Quick Intro: History Of Surfboards

Many people around the world enjoy surfing, but what is the history of surfboards? The surfboard dates all the way back to ancient times when it was a very spiritual activity for the Hawaiian people. They used surfing as a way to resolve conflicts and as a way of training for their chiefs. The surfboard that the chief used when he surfed was a solid fourteen- to sixteen-foot piece of wood. The longer your surfboard was, the higher your rank was.

It was not until 1777 that someone witnessed this activity by the Hawaiian people. His name was Captain Cook, and his documentation of this experience was the first official record of surfing. Surfing was almost killed off in the nineteenth century by missionaries, but it started picking back up at the beginning of the twentieth century. At this point, the solid surfboards were what people used.

It was not until 1926 that Tom Blake created the first hollow surfboard. He made this board out of redwood, and he drilled hundreds of holes into the board. In the 1930s the hollow surfboard started to become mass-produced, mainly because it was so much lighter then the older boards. In 1932, a new type of wood came from South America that was known as Balsa. This became popular because of the weight of the wood. Then at the end of WWII the new type of material that became used for surfboards was Styrofoam and fiberglass. Then in the late 60s the short boards were brought into the picture, which were a rather huge hit.