What is the history of surfing?

0:00 Welcome to Histories Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Before we dive in, we have some huge shout-outs today. First, a massive hello to Roman and Arthur from San Clemente, California, who are big skateboarders and surfers and listen the minute they get in the car.

0:19 And a big hello to eight-year-old Max on the Gold Coast in Australia, who loves surfing with his dad, and actually asked us where surfing came from. This one is for you too, Max.

0:31 Plus, a very happy birthday to Jacqueline, who just turned five, and her big sister Caroline, who turned nine, listening on the way to school in northwest Arkansas.

0:40 If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.

0:46 Alright, Finn. Since Roman, Arthur and Max all wanted to know about the history of surfing, get ready, because today we are travelling to the ocean. Imagine riding a roaring wall of water as tall as an eight-story building.

1:01 An eight-story building? That's like 80 feet tall. I would be absolutely terrified.

1:09 Well, people actually do it. But before there were extreme daredevils riding giant waves, surfing was a sacred royal tradition. Kings and queens rode massive wooden boards, and the very best wave riders were treated like absolute heroes.

1:25 Wait, kings and queens surfed? Did they wear their crowns in the water?

1:30 Probably not crowns, but they definitely ruled the waves. Today we are exploring how humans learned to dance on the ocean, how the tradition was almost lost forever, and how one legendary swimmer brought it back to the world. To find the very first surfers, we have to travel back over a thousand years to Polynesia, a massive group of islands in the Pacific Ocean.

1:54 The people there were master navigators who guided their canoes by the stars.

1:59 That is so cool! So they were already amazing on the water.

2:03 Exactly! When they settled in Hawaii by the 12th century, surfing became way more than just a sport. It was a core part of their culture and religion. In the Hawaiian language, it's called Hee Nalu, which beautifully translates to wave sliding.

2:21 Wavesliding? But wait, were there surfboards like the lightweight foam and fibreglass ones we see today?

2:29 Not even close. They didn't have plastic or foam. They used solid wood from massive trees, like the Koa or the Willy Willy tree. And the size of your board depended on how important you were.

2:42 What do you mean? Did the king get a bigger board?

2:45 Oh absolutely! The kings and highest chiefs rode special boards called Olo boards. Prepare to be amazed, Finn. An Olo board could be up to 24 feet long. That is as long as a school bus.

3:00 A school bus-sized surfboard? How did they even carry that? It must have weighed a ton.

3:07 Almost. An olo board could weigh up to 200 pounds. Imagine dragging a 200-pound log into crashing ocean waves. Regular people rode smaller boards called aliya boards, which were only about 9 to 12 feet long. How did they even cut the wood? Did they have chainsaws? Nope. A special priest called a kahuna would find the perfect tree, offer a red fish as a prayer, and then cut the tree down using axes made of stone and bone.

3:39 To make the board smooth, they sanded it using rough coral, an actual shark skin.

3:44 They used shark skin as sandpaper. That is the most hardcore thing I have ever heard.

3:50 Surfing was everywhere in Hawaii. Men, women and children all surfed. They would hold massive surfing contests, betting canoes and pigs on who would win. But then, in the late 1700s, everything changed.

4:07 Uh-oh. What happened?

4:10 European explorers started arriving. In 1778, British captain James Cook reached Hawaii. His crew was stunned by the surfers. One of his lieutenants, James King, wrote in his journal that the Hawaiians seemed to feel a supreme pleasure being driven so fast by the sea. Well, that sounds nice. They liked it.

4:34 True, but the outsiders unknowingly brought terrible diseases that the Hawaiians had no immunity to. The population collapsed tragically. Before the explorers arrived, there were hundreds of thousands of Hawaiians. By 1890, there were only about 40,000 left.

4:54 That is so incredibly sad.

4:57 It was devastating. And to make matters worse, in 1820, strict religious missionaries arrived. They looked at surfing and thought it was a complete waste of time. They believed people should be farming and studying, not playing in the ocean. A waste of time? They didn't understand the culture at all.

5:18 Exactly. The missionaries banned dancing, and they highly discouraged surfing. They even made the Hawaiians wear heavy, long-sleeved wool clothes in the tropical heat. Over the next few decades, surfing almost completely died out. Wait, the giant Olo boards just gone? Mostly, yes. The beaches were empty.

