The History of Surfing

Here’s something we’ve been thinking about as we prepare for another day at our FL beach clothing store: Which sport is older: football, baseball or surfing?

Football has its roots in much older sports like rugby and soccer -- what much of the rest of the world calls “football” -- but the sport as we know it today began to develop in the 1880s.

People had been playing various ball-and-stick style games for centuries before the first official American baseball game took place in 1846.

So surfing must be relatively new compared to those games, right? For many Americans, the sport didn’t enter the national consciousness until the 1960s, the age of Gidget, the Beach Boys and the Endless Summer.

In fact, surfing might be the oldest sport of them all. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the history of surfing.

The First Surfers

People have likely been riding waves in one way or another since humans began swimming in the ocean.

There’s archeological evidence that indigenous South American cultures fashioned vessels to ride waves as far back as five thousand years ago.

The Jesuit missionary Jose de Acosta noted that the Incan people in what is now Peru would fish using a vessel called the caballito de toro, which are still in use by local fishermen (and tourists seeking recreation).

Polynesia

Surfing as we know it today was first observed by Europeans in Tahiti in 1767, although research indicates that surfing was part of Polynesia life centuries before that.

In fact, there is research that shows that surfing was so ingrained that tribes would choose their chief based on who could surf the best.

Hawaii, of course, has a rich surfing tradition. Here at our surf clothing and supply shop, we like to think of surfing as a part of life, and that was definitely the case for ancient Hawaiians, who saw surfing as an art, and the construction of a surfboard as a spiritual act.

They were a people fascinated with communing with the ocean and unlocking its mysteries, and those surfers with the most skills gained the most respect in their society.

Surfing USA

People have been surfing in California since 1885, when three Hawaiian princes took a break from their boarding school to surf off the coast of Santa Cruz.

In 1907, the Hawaiian surfer George Freeth demonstrated his skills as part of a publicity stunt marking the opening of the Los Angeles-Redondo-Huntington Railroad. Freeth would eventually travel the west coast showing off his surfing and lifeguarding abilities.

Surfing came to the east coast two years later, introduced on Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina by Burke Haywood Bridgers and a colony of surfers.

Today there are a few important surf culture epicenters spread around the country, including Northern and Southern California, the east coast of Florida and the Carolinas. That’s to say nothing of places like Australia, Brazil, Mexico and, of course, Hawaii.

Surf Shop Jupiter FL

Here at the Ground Swell Surf Shop, we’re proud to be able to help carry on surfing’s long history. From surfboard rentals to surf clothing to beach supplies, we have everything you need to help enjoy this rich tradition of one of the world’s oldest sports.