The origins of surfing is at best vague, it skateboarding tips first observed by Europeans in 1767 when Cook's expedition sailed into Tahiti. It was a key part of Polynesian culture with the chiefs being the most skilled surfers in the community and the best beaches being reserved for skateboarding tips by the more privileged classes. However, the German and Scottish missionaries of the early eighteenth century forbade the practice and surfing all but disappeared. It was kept alive by a small number of Hawaiians during the rest of the century and it was in Hawaii that the sport was revived around the beginning of the twentieth century. It was the century where surfing would thrive, centred primarily in Hawaii, California and Australia. However, until the 1960s it was still very much a hidden culture that was conducted away from the public eye.
All this was to change with the release of the film Gidget (1959), it single-handedly transformed surfing from an underground activity into a popular obsession. In the early sixties surfing was to explode with heaps of B-movies and surf music led by bands like the Beach Boys spreading the word like wildfire. During the 1960s there was lots of advances in surfing including competition surfing, innovations in boards and the advent of professional surfing. Two innovations - the short board and the leash made the sport into the extreme one that it is viewed today. In the 1980s the introduction of the thruster, the three finned short board, allowed surfers to perform manoeuvres that were until then unimaginable and confined to skateboarders on dry land.
Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source Russell Shortt, http://www.exploringireland.net
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