Bodysurfing History: An Unofficial Record of the Pastime

Bodysurfing is an ancient, global pastime that predates written history. Many indigenous coastal communities throughout the world developed and practiced bodysurfing. Unfortunately, historians have largely overlooked bodysurfing history. 

As far as I know, no comprehensive global history of bodysurfing currently exists. Thus, I have decided to take a crack at it.

I use the word “unofficial” in the title of this post because I am not a historian. Also, I am an English speaker from Southern California. Therefore, my research is biased.

Most of the historical information I found centered on Hawaii, California, or Australia. Other regions for further research include the Caribbean, Brazil, Indonesia, India, and Papua New Guinea. 

Rather than organizing this history around specific dates, I decided to take a regional approach. I have organized the information from West to East, starting with the Polynesian Triangle—the mecca of surfing—and ending with Australia. 

I capped this timeline at 1940, when the invention of swim fins ushered in a new era of bodysurfing. (Although the widespread use of fins by bodysurfers did not occur until after World War II.)

This historical account on the origins of bodysurfing is by no means complete. I will continue to update this post as additional research trickles in. Please email me with any historical insights from your region of the world. I still have much to learn. 

I collected most of this information from books, photographs, magazine/newspaper articles, and various websites. Special thanks to San Diego State University’s Special Collections Archive for providing me access to many original resources. 

I’d like to highlight the work of Geoff Cater at surfresearch.com, Matt Warshaw at eos.surf, Malcolm Gault-Williams at legendarysurfers.com, and Rod Rodgers at mypaipoboards.org for steering me in the right direction. 

Also, thank you to Ben Finney and John R.K. Clark—two authorities on the history of surfing in Hawaii and the Polynesian Triangle. Additionally, Joel T. Smith’s Illustrated Atlas of Surfing History is chock full of insightful bodysurfing lore. 

Lastly, thanks to Kevin Dawson for his research on swimming and surfing in West Africa. 

Historical Resources by Region

Polynesian Triangle 

Polynesians were expert watermen and women, relying on their connection with the ocean for fishing, transportation, and exploration. Polynesians passed the skill of bodysurfing down through generations.

The arrival of Europeans in the Pacific introduced surfing to the wider world in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 20th century, bodysurfing gained popularity as a recreational activity and competitive sport. Today, organized bodysurfing events and competitions take place around the world.

Although many indigenous cultures bodysurfed, the Polynesians developed the sport to the highest degree.

Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport

No one knows who first realized the possibilities of riding the swells that had always been so much a part of island life. It may have been a weary swimmer, bounced all the way to the beach in a white boil, or a fisherman in a canoe, straining to make shore in heavy seas, or simply a youngster playing in the waves who first knew the thrill of racing across the rising slopes. 

Simple board-surfing—in which a swimmer uses a short plank or other aid to ride a wave just for the fun of it—was practiced throughout the Pacific Islands. Recreational wave-riding was probably part of the general marine adaptation pioneered by the first people to enter the open Pacific.

That would date the beginnings of the sport back to almost 2000 B.C., when the ancestors of the Polynesians and other Pacific islanders started moving eastward from Southeast Asia to explore and colonize this vast oceanic region. Recent archaeological finds suggest that the first canoes reached Hawai’i by at least A.D. 400. (p.21)

The Illustrated Atlas of Surfing History

Surfing was practiced throughout Polynesia. On most islands it was child’s play. However, in the eastern range around Tahiti and the Marquesas, and down south among the Māori of New Zealand, wave riding was also an adult sport. The majority would bodysurf or use some spare timber to help run before a breaker. (p.29)

“They have various sports and amusements; swimming in the surf appears to afford them singular delight. At this sport they are very dexterous; and the diversion is reckoned great in proportion as the surf runs highest and breaks with the most violence: they will continue it for hours together, till they are tired.” – James Wilson, European Colonist, 1798 (p.32)

“Sometimes a performer dispensed with the board and rode in on the wave with his arms stretched out before him.” – Tuta Nihoniho, Māori Chieftain, 1900 (p.34)

“Bodysurfing was sport available to every Hawaiian regardless of wealth or social standing. It is still the most popular form of wave riding around the world.” – John Papa ‘Ī’ī, Hawaiian Historian, 1870 (p.58)

Hawaiian Surfing: Traditions From the Past

Bodysurfing, or kaha nalu, was as widespread as surfing among Hawaiians, but it never received the attention of its companion sport in the writings of Western observers. Surfing was so spectacular that it overshadowed bodysurfing, which was regarded as playing and swimming in the surf. But for Hawaiians it was a basic, everyday surf sport, requiring only the ability to swim and catch a wave. (p.73)

One of the earliest accounts of bodysurfing is in The Epic Tale of Hi’iakaikapoliopele, in which the goddess Hi’iaka and her brother, Kānemilohae, surf with the Kaua’i chief, Lohi’au, as part of an effort to bring him permanently back to life. At Hi’iaka’s direction, she and Lohi’au swim far out to sea, where she turns her pā’ū, her sarong, into a surfboard for him.

