Roots of Surfing


Surfing is one of the oldest continuously practiced sports on the planet. The art of wave riding, itself, is a mixture of sensitivity to being in the environment at a given moment and sheer athleticism. Uniquely, surfing is also one of the few sports or arts that creates its own culture. Non-surfers and beginning surfers divide the question about surfing's origins in two parts: "When were the first surfboards ridden?" and "Who were the first surfers?" A surfer who has been into it for a while might put it more in terms of: "When was the first stoke?" In Hawaiian, the term is hopupu, but it means the same thing: to be high on life, especially riding waves.
Riding with a board to catch the power of an ocean swell originated in Western Polynesia between three and four thousand years ago.
The first surfers were Polynesian and began standing up on wooden boards in the surf of the Pacific Ocean sometime between 1500 B.C. and 400 A.D. Somewhere in that period -- probably early on -- the first surf stoked surfer began the surf culture many of us around the world practice in our own ways, today.
Surfing's Origins
Riding the ocean's waves began with seamen who rode the waves of the open ocean in outrigger and double-hulled canoes. That surfing stems from a nautically-based culture with a legend-filled history of outstanding watermen is undeniable. The first surfers were watermen who initially became noted for their finesse with outrigger and double hulled canoes before taking to mere slabs of wood. Very possibly, these island fishermen first envisioned a more recreational use for waves when they used them as the fastest means for getting their canoes over the coral reefs and on to the beach with their catch. At some undefined stage, catching waves developed from being part of the everyday working skill of the fisherman to being a sport. Instead of work it became play. This change revolutionized surfing.
"For thousands of years," wrote 1960s world champ