A Favourite Thing - Surfing (Surfing)

Member Name: markw-d

Product:	Surfing
Date:	09/08/02 (596 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Solitude, Good Workout, good for the soul

Disadvantages: NOT ENOUGH WAVES

A favourite thing – Surfing

As anyone who read my Room 101 op will know, I have a real problem with the misuse of the words surfing or surfer. It is nothing to do with computers or the internet, or as some would have it, using a television remote control to aimlessly wander around the airwaves! Surfing is an ancient Hawaiian or Polynesian ritual / sport which is now practiced all over the world and involves a human being, a board of some description and a great deal of very powerful water.

The origins of surfing are not entirely clear, however it is pretty much certain that it started in the mid pacific islands several hundred years ago. Early explorers of the area, such as Captain cook reported seeing Hawaiian chiefs riding the breaking surf on huge pieces of wood shaped from local trees. Indeed whilst the ubiquitous outrigger canoes were frequent wave riding vessels, it was only the tribal chiefs and royalty who would stand up on a single piece of wood to ride the wave. This really was the “sport of kings”.

The technique was to paddle the “board” out through the breaking surf by kneeling on it and sweeping both hands back like oars. Once through the white water the board was turned and paddled back as hard as possible until the wave picks the board up and the individual would then jump (or in the case of the portly Hawaiians, stagger!!) to their feet and ride the wave.

Surfing pretty much stayed in this geographical area and social class until the 20th century when due to increased international trading and seafaring people on the western seaboard of the USA, and according to some reports English colonialists in South Africa and Australia started to copy what they had seen.

Early boards were literally huge hardwood planks roughly hewn from living trees. Their size, weight and thickness meant that they were not carried to the sea but dragged, often by more than one person! They had no fin
like modern boards but directional stability was achieved by dragging one foot in the water. Having been hit a number of times by modern lightweight boards I can only imagine what it was like to be hit by one of these monsters with several thousand tons of water behind it!

By the 1940’s Californian and Hawaiian surfing was starting to progress to lighter framework constructed balsa wood longboards whereas in Australia people were body surfing on short pieces of bent plywood of the sort which you will still see in hundreds of gift shops throughout Cornwall.

The second world war brought many Australians and Americans to the UK and some rest and recreation time was spent in places like Cornwall, where they found that the UK actually had some reasonable surfing waves. This is when the concepts of lifeguards and the bent pieces of plywood took hold here.

The surfing scene moved quickly in the 50’s and 60’s with boards getting shorter and lighter, and with the advent of blown foam cores and fibreglass skins, much more like the ones we use now. The board of choice in California would have been around 10 to 12 feet long, fibreglass with a foam core and a single wooden fin. The centre of the board would contain a hardwood strengthening piece or “stringer” which is a strip of wood which runs from the front to the back of the board.

The 60’s was also when the UK surf industry took off with the most famous manufacturer being Bilbo, started by Bill Bailey and his friend Bob (hence BILBO). Visitors to Newquay on Cornwall will still find a Bilbo shop there. Early names also included Tiki, who started in South Wales before re-locating to Devon and are still going strong today.

The late 60’s also saw the advent of the leash (the Aussies call them leg ropes) as surfers started to tackle bigger and bigger waves and needed to keep their boards with them in the case of a wipe out. Purist longboarder
s however still sometimes surf without leashes, however in crowded surf spots it is irresponsible and dangerous to leave a runaway board heading for someones bonce at a rate of knots!

The 70’s saw boards getting much shorter and the emergence of the Australians as both influential board shapers and champion surfers. The famous Nat Young is an Australian hero and over there is as big as Beckham is here. The twin fin board was invented and then superceded by the modern three fin thrusters, where the main fin is flanked by two offset fins which channel the water past the main one.

The 80’s, which is when I started surfing, saw 10 years of the most radical change and the emergence of surfing as a real force in the UK.

The first thing was that you became defined by the type of board which you rode. Most young kids and hotshot surfers started riding the absolutely shortest board they could, with the thinnest rails, sharpest nose and lightest weight. Not only did these look radical, but in the right waves would allow aggressive skateboard type manouevers whilst on the wave. Just like those of their hero’s on the world tour.

Many others who were either just getting into the scene or returning to it after a few years as grown ups, were riding the new mini mals, which were styled on the old 60’s longboards with rounded noses and plenty of volume, but were between 7’ 2” and 8” so had the surfing characteristics of a shorter board. The extra length and volume meant that the board would catch smaller waves, and support a heavier or less experienced person.

In the UK we also saw the emergence of localism, whereby people who lived near to a particular surf spot would claim it as their own and show hostility to non locals. It has to be said however that this is not a huge problem as it tends to be confined to a few particular over hyped spots in Cornwall, and the hostile locals tend to be littl
e boys with overactive hormones and rich parents who are happy to subsidise their ability to be locals…..so they are not actually much of a threat.

The end of the 80’s and early 90’s however saw the first serious presence of British surfers on the world championship tour (we had one ecentric character in the 60’s) and a thriving UK surf industry. It also saw the re-emergence of the longboard which combined the style of the 60’s boards, with modern manufacturing processes resulting in ideal light and easy to use boards for small UK waves.

Surfing is now an international scene which is practiced in the countries you would expect, Hawaii, USA, Bali, Australia, South Africa, etc etc, and many that you may not expect Israel, Italy, Alaska for instance!!!

Closer to home in the British Isles, England now boasts surfing communities in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Kent, Yorkshire, Tyneside, Kent and Suffolk, whilst Wales Scotland and Ireland all have excellent waves and vibrant surfing communities.

The sport itself has spawned a number of spin offs such as windsurfing, kite surfing, bodyboarding (speedbumps) and the ultimate crossover Snowboarding, which is another passion of mine.

The great thing about surfing is the ease of doing it, as all you need is a board, a wetsuit, a leash and a block of wax (for rubbing in the deck of the board to give traction), and the sheer exhilaration of it.

It’s a pastime which you enjoy with friends (8 of you turn up at the beach in a VW camper) but which you do alone (surfers are not pack animals like skiers).

Some people do it to pose and be fashionable for a couple of holidays, or until they finish uni and then become corporate clones. Real surfers never stop…..their boards simply get longer and they pass their short boards to their kids. I’m now on a 9’6” longboard, whilst my 10 year old daughter has a 6’6”
shortboard, and the little 6 year old is bodyboarding.

Cool surfing transport - VW Camper
Uncool - Range Rover

Cool surfing clothes - Quicksilver, Billabong, Mambo, Gotcha, Rip Curl, SAS, wooly hats when its scorching hot
Uncool - Fat Willys

Cool wetsuit colour - Black
Uncool - Anything flouresent

Cool surf food - Pasties, burgers, fried chicken
Uncool - Marks and Spencer sarnies


“Jill Murphy asked me to write about one of my favourite things to help her celebrate her fourth anniversary of cancer-free living and to remind ourselves of all the nice things in the world. It takes more muscles to make a frown than a smile you know. If you'd like to join in, whether you've only just joined dooyoo, or you've been here ages, you're more than welcome. Just write about one of YOUR favourite things, make your title "A Favourite Thing: [your choice]" and include this paragraph at the foot of your opinion. And post before Friday, 9th August."

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