They catch a huge wave together with Lohi’au board surfing and Hi’iaka bodysurfing, and as they are riding, Kānemilohae appears on the wave with them, riding a seashell surfboard. This legendary reference to bodysurfing establishes the sport as a wave-riding activity of the earliest Hawaiians, and one that was demonstrated and sanctioned by the gods. (p.74)

Perhaps the most famous description of bodysurfing is found in the story of ‘Umi and Pai’ea, two chiefs from the island of Hawai’i who were both skillful bodysurfers. When ‘Umi as a young chief visited Laupāhoehoe, Pai’ea challenged him to a heihei, or bodysurfing contest, to see who could get the longest ride on the same wave.

‘Umi and Pai’ea caught a wave together, but during the ride, Pai’ea crowded ‘Umi into a rock, causing ‘Umi to injure his shoulder. ‘Umi still won the contest, but years later, when he was king of the island of Hawai’i, he had Pai’ea put to death for this incident. (p.75)

During the early 1900s, some bodysurfers began to modify the traditional position by riding with both arms tight to their sides instead of under them, or by riding with one arm out and one arm tight to their side, or even with two arms in front. (p.79)

The Encyclopedia of Surfing

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as it’s known to its 2,000 residents, is the most remote inhabited spot on Earth. Wave-riding has been part of its history since it was settled, probably around A.D. 400, by either Polynesians or South American Indians. Both haka honu (bodysurfing) and haka nini (surfing on a long craft made of bundled reeds) have been practiced on Easter Island for centuries, possibly even before the Tahitians and Hawaiians began riding waves. (p.174)

A New Voyage, Round the World, in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, and 1771

Members of Captain Cook’s first voyage around the world (HMS Endeavor) observed Tahitians bodysurfing in 1769. 

As we were returning to the boat, however, we were entertained with a sight that in some measure compensated for our fatigue and disappointment. In our way we came to one of the few places where access to the island is not guarded by a reef, and, consequently, a high surf breaks upon the shore; a more dreadful one indeed I had seldom seen.

It was impossible for any European boat to have lived in it; and if the best swimmer in Europe had, by any accident, been exposed to its fury, I am confident that he would not have been able to preserve himself from drowning, especially as the shore was covered with pebbles and large stones; yet, in the midst of these breakers, were ten or twelve Indians swimming for their amusement: whenever a surf broke near them, they dived under it, and, to all appearance with infinite facility, rose again on the other side. 

This diversion was greatly improved by the stern of an old canoe, which they happened to find upon the spot; they took this before them, and swam out with it as far as the outer|most breach, then two or three of them getting into it, and turning the square end to the breaking wave, were driven in towards the shore with incredible rapidity, sometimes almost to the beach.

But generally the wave broke over them before they got half way, in which case they dived, and rose on the other side with the canoe in their hands: they then swam out with it again, and were again driven back, just as our holiday youth climb the hill in Greenwich park for the pleasure of rolling down it.

At this wonderful scene we stood gazing for more than half an hour, during which time none of the swimmers attempted to come on shore, but seemed to enjoy their sport in the highest degree; we then proceeded in our journey, and late in the evening got back to the fort. (p.84)

An Authentic Narrative of Four Years’ Residence in Tongataboo

The first account of bodysurfing in the Polynesian kingdom of Tonga, written by British missionary George Vason in 1810.

But they take particular delight in another amusement in the water, called Furneefoo. They go down to the flat shore, at high water, when the swell rolls with great force to the land, and plunge in and swim some yards into the sea, then pushing themselves on the top of the swell, they ride in, close to the shore.

It is astonishing to see with what dexterity they will steer themselves on the wave, one hand being stretched out, as the prow before, and the other guiding them like a rudder behind: and though they are riding in upon the swelling billow, with a frightful rapidity, that makes you apprehend they will be dashed and killed upon the shore, they will, with surprising agility, turn themselves suddenly, on one side, and darting back through the next wave, swim out to sea, till another swell waft them on towards shore; when, if inclined to land, they will again turn themselves on one side, and, awaiting the wave’s return, dart through the refluent surge, and reach the shore in safety.

