Britannica article
Introduction
2006 ISA World Surfing
Games: International Surfing Association2006 ISA World Surfing Games:
International Surfing Association
surfing, sport of riding
breaking waves toward the shore, especially by means of a
surfboard.
Surfing’s roots lie in
premodern Hawaii and Polynesia, where the sport was practiced by both men and
women from all social strata from royalty to commoners. Early European explorers
and travelers praised the skills of Hawaiian surfers, but 19th-century
missionaries assigned to the islands disapproved of the “constant intermingling,
without any restraint, of persons of both sexes” and banned the pastime. Surfing
was practiced only sporadically in Hawaii by the end of the 19th
century.
2006 ISA World Surfing
Games: International Surfing Association2006 ISA World Surfing Games:
International Surfing Association
surfing, sport of riding
breaking waves toward the shore, especially by means of a
surfboard.
Surfing’s roots lie in
premodern Hawaii and Polynesia, where the sport was practiced by both men and
women from all social strata from royalty to commoners. Early European explorers
and travelers praised the skills of Hawaiian surfers, but 19th-century
missionaries assigned to the islands disapproved of the “constant intermingling,
without any restraint, of persons of both sexes” and banned the pastime. Surfing
was practiced only sporadically in Hawaii by the end of the 19th
century.