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Examining the Origin of Modern Day Surfing

Examining the Origin of Modern Day Surfing

Table of Context

[i:5bb1f5580d]Introduction Page 1

Orgins Page 1

Evolution of the Surf Board Page 2

Expansion to U.S.A. Page 4

Expansion to Australia Page 5

Business Page 7

Conclusion Page 9

Bibliography Page 10 [/i:5bb1f5580d]

Introduction

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.

Origins

From long ago, Hawaiian would pass down chants of stories of people riding giant waves. These chants were passed down from generation to generation, however, it wasn’t til the early 19th century that they were written down by scholars like Samuel Kamakau (Young, 32).

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 (Young, 31).

Some chants that go back to th 15th century AD illustrate how important surfing was in everyday life and shows that surfing going back to when in the first Polynesians first arrived in the Pacific (YH, 31).

The Kapu system was a type of law that would restrict certain materials for boards, the length of boards, and beaches for Alii or the Ruling Chiefs (Young, 19). The common size of a board for an Alii was from fourteen to sixteen feet long and the common size of a commoner was ten to twelve feet long. (Young, 31)

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 (Young, 31).

Evolution of the Surf Board

The surf board evolved from the first heavy long wooden board and evolved to many types of new styles...

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