Several hours are often spent at one time, in this sport, in which the women are as skilful as the men. I never attempted this diversion myself, as the trial might have been fatal. (p.102)

Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, April 7, 1866 (p.36-7)

FAAHEE, or surf-swimming, is a favorite pastime with the natives of the Sandwich Islands. According to Ellis, a recent writer, “individuals of all ranks and ages, and both sexes, follow this sport with great avidity. They usually selected the openings in the reefs or entrances of some of the bays, where the long, heavy billows rolled in unbroken majesty upon the reef or shore. 

I have often seen along the border of the reef, forming the boundary line to the harbor or Fare in Huahine, from 50 to 100 persons, of all ages, sporting like so many porpoises in the surf that has been rolling with foam and violence toward the land.

Sometimes mounted on the top of the wave, and almost enveloped in spray, at other times plunging beneath the mass of water that has swept like mountains over them, cheering and animating each other; and by the noise and shouting they made, rendering the roar of the sea and the dashing of the surf comparatively imperceptible.”

Hawaiian Almanac and Annual for 1896

A description of “surf swimming without a board” from the Hawaiian Almanac from 1896.

Kaha nalu is the term used for surf swimming without the use of the board, and was done with the body only. The swimmer, as with a board, would go out for position and, watching his opportunity, would strike out with his hands and feet to obtain headway as the approaching comber with its breaking crest would catch him, and with his rapid swimming powers bear him onward with swift momentum, the body being submerged in the foam; the head and shoulders only being seen. (p.112)

The Samoa Islands Vol. 1 (p.546)

Photograph of bodysurfers in Samoa published in 1901.

“Australians Were Amazed,” The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, April 7, 1908 (p.3)

This newspaper article mentions two boys from Oahu displaying their bodysurfing skills at Manly Beach in Sydney, Australia in 1908. 

On Christmas Day when the two Waikiki boys went into the surf at Manly Beach people stopped swimming to take notice.

Nobody talks much of body surfing in Hawaii. Young boys and men merely swim out a quarter of a mile to the big waves, give a stroke or two at the right fraction of a second and leap forward down the green hill, the rushing water catches them, and bent backward like a bow, they come skimming in for a hundred yards or so, and sometimes right up to the beach, their heads out from the base of the wave, their feet curved backward in the crested foam above.

“A Great Surf Shooter,” The Sydney Sun, January 8, 1915 (p.6)

Duke Kahanamoku gave an interview while visiting Australia in 1915, discussing the ancient origin and style of Hawaiian bodysurfing. 

Kahanamoku talked very interestingly to me yesterday about shooting the surf with and without the board. “Surf shooting is a new pastime here,” said he. “With us it is old—as old as the hills, perhaps.

“You have hundreds more surf shooters at work in one day around Sydney than we see in a week, or perhaps a much longer stretch of time, at Honolulu, but I think the old island has the pastime at greater perfection, which is only to be expected considering its antiquity with us.

“We race each other in on a breaker, and the desire to excel sets us all thinking hard and practising constantly. You catch your wave as it curls. We take it earlier, perhaps half a dozen yards away from the point of turning, and accumulate speed by scooping the water with the right hand and using the left in the ordinary way.”

Duke Kahanamoku Interview, Surfer Magazine 6.1, March 1965

Duke talks about bodysurfing Oahu’s North Shore during the pre-swim fin era. 

“We used to bodysurf Waimea and Sunset and those places, and once in a while we did use a board, but very seldom. And we don’t think of carrying a board with us because it’s kinda heavy and so we take a ride around the island and look at these waves. Some of those waves on the north side are terrific. And Waimea—we used to go down there and ride body surf all the time.”

“Surf Spray: A Fortunate Man,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, April 26, 1968 (p.25)

Hawaiian Joe Keawe talks about bodysurfing at Makapuu and Point Panic before the advent of swim fins (1920s-30s).

Only fleetingly dragging his gaze from the scene below, Keawe talked of his 47 years of surfing Makapuu. “In 1920 there was no road to here, no bathhouse, hardly no people. But we had surf. We hiked in from Waimanalo; maybe it took an hour. The beach pretty much the same then as now. Just body and piano surfers then. No tourists.” 

