SurfingBoat.com  Surfing boat is about sailing and surfing, combination of double spirit  that will brought you to the great adventure, beside living on a sailboat is a great way to travel and live.  Hawaii Surf, Mentawai Surf, Bali Surf, Surfing Tips

Commercial Links Anti aging solution -  Get a selebrity smile - Lose weight and get ripped - Acne treatment - Cellulite solution - Natural gain plus - Excellent web host SurfnHula Surf Shop

Ads..

The Hawaiians are credited with being the fathers of surfing, and are known to have practiced the sport as early as the 15th century AD. The Hawaiian name for surfing "He'enalu" - can be translated as wave sliding. During its early history, surfing was taken as a sacred practice and only those with a high social status could take part; in other words - Hawaiian kings and queens were surfers. Ironically, today, surfing is seen by the general population as a sport for those who have dropped out of society, the very opposite to how it began.

In ancient times the art of surfing was a deeply spiritual affair for Hawaiian people and surfing was not only recreational but a means for resolving conflicts and training for the Hawaiian chiefs. The Hawaiian people had rituals for building surfboards and the surfboards they built ranged from 10-16 ft made of solid redwood and the longer the board the higher your social ranking. During the early days the Hawaiian's made two types of surfboards made from the Wili Wili, the Ula and the Koa tree's.

The 'Olo' surfboard was ridden by the Chiefs or the noblemen usually between 14-16 feet and the 'Alaia' surfboard was between 10-12 feet in length and ridden by commoners.

As a people living on a cluster of small islands in a very big sea, the Hawaiians were not surprisingly fascinated by the ocean, and attached great meaning to its moods and forms. In a similar way to which the Inuit are said to have many names for snow, the Hawaiians also have hundreds of words to describe the various forms of the ever changing sea.

Just as modern day surf bums insist on surfing as a lifestyle rather than just a sport and thus devote great portions of time and money to the pursuit of the waves, Hawaiians also found unfathomable bounds with the practise, as the writings of Kepelino Keauokalani, a 19th Century Hawaiian Scholar, shows in his observations of the local Hawaiian surfers:

"All thought of work is at the end, only that of sport is left. The wife may go hungry, the children, the whole family, but the head of the house does not care. He is all for sport, that is his food. All day there is nothing but surfing. Many go out surfing as early as four in the morning: men, women, children."

Such was the desire of the ancient Hawaiians for wave sliding that if the distant storms didn't generate sufficient waves to ride, surfers with enlist the help of a "kahuna" - a priest who would pray to the gods and ask for surf to come to Hawaiian shores.

However, surfing was to move into a period of decline following the arrival of Christian Missionaries who believed surfing was a hedonist act and a waste of time. They adamantly preach against surfing's existence, and by the late 1800s, the sport had almost been completely exterminated. Had it not been for a few hardcore surfers who continued to practise the sports and Hawaiian kings such as David Kalakau, surfing may have died out all together.

However, the gradual decline of the missionaries influence allowed surfing to breathe again, and by the start of the 1900s, surfing had not only regained its former popularity in Hawaii, but was beginning to spread to other beaches of the world. In the early 1900's the Hawaiians organized the Hui Nalu (surf club) and competed in neighborly surf competitions with the Outrigger Canoe Club. This drew a great deal of attention to the Waikiki surf shore, bringing a revitalized interest in the sport, which had fallen out of favor in the late 1800s. Duke Kahanamoku, an Olympic star in swimming, popularized the sport further by traveling internationally and showing off his surfing style to thrilled audiences around the world. He was favored by Hollywood elite; having acted in bit parts in films and was always recruiting new surfers wherever he went. He is credited with surfing the longest wave of all time in 1917, in the popular surfing area now called Outside Castles in Waikiki. His 1000 meters plus wave record has yet to be overtaken.

In the 1930s, the sport of surfing was experiencing a Renaissance. Tom Blake, founder of the Pacific Coast Surf Championships that ended with the onset of war in 1941, was the first man to photograph surfing from the water. Another photographer and surfer named Doc Ball published California Surfriders 1946, which depicts the pristine coastal beaches and good-time, relaxed atmosphere of surf living. Surfing, although curtailed in the aftermath of WWII, revived as always by the 1950s. Bud Browne, an accomplished surfer and waterman, created the first 'surf movie' with his 1953 "Hawaiian Surfing Movie". This inspired many photographers, filmmakers and surfers to continue documenting the sport, culminating with is arguably the best surf movie of all time, 1963's "Endless Summer" by Bruce Brown. The film opened up the genre of the surf movie and the art of surfing to non-surfing people, accumulating fans and inspiring neophytes. 

The  first 'Olo' surfboard was ridden by the Chiefs or the noblemen usually between 14-16 feet and the 'Alaia' surfboard was between 10-12 feet in length and ridden by commoners.

Captain Cook witnessed natives surfing solid wooden surfboards when he visited the Hawaiian Islands in 1777 and his diaries are the first official documentation describing the art of surfing.

Later in the mid 19th century when the western/white missionaries arrived surfing almost died out in the islands. At the start of the 20th century the missionaries influence over the islands began to decline and Hawaiians along with the new European and American settlers began surfing again. One of these was George Freeth, who through his surfing, experimented with board design, and cut his 16 foot Hawaiian board in half. Making the typical solid redwood Hawaiian board of the time to around 6 to 10 foot long.

In 1926 one of the most famous names in surf history; Tom Blake designed the first hollow surfboard constructed of redwood with hundreds of holes drilled in it and was encased with a thin board of wood on top and bellow the board. The board was 15 foot long, 19" wide, 4" thick and weighed 100 lbs.

This hollow surfboard eventually became the first mass-produced board in 1930s due to it's weight and the speeds it could generate.

The end of World War 2 opened up new possibilities in surfboard design as many new materials had become available through advances in technology. Fibreglass and styrofoam were the most significant of these.

By the late 1920s, tourists from all over the world were booking into newly built hotels in Waikiki in their hundreds, all eager to experience the world's most famous beach and see the exotic "surf people" for themselves. Another 30 years on, and waves of American surf migrants began to arrive from California in search of the renowned Hawaiian waves, that had reached legendary status is surf circles.

In 1966, Nat Young won the World Championships on a shortboard called 'Sam' designed by George Greenough and Bob McTavish. This board allowed greater performance style surfing with sharper turns and greater acceleration, which kick-started the 'shortboard revolution'.

Now, surfing is a billion dollar industry, practiced across the world from Iceland to Indonesia - but let's not forget those pioneering Hawaiian kings and queens without which, the sport of surfing may never have been invented.

And now surfing spread throughout all media and Surfing Magazine was born in the early 1960s by famous surf photographer, LeRoy Grannis. After that, other publications cropped up bringing more information on the sport, equipment and stars of the surfing scene. John Severson, an accomplished filmmaker and photographer, created Surfer Magazine, originally called "The Surfer". These publications brought advertising, professional surfing, surf culture and publicity to the now very popularized sport.

youtube

This domain (www.surfingboat.co) for sale, if you want to make an offer please contact me at nipussi@gmail.com