Hello surfers!

Since I was a kid, I have always skiing. I'm fond of the sport that can be classified under the name of riding sport. This blog will try to make a tour of the different sports that permit a human to slide/surf on a surface. I will try to gi ve a n hint about t heir creat ion and their different practice around the world. I will begin s urfing , which is probably the oldest one.

Water is in a liquid state in normal weather conditions and thus, some physical rules apply. Liquid follows the first thermo- dynamics principle, linking the volume to the pressure and the temperature. This means that you can't make water fit in a smaller volume without increasing the pressure. Therefore, at low pressure (the one that we can apply) the water can be considered incompressible. When you put a solid in the water, the water level rises (it is the Archimedes principle). But if you try to enter a solid with high speed and big surface area, for instance if you dive and enter flatly in the water, you get the effect of a slap (this is the infamous “belly flop”). This is due to the fact that the water under this solid tries to compress the water that is trapped under it, and the water resists to this compression movement.

This principle is the one at the basis of surfing. When you gain some speed on the surface of the water, you exercise a compression movement, and thus if it is strong enough, the water resistance repulses you  and you get to slide over the water. This gives a planing effect that is the surfing action.

The surfing sport is based on this effect. The idea is to gain enough speed to slide on the slope of a wave. Then different tricks can be done, including air or flat maneuverer . This sport became popular in western countries in the 50s, starting in California with the Beach Boys but its origin is way older.

The explorers reported that local young men were playing in the tides of Kealakekua Bay on the Kona coast of the Big Island with wooden boards, lying or standing on them . Lt. King was impressed as the men mastered heavy tides standing on their board. He also reported that the men could be said to be almost amphibious due to their ability to evade the reef:

Sketch of the first surfers

"If the Swell drives him [The surfer] close to the rocks before he is overtaken by its break, he is much prais'd. On first seeing this very dangerous diversion I did not conceive it possible but that some of them must be dashed to mummy against the sharp rocks, but jus before they reach the shore, if they are very near, they quit their plank, & dive under till the Surf is broke, when the piece of plank is sent many yards by the force of the Surf from the beach. The greatest number are generally overtaken by the break of the swell, the force of which they avoid, diving and swimming under the water out of its impulse."
 

The anthropologist that studied the Polynesian civilization believe that surfing played an important part in the social and religious life of the Hawaiians . The society was divided between the royal family and the commoners and thus the beaches were also divided between those two castes . And people were remembered through songs by their deed or misdeed in Surf. Kings like Kamehameha I, were renowned for their surfing ability and praised by the following generation.

As the European set foot in Hawaii , the previous ruling system was overthrown and surfing lost its ritual place in the society. Missionaries even worsen the sport has it was view to a game and therefore wasn't suited for working men. Moreover, disease and the alcohol decimated the population decreasing from around 600,000 people to 40,000 native people in a century. Thus, at the beginning of the 20th century, surfing was almost dead.

George Freeth

But in 1907, Jack London, already famous for White Fang, The Sea Wolf and The Call of the Wild, came to Hawaii . He met Alexender Hume Ford, and the surf legend George Freeth at the Waikiki Swimming Club who introduced him to the kings' sport, the Surf. London described it in a novel called A royal sport, surfing in Waikiki and from this started the ascension of surfing into the sport we know today.

The description of George Freeth interested the real estate baron and railroad constructor Henry Huntington who invited Freeth to surf in California to promote his new line between Redondo and Los Angeles. Then Freeth traveled along the California Coast to promote surfing.

Duke Kahanamoku

Back in Hawaii , two clubs emerged at the Waikiki beach as the real estate and the tourism grew, the Hui Nalu (surf club in Hawaiian) and the Waikiki swimming Club. Those two clubs started doing demonstrations and competitions and the number of participants raised from a hundred members in 1911 to over 1200 in 1915. Among them was the one that really got the surf international, Duke Kahanamoku. He was the fastest swimmer in Hawaii and proved to be the fastest in the world in the Stockholm and Antwerp Olympics. During his travels, he promoted surfing on the beaches of California and Australia. This contributed greatly to making this sport popular.

Finally, Hollywood movies and improvement of the photography in the water rendered possible the exportation of images of the sports and finish rooting this sport in the Oceans' coast life style. We will see in a later article that the 60s and 70s made the surf more than a sport and developed a real culture around it.