Dredging a thousand days and 10,000 waves from his memory, Keawe painted Makapuu at its biggest—“It broke from not far inside the lighthouse in a solid line to Bird Island—15 to 20 feet. I learn to surf at Kewalo,” he said. “There was no breakwater in those days and we had to walk across the reef to reach the surf. Today it’s all fill and easy to reach.”

Surfers today know the spot as Incinerators and Point Panic, and don’t figure that it was surfed too long ago. But here was Keawe surfing it before the hot generation was born, and surfing it without fins! “It’s the best body wave I’ve ever seen,” he said. 

Southern California

I suspect Native Americans were bodysurfing in Southern California long before the arrival of Europeans. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any written record to support this claim.

As for modern bodysurfing, I wrongly assumed that Duke Kahanamoku introduced the sport to the contiguous United States. (Google will erroneously tell you that it was olympic swimmer Wally O’Connor in the mid-1920s.)

However, I recently stumbled upon an Esquire magazine article from 1937 titled “Do You Body-Surf?” that mentioned, “As far back as 1911, George Freeth, a Hawaiian, who had come to America to train for the 1912 Olympic Games, was noticed bodysurfing in the heavy swells off Venice.”

I then read Patrick Moser’s wonderful biography Surf and Rescue: George Freeth and the Birth of California Beach Culture. Moser mentioned Freeth and other lifeguards “gave free bodysurfing lessons every morning” in the summer of 1918 in San Diego. 

Evidently, George Freeth, who moved to California in 1907, played a pivotal role in the early growth of bodysurfing.

During his tenure as California’s first professional lifeguard, Freeth saved countless lives; trained “surf-bathers” in swimming, surfing, and bodysurfing; and earned the Gold Lifesaving Medal for rescuing seven fishermen off Venice Beach during a winter storm in 1908. 

Furthermore, Freeth was responsible for training California’s first generation of lifeguards in lifesaving and bodysurfing skills. Many of these lifeguards went on to spread Freeth’s bodysurfing knowledge throughout Southern California.

Freeth’s mentees included Olympic swimmers Duke Kahanamoku, Wally O’Connor, and Ludy Langer.

“Do You Body-Surf?,” Esquire Magazine, September, 1937

A 1937 Esquire magazine article provides a history of bodysurfing’s growing popularity among Californians in the early 20th century. 

Just how, when, or where, the present beautifully perfected technique developed is somewhat of a mystery. A few years ago there were no body-surfers. Now there are tens of thousands. It is known to be one of the favorite sports in Australia, and some surfers claim it was introduced by a mythical visitor from “down under.”

But it seems far more probable that it came from the same country that originated surf-board riding—the Hawaiian Islands. As far back as 1911, George Freeth, a Hawaiian, who had come to America to train for the 1912 Olympic Games, was noticed body-surfing in the heavy swells off Venice.

Vic Hostetter, one of the local lifeguards, became interested, and Freeth taught him the technique. But this was as far as it went. Hostetter imparted the secret to several other guards, but no one else, apparently, was let in on the fun.

Almost a decade passed, and body-surfing was fast becoming a lost art, when Bill Bowen, of Santa Monica, with a number of school boys, was swimming off the old Crystal Pier in Ocean Park. With them at the time was Duke Kahanamoku. He noticed the boys attempting to ride waves with their legs and arms outstretched. In his usual good-natured manner he explained to them the method used in the Islands.

“If you will keep your hands behind you,” Duke admonished, “and hunch your shoulders forward, you will be able to ride that surf much better. Keep your head out of the water, and try to make your chest hollow, like a dish.”

It all sounded ridiculous, but the boys tried it, and were surprised to find that they were carried before the wave like a rubber ball thrown into the surf. Further, as Duke Kahanamoku explained, if the swimmer would bend one leg at the knee, raising it slightly, a surface would be provided whereby pressure could be exerted by the wave against the upper part of the thigh.

The raising of the leg also resulted in depressing the forward part of the body, affording a somewhat larger pressure area, and it could also be used as a rudder for steering.

After considerable practice the local boys perfected the technique, acquired the proper timing, and found that they had acquired an exhilarating new sport, with just that slight element of danger that gives tone to a pastime. The boys spread the good word and, before the summer was over, thousands of high school boys had become expert body-surfers. (p.88)

As one might expect, the lifeguards are among the best bodysurfers on the coast, mainly because they have unlimited opportunities for practice. Occasionally, however, one finds a guard who is unable to get the technique.

