EVERYBODY'S SURFING NOW

The Extreme Fix

by Alex Hutchins

Surfing is a surface water sport in which the participant, referred to as a "surfer", rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave, which is carrying the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitable for surfing are found primarily in the ocean, but are also sometimes found in lakes and rivers, and also in manmade wave pools.

Many variations of the sport may exist in certain areas and the definitions of what constitutes a suitable wave, and craft has expanded over the years. Bodysurfing involves riding the wave without a board, and is considered by some to be the purest form of surfing. Other variations that have existed for centuries include paipo boarding, stand up paddle surfing, and the use of boats or canoes to ride waves.

More modern craft that are used include bodyboards, inflatable mats (surfmatting), and foils. As documented in various surfing documentaries (including "Fair Bits") other objects have occasionally been used instead of surfboards, including water skis, wakeboards, desks, guitars, and doors. When more than one person uses the same craft to ride a wave together, it is known as "tandem" surfing.

Three major subdivisions within stand-up surfing are longboarding, shortboarding, and stand up paddle surfing (SUP), reflecting differences in board design, including surfboard length, riding style, and the kind of wave that is ridden.

Hawaiian surfing . . .

History of Surfing

On Captain James Cook's third expedition to the Pacific, his ships, HMS Discovery and Resolution, made the first recorded European visit to Hawai'i in 1778, when they stopped at the western end of the island chain on their way from Tahiti to the northwest coast of North America.

Lieutenant James King was made First Lieutenant of the Discovery and was given the task of completing the narrative portion of Cook's journals. After Cook's death in 1779 but before the Discovery and Resolution returned to England, Lt. King devoted two full pages to a description of surfboard riding, as practiced by the locals at Kealakekua Bay on the Kona coast of the Big Island. His following entry is the earliest written account of surfing.

Hawaiian surf playing . . .

By 1779, riding waves lying down or standing on long, hardwood surfboards was an integral part of Hawaiian culture. Surfboard riding was as layered into the society, religion and myth of the islands as baseball is to the modern United States. Chiefs demonstrated their mastery by their skill in the surf, and commoners made themselves famous (and infamous) by the way they handled themselves in the ocean.

Anthropologists can only guess at the origin and evolution of wave-riding and surfboard construction in Polynesian culture, since there's no certainty about the timeline and movements of the Polynesians. Around 2000 B.C., the migration of humans out of Asia and into the eastern Pacific began, and Polynesians established themselves within a large triangle, with Aotearoa (New Zealand) at the south point, Tonga and Samoa along the western boundary and Tahiti and the Marquesas to the east.  Read More

Extreme Surfing

This photo (above) was taken near the tiny fishing village of Kremmervika during an expedition to surf the arctic circle. The team was led by film maker Yassine Ouhilal who was accompanied by world class surfers Matt Whitehead, Cyrus Sutton, Christian Wach, and Pat Millin. They started in the 700-person town of Ballstad on the island of Vestvågøy in Norway in the spring of 2008 and traveled north through the Lofoten islands, surfing along the way.

Eventually they made it all the way to the coast of Russia, but soon found out that most of the country’s northwestern Arctic coast is off-limits to anyone not in the military so they were unable to get in the water. While planning the trip, charts showed that waves would be better in the winter, but it was deemed suicide to try surfing during the coldest and darkest part of the year. Even the spring temperatures hovered between 20 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit; not exactly the most ideal surfing weather. As they traveled around they often found beautiful, calm beaches that taunted them with signs of large waves that came just days before.

Surfing Arctic Waves . . .

When asked what prompted surfers from California and Australia to travel to the arctic to surf, Millin replied “I guess it’s the isolation. That’s why I wanted to come here. How many people are surfing in Hawaii right now? How many thousands?”