5:42 The ancient art of Heinalu was pushed to the absolute brink of extinction. Only a tiny handful of families in secret, remote spots, kept riding the waves.

5:55 But people surf all over the world today. How did it come back from being almost completely erased?

6:00 It came back because of one incredible man. His name was Duke Kahanemoku. He was born in Honolulu in 1890, right when surfing was at its lowest point. But Duke was practically part fish. He and his friends started taking those old heavy wooden boards out at Waikiki Beach. So they revived the tradition themselves.

6:24 Yes! And Duke wasn't just a good surfer, he was the fastest swimmer on the planet. In 1912, Duke went to the Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. He won a gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle, and the King of Sweden personally gave him his medal. Whoa! Olympic gold! Now the whole world knew who he was. Exactly!

6:47 And Duke used his fame to share his true passion: surfing. Everywhere he travelled to swim, he talked about wave sliding. In 1914, he travelled to Australia for a swimming exhibition.

7:01 Hey Australia! Just like Max on the Gold Coast.

7:05 That's right! But Duke didn't bring a surfboard with him. So he went to a local Australian lumber yard, bought a massive piece of sugar pine wood, and carved his own board right there. It was eight and a half feet long and weighed 88 pounds. He just built an 88-pound board from scratch. He did! On December 24th, 1914, at Freshwater Beach in Sydney, Duke paddled out.

7:33 Hundreds of people gathered on the sand. They had never seen anything like it. Duke caught a wave, stood up, and rode it flawlessly. The Australian crowd went completely bananas.

7:46 That is incredible. He basically introduced surfing to an entire continent.

7:51 He sure did! He also brought it to California, paving the way for Roman and Arthur's hometown surf culture. Duke became known as the father of modern surfing, saving a lost art and gifting it to the world.

8:05 Okay, that is an epic comeback story. But if Duke's board weighed almost 90 pounds, how did we get to the superlight board today?

8:14 Science and invention! In the 1950s, builders started making surfboards out of lightweight polyurethane foam and fibreglass. Suddenly, boards went from £100 down to just £15. That made them faster and way easier to steer.

8:32 Which means they could surf bigger and scarier waves, right? Tell me about that eight-story building you mentioned. Right.

8:40 In Nazareth, Portugal, there is an underwater canyon that is 16,000 feet deep. That is three miles deep. It acts like a giant funnel, pushing all the ocean's energy into massive, terrifying waves. I am getting dizzy just thinking about it. In October 2020, a surfer named Sebastian Stroytner caught a wave there that was officially measured at 86 feet tall.

9:08 That's 26.2 metres. Because the wave moves at 50 miles per hour, surfers can't paddle fast enough. They have to be pulled onto the wave by jet skis, which is called tow-in surfing.

9:22 86 feet, 50 miles an hour? That isn't surfing, that's surviving an avalanche made of water. Do you have any other weird surfing facts?

9:33 I do! Did you know the longest wave you can ride isn't in the ocean at all? It's in the Amazon River in Brazil. It's called the Poraroca Wave. Surfers can ride one single continuous wave for over 40 minutes, travelling up to seven miles down the river.

9:51 40 minutes on one wave? I would definitely need a snack break. And watch out for piranhas. Alright Finn, time for the quiz. Are you ready? Okay, I'm ready. Hit me with the facts.

10:04 First question. What is the Hawaiian word for surfing, which translates to wave sliding? Next one, what were the massive 24 foot long royal surfboards called? Question three. What famous Hawaiian Olympic swimmer is known as the father of modern surfing? Here's number four. In 1914, this swimmer built a board and amazed crowds at Freshwater Beach in which country?

10:47 Last question. In 2020, Sebastian Stutner set a record by surfing an 86 foot wave in which European country? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is the Hawaiian word for surfing is He E Nalu. For question two, the massive royal surfboards were called Olo boards. Number three, the answer is the father of modern surfing is Duke Kahanemoku.

11:22 Question four, he amazed the crowds at Freshwater Beach in Australia. And the final answer is the record-breaking 86 foot wave was surfed in Nazare, Portugal.

11:35 I still can't believe guys like Roman, Arthur and Max are doing something today that ancient kings used to do thousands of years ago. Right?

11:44 And it all started as a sacred way to honour the ocean. From solid wood boards carved with stone to foam boards riding 80-foot waves. It's such a beautiful piece of history.

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12:29 See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye everyone.