Ron Drummond, Bob Butts, and John Macmahon, all lifeguards, are said to be the finest body-surfers ever developed in this country. The general consensus of opinion among the experts is that any swimmer, no matter how poor he may be, can become a good body-surfer if he will follow the rules and practice faithfully for a few months—or a few years. (p.115)

Surfing Newport Beach

Ludy Langer, an olympic swimming protege of George Freeth, became the first bodysurfer at Newport’s Corona del Mar in 1919. Corona del Mar was once California’s premier surfing spot, holding the sport’s first surf contest in 1928.

A new construction project at the Newport Harbor mouth destroyed Corona, creating a new wave called the Wedge.

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Balboa, on the peninsula, and the eight hundred-foot Corona del Mar jetty became great Meccas for bodysurfing. It was here in Newport Beach that bodysurfing originated, according to the September 29, 1932 edition of the Costa Mesa Herald.

It was in 1919 that Ludy Langer, who in the 1920 Olympics would win a silver medal in the 400-meter freestyle swimming event, showed that breakers could be ridden without a board.

The general bodyboard in use at the time was about four feet long, a foot and a half across and about one inch thick. It was sometimes curved up at the nose to give the breakers something to catch a hold of, but it later proved to be more ornamental than useful.

But Langer’s novel approach to a wave meant that no board was needed. It was simple, really; instead of putting both his hands out straight when riding the wave, he extended his arms by his side, banking his hands at his hips. This kept his head out of the water and allowed him to breathe at all times. 

There was something about the contour of the bottom that made for great surf at the Balboa Pier. According to Robert Gardner, when you took off, you glanced to your right, and if you saw water running down the floor of the pier, you knew you had a big wave. Bodysurfing was very primitive in these pre-swim fin days.

Because you couldn’t generate enough speed to go left or right on the wave, you went straight—“over the falls.” Without fins, you prayed you had caught the last wave of the set. Otherwise, you got yourself beaten to death until the set was over. (p.113-14)

The Art of Wave Riding

During my research, I kept reading about a rare book titled The Art of Wave Riding. This bodysurfing “how-to” manual written in 1931 was the first published work on surfing of any kind. 

“A great deal of publicity has been given to Hawaiian swimmers riding waves with surfboards. Without a doubt it is a great sport, but in my estimation it cannot compare with the thrills, pleasure, and exercise of bodysurfing.” – Wally O’Connor, lifeguard captain and Olympic swimmer

Wave riding—without a surfboard—is a sport with which few people are familiar, and it is undoubtedly in its initial stages of development. There are no books of instruction on the subject, and at present only a few of the more athletically inclined have become proficient wave riders.

Although Drummond fell short of his goal to usher in a bodysurfing renaissance, he was no doubt the first person in the U.S. to publish a concise step-by-step methodology for riding waves without a surfboard. 

Hundreds of people have asked me, “What is the knack of wave riding?” There is no simple formula that will enable a person to ride waves. However, there are a few details, which, if known, should prove most helpful. To derive the most pleasure from riding large waves, an all around knowledge of swimming is essential.

A powerful stroke, speed, good endurance, and the absence of fear are the primary requisites. However, small waves can be ridden by one who has practically no knowledge of swimming, and because of this fact even the amateur can start practicing immediately.

There are two different methods each of which should be mastered by the beginner. One is with the face down and the arms extended in front of the head, and the other is with the face out of the water and the arms at the sides of the body.

Riding with the arms at the sides is the more enjoyable of the two methods and is used in riding large waves; but riding with the hands in front is easier to learn and is the best way to coast in on a wave caught by the swimmer in shallow water after it has broken.

“Surf Riding A Favorite Summertime Sport,” Life Magazine, August 26, 1940 (p.50-2)

A 1940 Life magazine article displays the popularity of bodysurfing among California beachgoers prior to the proliferation of swim fins. 

Two hundred yards from the shoreline, like a huge sleepy giant, a big wave rises. Slowly it lifts itself into the air, a thin line of silver spray bubbling along its crest. Higher and higher it goes. Then suddenly, beginning at one end it starts to break. With a crash and a churn, it tosses toward the beach.

This is the sort of wave that body surfers dream about and the sort they hope to find whenever they go to the seashore. Actually nowhere do they have a better chance of finding these big waves than on California beaches. There almost every boy and girl is an expert surf rider.

After school, after work, over the weekend, or just any time at all they trek down to the beach, spend hour after hour playing in the waves, swallowing water, scraping stomachs on the sand, occasionally getting a long, spectacular ride which leaves them belly-down, high and dry on the beach.

