The History of Wave Surfing

Although it’s quite the modern fad, surfing actually started many, many years ago – almost 4,000 years ago around 2000 BC to be exact!! Polynesians first began riding waves on wooden boards when fishermen discovered it was a fast, efficient way to get to shore with their catch. Eventually catching waves in this manner caught on as a fun pastime instead of just part of work.

It is unknown when “stand up” surfing started, but at least as far back as the 15th century, chiefs and queens and other royalty in Hawaii loved the sport of “he’enalu”, or wave-sliding. These Hawaiians developed their own prayers, board shapers, and rituals related to surfing, and lower-class Hawaiians were prohibited from sharing these rituals or the waves.

Surfing all but disappeared by the end of the 19th century as the numbers of native Hawaiians dropped. Its comeback is owed to the “Father of Modern Surfing”, Duke Kahanamoku. Duke Kahanamodu was a popular Olympic swimmer who started a surf club on Wakiki Beach and then started exhibiting the sport on the West Coast in 1914. The Wakiki surf club became extremely popular, and was even written about by legendary authors Jack London and Mark Twain. The East Coast started surfing in 1912 after James Matthias Jordan, Jr surfed off Virginia Beach on a huge, 110-pound Hawaiian redwood.

Then, in 1959, the movie Gidget brought surfing to international attention for the first time. Gidget was a movie about a girl by the same name who fell in love with surfing and with a surfer boy. The country fell in love with her and the sport. The music of the Beach Boys cemented the country’s love affair with surfing and everyone was taking to the beaches!

Today, surfing is practiced by millions each year at beaches...

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... out past where the waves are breaking, float in the water near where waves are beginning to break with your back to the beach. ii. Watch the waves to get a feel for where the swells are breaking. Once you decide to catch a wave, face the nose of the board toward shore and lie down. iii. When a wave approaches, the surfer must paddle hard to catch up with it. The surfer can feel that the wave has been caught when the surfboard speeds up to the same speed as the wave beneath it. iv. Just before the wave starts to break, the surfer pushes down on the board as though doing a push-up, while at the same time drawing up his legs under his body, planting his feet on the board, and standing up. This is the pop-up.

v. Once up, you should stand with your front hip facing straight ahead and feet perpendicular to the board. Keep your knees bent and your eyes looking forward