The
History of Surfing
by Skip Snead
1812
*Young boys are reported surfing on the north side
of Pelekane on the island of Maui using banana trunks for surfboards
1822
*The first signs of surfboard care are reported. Surfboards
at this time were stained black, and that following a session they
would dry them off, wipe them with coconut oil, then "frequently
wrapped in cloth and suspended somewhere in their house."
1825
*British sea captain George Anson writes in his ship's
log that "to have a neat floatboard, well-kept, and dried, is
to a Sandwich Islander what a tilbury or cabriolet, or whatever light
carriage may be in fashion is to a young Englishman."
1837
*Surfing in Equatorial West Africa reported in a traveler's
report.
1885
*Three Hawaiian princes, nephews of the great Queen
Kapi'olani, introduce surfing to California while attending school
in Santa Cruz, CA.
1866
*Author Mark Twain arrives in Hawaii and attempts to
go surfing. He fails and later writes about his experience of how
he struck the shore, slammed the sand and came up with "two barrels
of water in me."
1868
*As legend has it, a Hawaiian surfer named Holua rides
a tidal wave back to shore on a plank he tore from his house.
1880
*Body surfing gains popularity in Australia but they
haven't a clue about surfboards or what the Hawaiians are doing in
the ocean.
1892
*Surfing slowly disappears as a cultural form of expression
as the population of Hawaiians falls from 300,000 (in 1778 when Cook
first arrived) to 40,000. New disease introduced by Western man is
one of the main reasons for the decline of the Hawaiian population.
1893
*Duke Kahanamoku is born in Hawaii.
1898
*Thomas Edison films surfing on the South Shore of
Oahu at Waikiki.
