A complicada história do surfe – Scott Laderman

0:06 For some, it's a serious sport.

0:08 For others, just a way to let loose.

0:11 But despite its casual association with fun and sun,

0:15 surfing has a richer and deeper history than many realize.

0:20 What we today call surfing originated

0:23 in the Polynesian islands of the Pacific Ocean.

0:27 We know from various accounts that wave

0:29 riding was done throughout the Polynesian Pacific,

0:32 as well as in West Africa and Peru.

0:36 But it was in the Hawaiian archipelago

0:39 in particular that surfing advanced the most,

0:41 was best documented, and, unlike elsewhere in Polynesia, persisted.

0:47 And for the people of Hawaii, wave sliding was not just a recreational activity,

0:52 but one with spiritual and social significance.

0:57 Like much of Hawaiian society, nearly every aspect of surfing was governed

1:01 by a code of rules and taboos known as kapu.

1:06 Hawaiians made offerings when selecting a tree to carve,

1:10 prayed for waves with the help of a kahuna,

1:13 or an expert priest, and gave thanks after surviving a perilous wipeout.

1:19 Certain surf breaks were strickly reserved for the elite.

1:24 But it wasn't just a solemn affair.

1:26 Surfers competed and wagered on who could ride the farthest, the fastest,

1:31 or catch the biggest wave with superior skill,

1:34 granting respect, social status, and romantic success.

1:41 Though it was later called the sport of kings,

1:43 Hawaiian men and women of all ages and social classes participated,

1:47 riding surfboards shaped from koa, breadfruit, or wiliwili trees.

1:53 Many Hawaiians road alaia boards, which were thin,

1:57 midsized, and somewhat resemble today's shortboards.

2:00 Some mounted paipo boards, short,

2:03 round-nosed boards on which riders typically lay on their stomachs.

2:08 But only chieftains could ride the massive olo boards,

2:12 twice as long as today's longboards.

2:16 Unlike most modern surfboards, all boards were finless,

2:19 requiring surfers to drag their hands or feet to turn.

2:24 We don't know exactly when wave sliding was invented,

2:27 but we know that it had already been practiced in Polynesia

2:31 for centuries by the time it was described in 1777 by William Anderson,

2:36 a surgeon on Captain Cook’s ship “Resolution.” Although Anderson was in awe,

2:43 most of the American Christian missionaries who arrived

2:46 in Hawaii several decades later regarded surfing as sinful,

2:50 and they discouraged it, along with other aspects of native culture.

2:55 The biggest threat to surfing, however,

2:57 was the threat to the natives themselves.

3:00 By 1890, new illnesses introduced by Europeans

3:03 and Americans had decimated the Hawaiian people,

3:06 leaving fewer than 40,000 from a pre-contact

3:10 population that may have exceeded 800,000.

3:14 At the same time, foreign influence grew

3:17 with white settlers overthrowing the native monarchy in 1893,

3:21 and the US annexing the islands five years later.

3:25 The end of Hawaii's independence coincided with surfing's native-led revival,

3:31 a revival soon exploited by the American colonizers.

3:37 But first, some Hawaiians took surfing overseas.

3:41 In 1907, George Freeth, the so-called Hawaiian Wonder,

3:45 traveled to the west coast

3:47 and gave surfing demonstrations in southern California.

3:51 Then in 1914, Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku

3:55 made his way to Australia and New Zealand,

3:58 gliding across the southern Pacific waves

4:00 and attracting rapt audiences wherever he went.

4:04 Shortly before Freeth went to California,

4:07 a South Carolinian named Alexander Hume Ford moved to Hawaii.

4:12 After learning to surf, he became a champion of the pastime.

4:17 But Ford may have had unsavory reasons

4:20 for his enthusiastic efforts to boost the sport.

4:24 Like many settlers, he wanted Hawaii to become a US state,

4:28 but was worried about its non-white majority of natives and Asian workers.

4:33 Ford thus promoted surfing to attract white Americans to Hawaii,

4:38 first as tourists, then as residents.

4:41 He was helped by numerous writers and filmmakers.

4:45 Ford's demographic plan would fail miserably.

4:49 Hawaii became a state in 1959 and remains

4:52 the most racially diverse state in the country.

4:56 But the promotion of surfing was a far greater success.

5:00 Today, surfing is a multi-billion dollar global industry,

5:04 with tens of millions of enthusiasts worldwide.

5:08 And though relatively few of these surfers are aware

5:11 of the once-crucial wave chants or board carving rituals,

5:15 Hawaiians continue to preserve these traditions

5:17 nearly washed away by history's waves.