Ins And Outs Of Surfing :: essays research papers

Surfing has been around for many years, in fact since 400 A.D and people are still going hard at it today and will for many more years to come. The very first surfers were the Island folk who would use the waves to get over the coral reefs and back to shore after their hard days of fishing. They found that this was the easiest and quickest way of transport over the reefs so they continued to do it for many years. As time went on the art of riding waves then developed into more of a “leisure sport'; than that of being a part of work. The first actual surfboarders originated in the 1920’s where they rode large redwood planks that weighed around 126 pounds. As technology developed the boards became shorter, lighter and became better designed. The next surfboards to follow were made in the 1950’s, this time the boards where made of balsa wood and then covered in a layer of fiberglass, these boards reached a length of about 9-10 feet long. In the 1960’s the long board was introduced and was made of Styrofoam and again, covered in fiberglass. In the 70’s the short board took over, which had a similar design to the long boards but were only around 6 foot in length. These proved to be very popular due to their faster speeds and easier maneuverability. Some of the people of today are still using the old fashioned long board, but as you would expect the design has changed significantly and they come in a few different lengths. Now the sport of surfing has grown into a worldwide attraction and people are surfing in basically every country that has a coastline, even Alaska, as showed in the surf film “Endless Summer II.'; Nowadays people are taking to waves in all sorts of weird things, such as Kneeboards, Body boards, Kayaks and many other weird and wonderful things. A few of the really dedicated surfers, and those that can afford to, will spend some of their time travelling the world trying to find their own perfect wave. Some of the lucky ones will actually find one. But now that we have all different types of boards peoples opinion of their perfect wave has changed to adapt to their type of board. As in the 60’s a perfect wave was a point break like Malibu, but also today’s people are surfing in all kinds of different places with different conditions, which also changes opinions.