The roots of surfing are connected to the ancient Hawaiian tradition of “he’e nalu”, meaning “wave-sliding”. For this ancient Hawaiian culture, the sea had an attached persona, which could somehow reflect emotions. A good day of surfing required the right waves, and in order to convince the sea to provide these waves, Ancient Hawaiians counted on priests to pray for good surf. These priests would engage in ritual chants and dances, with hopes of pleasing the sea to get surfable waves! Surfing wasn’t just a pastime. This sport served as a training exercise designed to keep chiefs in peak physical condition. Surfing served as a system of conflict resolution. People would test their skills in fierce competitions, where wealth, pride, and even romance were at stake. Has anything really changed?

Well, a lot did change upon the arrival of the white man. People began visiting Hawaii in hopes of taking the land for themselves. These people sadly had little respect for ancient traditions of the culture they invaded, and soon it appeared to be lost forever. Forced to adapt to a new lifestyle, the natives eventually lost touch with their ancient ways, and surfing soon went into a major decline. The 19th century saw surfing go from popular to pretty much extinct.

Yet, as the Twentieth Century pulled in, surfing as it were was set for a revival. From this point onwards, a lot of advances in technology, along with the rapidly growing widespread interest in surfing, began to take the sport even further. The ‘roaring twenties’ were an important time for surfing. Advances in surfboard design around the 1920’s started to make the sport way more accessible to the public, which resulted in competitive surfing, the first ever major surf competition being in 1928.

The number of surfers was still not particularly large, due to the difficulty and high physical demand of the sport. With that said though, more modern advances made surfing even more accessible, like the introduction of fins on surfboards, which made the sport a lot easier to learn. Incidentally, the invention of fins enabled more elaborate and exciting tricks, thus surfing grew and gathered a large, interested and somewhat motley crew of followers. Changes through the years in the materials used to make surfboards have also made surfboards MUCH lighter and easier to maneuver, yet another way to make the sport more accessible to the public. .

Next would come ‘the surf movies’. Early movies like Gidget and The Endless Summer ignited an explosion of interest. These films truly opened America’s eyes to surfing as a pastime. As a result, the nation was totally hooked. With the help of technological advances in board design and media interest like full length movies, a new surf culture was born.

As the surf craze continued, the biggest change was to be found in surf boards, which by the end of the 1960’s had reduced in size from 10 feet to 6 feet. This would become known as the ’shortboard revolution’, and was one of the first innovations brought about by the Aussie’s. Shorter boards accompanied the commercialization of surfing, which went from an underground obsession to a mainstream cultural influence. Going on in time, surfing has now become a popular pastime –and for some, a full time job resulting in big money and loads of fans. Surfing is no longer only a sport or a lifestyle; it has developed into an industry, and a staple of our culture.

Tags: Surfing