Churchill Swim Fins 

The biggest leap forward in the sport of bodysurfing came from the invention of “Duck Feet” swim fins in 1940. Owen Churchill came up with the idea for swim fins after observing Tahitian divers in 1928.

Swim fins allowed bodysurfers to lengthen their rides by surfing across the wave face, rather than straight to shore.

Anchoring in a Pacific lagoon, Owen Churchill, 32, from Corona del Mar, California, furls sea-stained sails and stares overboard. Alongside, two islanders are spear-fishing. Churchill’s eyes focus on one diver. “That’s curious,” he recalls thinking, years later. “Something’s attached to his feet.”

The islander offers him his goggles, and removes the objects from his own feet. Churchill slips them on. He feels an incredible difference. Speed and power are effortlessly increased. Back aboard, Churchill examines these “curiosities.”

Shaped like a fish’s fin. Finely woven from pandanus leaf. Coated with flexible palm-sap tar. Two metal bands—salvaged metal crate-strapping—frame a footpocket. Plaited sinnet—coconut husk fiber—serving as straps. He’ll describe them later as “fins.” And because of this meeting in a lagoon, in the South Pacific, they’ll become the equipment relied on by sport divers, lifeguards, and bodysurfers years later.

U.S. East Coast

Duke Kahanamoku introduced bodysurfing to New York and New Jersey in 1912. He gave several swimming and bodysurfing demonstrations along the East Coast after returning from the Stockholm Olympics. 

Legendary Surfers: Duke

“Duke took a surfboard out to the last line of breakers, half a mile out, and rode all the way in at express-train speed. The waves were the best ever seen. We gave people something new in the line of body surfing when we rode the crest of the waves for 200 and 300 yards.

“The shore was lined with enthusiastic people and we were nearly mobbed when we started back for the dressing rooms. There were cameras by the hundreds, and Duke was photographed until he was blue in the face.”

Duke recalled much later in his life that he did not board surf on Long Island the first time he was on the East Coast, in early 1912. “I did bodysurf there [in New York, on Long Island] – Far Rockaway and Sea Gate and places like that.” (p.311-12)

West Africa

Many popular surf histories tell us the earliest written account of surfing comes from Hawaii in 1778. Furthermore, movies like The Endless Summer encourage us to believe that Californians introduced surfing to Africa in the 1960s. 

However, surf historian Kevin Dawson points out that the first known account of surfing was written in 1640, not in Polynesia, but in West Africa.

Dawson suggests that surfing developed independently from Senegal to Angola, and was likely a popular practice along the West African coastline prior to the establishment of the Atlantic slave trade in the 16th century:

“Africa possesses thousands of miles of warm surf-filled waters, and populations of strong swimmers and seagoing fishermen and merchants who knew surf patterns and crewed surf-canoes capable of catching and riding waves upward of ten feet high.”

Afrosurf

There are also accounts of Africans bodysurfing. In 1887, an English traveler watched an African man named Sua, at home “in his element, dancing up and down and doing fancy performances with the rollers, as if he had lived since his infancy as much in the water as on dry land.”

As a wave approached, “he turns his face to the shore, and rising onto the top of it he strokes out vigorously with it towards land, and is carried dashing in a tremendous speed after the same manner, as the [surf-canoes] beach themselves.” (p.23)

On a Surf-bound Coast

Published in 1887, this account includes a story about an African man who teaches the British author how to bodysurf. 

Watching it carefully till it is just upon him, he turns his face to the shore and rising on to the top of it he strikes out vigorously with it towards land, and is carried dashing in at a tremendous speed after the same manner as the surf-boats beach themselves.

I try to imitate his example, but not with such success, in my haste and inexperience getting too much in advance, and being rolled up with the breaker instead of riding on its crest. However, I come out of it all right after a little tumbling about, and scramble out to find Sua on the beach highly amused by my performance, grinning from ear to ear. (p.295)

Turkey

The Black Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world, producing surf-able waves when conditions are right. Turkey’s Black Sea coastline is home to one of the oldest bodysurfing traditions in the world, known as Viya.

Tales from the Black Sea: Turkey

A long tradition of bodysurfing in the Black Sea known as ‘Viya’, which originated in 700 BC when Pontic Greeks once thrived in north east Turkey. It has been passed down through generations since.

“Black Sea Breakers,” The Financial Times, February 14, 2020

Turkey’s indigenous bodysurfing tradition, known as viya, is the stuff of wave-riding legend. I had read that it transforms hardy fishermen into fanatical surfers, that its stronghold at Rumeli Feneri is jealously guarded by locals, and that its roots are lost in antiquity. 

