olympic swimming champion Duke Kahanamoku came to Australia. On the beach at Freshwater, he took his huge board out in the northern corner and caught a wave. He rode it right across the bay as the crowd on the beach watched in amazement. The Duke later wrote: 'I soared and glided, drifted and sideslipped with that blending of flying and sailing which only experienced surfers can know and fully appreciate. The Aussies became instant converts.'
One of these converts was young Australian Claude West who raced down to the water and begged the Duke to teach him to surf. He quickly learnt the art and won the first Australian Surfing Championship many years after that fateful day.
In the 1920s the Duke travelled to California, New York and New Jersey where he introduced the sport to the rest of the world.
The boards have progressed from the huge wooden monsters that the Duke used, to modern high technology fibreglass boards of the modern surfer.
A sport, born in the remote islands of the Pacific, quickly became entrenched in the culture and folklore of the coastal dwellers around the world.
Other South Pacific Sports
Surfing, once performed for powerful Hawaiian kings, is now done at nearly every country that has beaches and waves.
But the Pacific islands have been the location for the development of other sports. The Solomon Islanders had been swimming freestyle possibly for thousands of years before it went through the changes to become the modern freestyle. Read about the development of the modern freestyle swimming stroke at History And Development Of Freestyle Swimming.
Another ancient ritual from the Pacific is the Vanuatu version of bungee jumping: the Pentecost Jump.
