Paddle through
the past
By most accounts, the first surfers were Polynesians who took the logical step from their seafaring outrigger and double-hulled canoes to wooden boards, possibly as long as 3,000 or 4,000 years ago. They crossed the world's largest ocean in canoes -- and rode the boards for fun.
The Polynesians began exploring and settling much of the Pacific at about that same time they began to surf -- it's believed they reached Hawaii by 400 A.D. Surfing -- "he'e nalu" (wave sliding) in old Hawaiian -- was recorded by the first Europeans to explore the region in the 1700s.
Ancient chants and oral history tell the stories -- the guardian shark god Kamahoali'i teaches fire goddess Pele how to surf. Pele teaches her sister Hi'iaka, and the sport spreads.
Practically everyone surfed on the main islands of Eastern Polynesia (including Hawaii), but the large olo surfboards, built of lightweight wili wili wood up to 24 feet long, were reserved for royalty. In Honolulu, the Bishop Museum houses examples of such boards, which often topped 150 pounds, and may have reached 200 pounds -- hard to maneuver, but offering a smooth, long ride.
The boards were designed specifically with great, rolling swells in mind. Such waves are found only in limited spots, such as Waikiki on the south shore of Oahu in Hawaii. Old Hawaiian folk tales and songs speak of those sites -- some of which are still popular today. More than 100 ancient surfing spots have been identified -- and surfers from around the world flock to discover the joys the Polynesians discovered in the Pacific island paradise.
European explorers also found forms of surfing in the 19th century in West Africa, where young boys were the prime participants, and in Peru, where riders used papyrus reed "surfboards" and where the practice was documented in decorations on clay pots.
In the 20th century, surfboards are shorter and lighter, but the thrill is the same. When you master the surf, if only for a few moments, and ride it into shore, says SurferGirl's Ramsay -- "you're alone with the water."
"There's great surf spots that are really exciting," she says, but for the casual surfer, the best is "someplace close by that breaks a lot and isn't overly crowded." There, she says, the surfer can make that connection to the power of the water.
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