Unlike body surfers in other parts of the world, viya riders tuck their arms by their sides and take on the wave head first, before dodging partially submerged reefs and finishing the ride in shin-deep water.

What sets viya apart from other far-flung surfing scenes is that it evolved in isolation from the Hawaiian-Californian tradition — and today’s viya riders show little sign of adopting the standup version of the sport.

China

The most fascinating nugget of research I found came not from a book about surfing, but about swimming. Shifting Currents: A World History of Swimming mentions bodysurfers riding a tidal bore at China’s Qiantang River in the 1100s.

The Tide of Revolution

Every year, on the eighteenth day of the eighth month, when the tides were at their highest, all residents of the town, regardless of class, turned out in droves to amuse themselves at the dike. Those natives who were good at swimming repeatedly submerged themselves in the water and reemerged again, each holding ten banners above water level, in a game called ‘playing with the tides.’

There were several hundred youths of Wu who were expert at swimming. They had loosened their hair and had tattoos on their bodies. In their hands they held colored banners some twenty feet in size and raced against each other with the utmost exertion, swimming against the current, floating and sinking in the leviathan waves a myriad jen high.

Their leaping bodies executed a hundred different movements without getting the tails of the banners even slightly wet—this was how they showed off their skill.

Japan

Japan is one of the world’s top surfing locations, and contrary to popular belief, has an ancient surfing tradition. According to Japanese surf historian Nobuhito Ohkawa, people began riding waves with small bodyboards called itagos hundreds of years ago. 

“After World War II” says Ohkawa, “American soldiers surfed fiberglass longboards at beaches around the military bases. But before that, Japan had a traditional culture of surfing over 100 years old. Like the Polynesians, Japanese people subsisted off the bounties of the sea and discovered how to ride waves.”

Traditional Surfing in Japan

Most Japanese-style wooden boats had removable floor boards that were called ‘Itago’. When the boats were beached after fishing, children took the ‘Itago’ and surfed with them. This surfing style was commonly known as ‘Itago-nori’ which means ‘floor board riding.’ 

Itago’s origins are still uncertain. The oldest written document is a diary of Dokurakuann Kanri, one haiku poet who lived in Sakata. He visited Yunohama beach, northeastern Japan in 1821 and saw children riding on the waves with ‘Itago.’

“Perhaps ten children of 12 or 13 are there, taking the boat’s planks they go, embarking and diving into the racing sea, further and further out they go, then riding the waves back to shore, fast like an arrow, so many times they go.” 

The Method of Swimming and Practice

Written by Ikuo Tsuzaki in 1914, this swimming instructional pamphlet includes illustrations and descriptions about bodysurfing.

Body surfing has two types of methods, one for shallow water and another one for deep water. In the shallow water, when a swell comes behind about 180cm push off the bottom with your toes and soon after set your toes in the crest of a wave.

After that, stretch both your elbows forward and do flutter kicks rapidly. When you are riding the crest of a wave with sufficient speed, stop flutter kicks and stretch your legs.

In the case of a beginner, who can’t keep riding on the wave and is left behind. To protect from that case, stretch one of your hands forward and with your other hand you must do an overhand short stroke. This will be a good support when riding on the wave.

Australia

Bodysurfing has a rich history in Australia, stemming from the country’s deep affinity with the ocean and beach culture. Indigenous Australians have lived on the continent for over 50,000 years. They were adept swimmers, divers, and fishermen who began bodysurfing long before Europeans arrived in the 17th century.

As William Govett wrote about the aboriginal Australians in 1836,  “They are bold and surprisingly expert, both in swimming and diving. The aborigine stood upon the verge of a rock and plunged through a rising wave, and disappeared. He stayed under the water a full minute and rode a heaving surge back onto the rock.”

But it wasn’t until the early 20th century that bodysurfing became a national pastime among the Australians. Interestingly, a Polynesian islander named Tommy Tanna popularized bodysurfing in the 1890s.

Bodysurfing remained Australia’s most popular form of ocean recreation for nearly 60 years, replaced by board-surfing in the 1950s. 

