The indigenous roots of surfing in eight pictures (and one gif)
Hawaiians and a short Jewish girl made surfing mainstream in time for Mavericks
By Asher Kohn
Titans of Mavericks is on. With waves over 30 feet high expected on the Pacific Coast, some of the world’s best surfers will compete for a $100,000 prize.
Surfing is a big money sport now, mostly thanks to the great balance and bronzed skin of the sport’s perfectly-named icon: Kelly Slater. The 43-year-old has won 11 World Surf League Championships.
The first surfers weren’t white dudes, but Hawaiians. There’s rock art depicting native Hawaiians surfing on wooden boards — surfing was understood as a way to commune with the waves as well as demonstrate strength and dexterity.
In 1779, Captain James King, described Hawaiians surfing at Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island:
“Whenever, from stormy weather, or any extraordinary swell at sea, the impetuosity of the surf is increased to its utmost heights, they choose that time for this amusement. … Their first object is to place themselves on the summit of the largest surge, by which they are driven along with amazing rapidity toward the shore. … The boldness and address, with which we saw them perform these difficult and dangerous manoeuvres, was altogether astonishing.”
King was wrong in saying it was for amusement. There was something religious about the practice, which Christian missionaries caught on to by the 1820s. The Christians tried to ban surfing, but they couldn’t get to every beach. Among natives who continued to surf, the practice became a way to resist empire. It was a skill passed in secret through generations.
So it’s somewhat ironic that surfing came to the continental US through a missionary school. Three brothers — David Kawananakoa, Edward Keliiahonui and Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana’ole — had been adopted by the Hawaiian royal family, who sent them to a California Christian academy.
In the summer of 1885, David was 17, Edward 15 and Jonah 14. It was hot out, they were bored, and they went surfing at the mouth of the San Lorenzo river in Santa Cruz. There was a swimming competition going on, but the Santa Cruz crowd was transfixed by the young surfers. The winning swimmer was lost to history. America had just discovered surfing.
Surfing was obscure outside of Hawaii until a SoCal industrialist used it as an attraction. To promote a new railway in 1907, Henry Huntington dragged an Irish Hawaiian named George Freeth across the Pacific to “walk on water” at Redondo Beach. Huntington made sure the press was there to adore the strapping surfer. Freeth held up his end of the bargain by riding the waves gallantly.
It took a book to make surfing global. Frederick Kohner, a Jewish emigre from Nazi Europe, took his daughter Kathy to Malibu to watch the surfers. He knew he had a story on his hands when Kathy wanted to join them. He fictionalized the story with Gidget: The Little Girl with Big Dreams in 1957. The book sold half a million copies.
The 1959 film, starring the very blonde Sandra Dee, had two sequels and a miniseries. Surf writer Craig Stecyk called Gidget “the most successful and longest-running episode of teenage exploitation since Joan of Arc.”
From there follows the surfing of pop culture: Beach Boys, steel guitars, and the like. It all began with native Hawaiians and a Jewish girl.
Competitions at Mavericks started in 1999. The first winner was Darryl Virostko. He learned to surf just 50 miles away, where the three princes first brought the sport to America: Santa Cruz, California.
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