Surging Facts
- Capt. James Cook was the first person to describe surfing in 1778. He described it as someone who had the most supreme pleasure while being driven so fast and smoothly by the seas.
- Hawaiians refer to serving as he'enalu which means wave sliding. For Hawaiian surfing is a central part of their religion and encompasses deep spiritual links with the ocean.
- The father of modern surfing is considered to be Duke Kahanamoku, who was an Olympic swimmer and started the surf club in Waikiki Beach.
- World War II led to the invention of chemicals and materials that helped revolutionize the construction of surfboards. Styrofoam, fiberglass and resin are all used.
- In the past surfing was an elite and sacred island activity, but as leisure time developed and a TV show called Gidget, surfing became a commercialized multimillion dollar industry.
- Kelly Slater holds the record for the most money made by a surfer in one year when he made 3 million in 2009. He is the most successful surfing champion in the world.
- The first major surf competition took place in 1928 in Corona Delmar California.
- When the car was invented, it helped surfers explore the California coast and this became known as a surfing Safari.
- Plymouth University in the UK offers a surf science and technology degree.
- The invention of the wetsuit help surfers surf year-round in cold water.
- Dale Hawk Velzy was the American surfboard shaper and the first person to open a surf shop in Manhattan Beach.
- The two movies that help catapult surfing into popularity were Gidget and the endless summer. Both these movies created a surf culture.
- Surfing is among the oldest sports on the earth. Prehistoric stone carvings found in Peru date back 5000 years.
- Surfing is a 10 million global industry with more than 20 million participants worldwide.
- The early colonial powers in Hawaii almost decimated surfing. Hawaiians lost leisure time to surf as they began to work on sugar plantations and suffered a devastating demographic collapse from disease that Westerners introduced.
- Hawaii has provided the soul of surfing, but California provided the technological advances to spread it around the world.
- During the 60s, a group of California surfers known as the Brotherhood of Eternal Love created a drug smuggling operation and started a psychedelic revolution in America. They ran the major global network out of Laguna and brought in millions of LSD doses and other drugs.
- More servers have been killed in the last 15 years then in all the previous 40 years of surfing due to the rise in big wave surfing.
- Researchers think that surfing is popular because it embodies the antithesis of modern society, pure pleasure and the ideal of perpetual youth.
- In 1885, three visiting Hawaiian princes introduce surfing to Santa Cruz California. In 1907 Hawaiian born George Freeth created a surfing frenzy in California when a railroad company advertised his surfing skills to promote a new railroad beach route from Los Angeles to Redondo Beach.
- Huntington Beach California hosts the annual's city surf dog contest to raise money for animal welfare organizations.
- The record for the longest surf right is three hours and 55 minutes. Panamanian surfer Gary Saavedra set the record in 2011 when he wrote an artificial wave.
- The longest ride ever on a single wave is 37 minutes on a title bore wave on the Amazon River.
- The first recorded use of the word" surfing" as a way to describe exploring the Internet occurred in 1992. Channel surfing in reference to television first occurred in 1986.
- Cameron Diaz broke her nose four times while surfing.
- While shooting the surfing movie Point Break, Patrick Swayze broke four of his ribs.
- Skateboarding is an offshoot of surfing and helps practice surfing skills.
- A Neptune cocktail is an unintended gulp of seawater during a wipeout.
- One of the worst wipeout's was Martin Potter when the nose of his board cut 6 inches into his stomach and snapped off. The cut was so deep that his intestines spelled out he needed 40 stitches and spent three months recuperating.
- A hodad is someone who hangs out on a beach pretend to be a surfer but isn't.
- The rise in female surfers is influenced by Hawaiian Congresswoman Patsy Mink.
- A Barney is an inexperienced surfer who needs more practice surfing. A Benny is a nonlocal surfer.
- The barrel or tube is the ultimate surfing experience when the wave becomes hollow as it is breaking.
- And surfing slang, a beach leach is a surfer who doesn't bring his or her own equipment but borrows others.
- In the surfing world, one of the worst things a server can do is drop in or steal away when another writer is surfing it.
- Kathy "Gidget" Kühner-Zuckerman was a young girl who served Malibu in the 50s. Because of her size she was nicknamed Gidget or girl midget. Her father wrote a book about her serving experiences, which later turned into the movie.
- The record for the most surfboard stacked on the cars 282 boards. The car drove 30.4 m near Santa Barbara California.
- 50-year-old surfer Kurtis Loftus holds a record for the longest-serving marathon at 29 hours in one minute at Jacksonville Beach Florida.
- Kelly Slater was a first person to ever score to perfect 10 rides in a serving contest. He was crowned the world tour champion 11 times and is the youngest and the oldest to win the title.
- American surf magazine reported that 66% of all surfers think about sharks while riding a wave.
- In the surfing world, "men in gray suits" refers to sharks.
- The first woman to serve Waimea Bay with Linda Benson. She was 15 years old and was the first woman to be featured on the cover of the surf magazine.
- Joyce Hoffman is considered a pioneer for women surfers and one of the first people inducted into the international surfing Hall of Fame.
- One of the most famous and most photographed waves is called a pipeline.
- Garrett McNamara holds the record for the largest wave surfed. The wave was 100-foot wave in Portugal in 2013.
- Some rivers create a backflow at certain times of the year and these river waves are called tidal bores.
- Hundred miles off the coast of San Diego is an underwater seamount known as the Corte Bank. During the winter swells, these waves can reach 60 feet or higher.
- June 20 is international surfing day.
- The professional surfing event is the Association of Surfing Professionals or the ASP world tour.
- The top five most deadly spots for surfing are: 5.Teahupo'o (chop of the head0) Tahiti 4. Mavericks, Northern California Red Triangle 3. Waimea Bay, Oahu 2. Puerto Escondido, Mexico 1. Pipeline, Oahu.
- The most deadly wave in the world is Oahu's Pipeline with a coral reef makes this wave the most dangerous.
- The most dangerous surfing days are not when the swell is at its biggest, but when the swell is on its way up and the waves double up on each other.
- The ultimate surf music playlist includes, Guitar Noir by Aqua velvets, Church Key by Dave Myers and the Surf tones, Surf City by Jan and Dean, Surfin USA by the Beach boys, Pipeline by the Chantays, Hang time by the Dell tones and Wipe out by the Surfaris.
- The two versions of surfing are short boarding and long boarding. Short boarding allows a surfer to move faster the water and long boarding is better suited to gentle waves.
- The person with the most surfboards ever is Donald Dettloff. He owns 647 surfboards and uses his collection to make a fence.
- According to CNN the top five best places to surf are: 1. Pipeline in Hawaii 2. Supertubes at Jeffries Bay, South Africa 3. Uluwatu and Kuta in Indonesia 4. P-Pass at Pohnpei, Micronesia 5. Mavericks at half Moon Bay in California.
- The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo are considering adding surfing to the list of events.