| The origins of surfing is at best vague, it was first | | | | public eye. |
| observed by Europeans in 1767 when Cook's | | | | All this was to change with the release of the film |
| expedition sailed into Tahiti. It was a key part of | | | | Gidget (1959), it single-handedly transformed |
| Polynesian culture with the chiefs being the most | | | | surfing from an underground activity into a |
| skilled surfers in the community and the best | | | | popular obsession. In the early sixties surfing was |
| beaches being reserved for use by the more | | | | to explode with heaps of B-movies and surf |
| privileged classes. However, the German and | | | | music led by bands like the Beach Boys spreading |
| Scottish missionaries of the early eighteenth | | | | the word like wildfire. During the 1960s there was |
| century forbade the practice and surfing all but | | | | lots of advances in surfing including competition |
| disappeared. It was kept alive by a small number | | | | surfing, innovations in boards and the advent of |
| of Hawaiians during the rest of the century and it | | | | professional surfing. Two innovations - the short |
| was in Hawaii that the sport was revived around | | | | board and the leash made the sport into the |
| the beginning of the twentieth century. It was the | | | | extreme one that it is viewed today. In the 1980s |
| century where surfing would thrive, centred | | | | the introduction of the thruster, the three finned |
| primarily in Hawaii, California and Australia. | | | | short board, allowed surfers to perform |
| However, until the 1960s it was still very much a | | | | manoeuvres that were until then unimaginable and |
| hidden culture that was conducted away from the | | | | confined to skateboarders on dry land. |