Surfing: The Histoy

Surfing originated a long time ago in Polynesia, but it was first described in the western world by James King, a lieutenant on Captain Cook's ship Discovery. He was also the man in charge of completing Cook's journals because Cook died during his third expedition to the Pacific. Anthropologists can oly try to guess the axact time of origin of the sport, but it is certain that when the Polynesians arrived in Hawaii in the fourth century A.D., bodysurfing was on of the things that came along. The skill of surfing upright on the board was probaly perfected, and maybe even invented in Hawaii. Surfing used to be a sport of the kings and queens, and there were separate beaches for royals and commoners: they could not surf together because it was a taboo. Taboo, by the way, is a word of Polynesian origin and it was an important part of their religion. Surfing was also a part of the religion, and there were rituals and songs for surfing, making surfboards, invoking the gods for more waves and surfing festivals. When the white men (haoles) came to Hawaii in greater numbers, they brought with them alcohl, diseases and a new religion. The missionaries disapproved of surfing and the sport began to die, It was only in the beginning of the 20th century that the sport started to gain strenght again. Among the biggest contributors for that was the famous "Beach Boys ok Waikiki", a group of teenagers who founded a surfing club and promoted the sport in the Hawaiian Islands, and the land developer Henry Huntington, who brought surfing to his homeland, California. Surfing possesses on of the most colorful vocabularies of any sport or cultural activity. While the basic words in surfing's vocabulary remain the same, subtler terms change from place to place. Many terms are used by official competitors, and announcers on surfing and bodyboarding contests to describe action, waves and equipment.