Surfing

Evolution of surfing

The history of surfing dates as far back as the origins of the Hawaiian people. What began in Hawaii, has quickly expanded throughout the world to almost every beach and to places where people never thought that could be surfed. From a long, heavy plank of wood, the surf board evolved to a shorter, lighter fiberglass and foam board. Because of the far travels of many ambassadors of Hawaiian surfers, the once small sport of surfing in Hawaii began to spread to many other countries. Today, it is not only a popular sport, but a widespread art, a growing business, and an American subculture with a broad future ahead.
The Hawaiian word for surfing is “He’e Nalu”. “He’e” meaning run as liquid and change from solid to liquid. “Nalu” meaning surging motion of a wave and foaming of the wave. The first Western Explorer to discover the Hawaiians was Captain James Cook, a British Naval Captain who came to Hawaii in the 1770s. He wrote what he witnessed in a log of Hawaiians catching swells with large narrow boards.
When surfing expanded to the United States and to Australia, many modifications of the surf board started to happen. In the 1920's, three local surfers, Wally Froiseth, John Kelly, and Fran Heath, experimented with the shape of there tails and created the pin tail for more angular turning on the waves. With all the new styles of boards, the old Hawaiian ways of straight forward riding were falling and the new turning and riding techniques of riding on the face of the wave was rising. Many accessories were made to help save lives of the surfers and to make things easier. One very important accessory was the leash. It was made by local Californian surfers in 1970's by tying a rope to the board and ankle of the surfer.
Australia was, and is still a major surfing country that helped shape the sport of surfing. They helped with the evolution of the surf board and they produced great surfing legends.
In 1905, a teenager named Duke Kahanamoku...