“For more than half a century, bodysurfers (the first ‘surfers’) far outnumbered all other forms of surfing enjoyment, riding the best and/or longest waves free from any interference.” – Australian historian, Ed Jaggard

Saltwater People of the Broken Bays

The Aboriginal clans along the northern beaches were true Saltwater People, at home not only in the sparkling estuaries and rivers, but also in the ocean waves. Theirs was a canoe culture, and they were known to take these craft out in large surf. They fished with spears, or lines and hooks, and would dive off rock ledges into the surf, re-emerge with lobster and abalone, and then ride a wave surge back onto the rock shelf. (p. 20)

The coastal clans had lived a sustainable lifestyle for tens of thousands of years before the arrival of the Europeans. They were excellent fishermen/women and confident swimmers. They enjoyed body surfing and occasionally used pieces of wood as you would use a kick board. The British in 1788 ruled the seas with their abilities as mariners, but few knew how to swim. It would be another 100 years before they took an interest in the surf zone.

Australia’s Century of Surf

There is no evidence that Indigenous Australians rode any kind of surfcraft as recreation. But it is clear they paddled canoes, fished, dived and swam in the ocean ocean and surf zones with confidence and skill. As they were coastal dwellers for thousands of years, it is hard to imagine they were never moved to imitate bodysurfing antics of dolphins, with whom they shared such a close relationship. (p.32)

Bodysurfers and Australian Beach Culture

From the beginning of the twentieth century, at every popular surfing beach around Australia there were bodysurfers (men and women) ‘out the back’, waiting for ‘the big one’ or ‘mountain’ (wave) which would give them ‘a beacher’: a ride to the beach. Many bodysurfers who were ‘cracking’ waves displayed an awesome grace and courage disguising the many skills they were exhibiting. (p.90)

In the 1880s, Tommy Tanna arrived from the New Hebrides to work as a gardener in Manly. Not surprisingly, he soon found his way to the beach and the surf, where the locals were plunging about, although always with their feet firmly on the sandy bottom. Tanna shocked and startled them: “Thrusting past those who bobbed and splashed and laughed at the water’s bubbly edge, he made his way out to the break, threw himself into the path of a wave, and was carried inshore at speed, howling and yelling for the joy he had in his progress. He was with the sea, not against it.” – Bede Maxwell (p.91)

Tanna showed the head-up gaspers and arm flailers different dimensions to surfing; the deliberate shaping of the body, timing, and swimming for waves in deep water. He soon had his acolytes, best among them Freddie Williams, whose family arrived in Manly from South Australia in 1892. Williams, who was then seventeen, quickly became one of the better-known law-breaking swimmers at the beach, soon beginning to explore the intricacies of bodysurfing.

Tanna was his model but, like so many good surfers, Tanna couldn’t teach. Maxwell believes that Williams wheedled from Tanna demonstrations of how he held his arms, lowered his head, hunched his shoulders and used his legs, all of which could be quickly mastered. What Tanna couldn’t describe or demonstrate for the eager Williams was timing. Like every surfer since, Williams had to discover this for himself.

Eventually, he did so, going on to become the doyen of surfers on beaches north and south of the harbour. The new sport of surf-shooting spread from Manly to North Steyne, Queenscliff, beyond to Freshwater, and further north.

At Clovelly, Tamarama and, no doubt, Bondi and Bronte, bodysurfing soon became popular, helped by Williams’s willingness to give exhibitions, and to write newspaper articles explaining the intricacies of surf-shooting.

Enthusiastic members of the first surf lifesaving clubs attempted to emulate, then surpass, Williams. Some surfed on their backs. Others pioneered corkscrewing on waves, that is, rotating once, twice, or even three times on a longitudinal axis as they rode down the face of the wave.

Still others experimented by pushing their weight forward, raising one or both legs in the air behind them. It was an exciting, joyous time, and soon after the first world war the mastery demonstrated by hundreds of surf lifesavers was being imitated by growing numbers of the public. (p.92)

Surf Shooting Down Under

At daybreak, after setting his fish traps on a nearby headland, Tanna would jump directly from the rocks into the water, catch an unbroken wave, and ride in with arms tucked to his sides. Arthur Lowe and Freddie Williams were among the locals who befriended Tanna, copied his wave-riding style, and then introduced the sport to other Sydney-area beaches, where it quickly caught on.

The famous Australian Crawl swimming stroke was likewise appropriated around this time, at nearby Bronte Beach, from a ten-year-old Solomon Islands houseboy named Alick Wickham. A future champion swimmer for Australia, Wickham also helped spread the word about bodysurfing.

“At the Seaside: Shooting the Breakers,” The Sydney Mail, March 7, 1906

The Sydney Mail magazine’s “Seaside Number” from 1906, with a cover image depicting two bodysurfers, demonstrates the growing popularity of bodysurfing in Australia by the 1900s. 

Shooting the breakers, which is in great vogue at Manly, is an art unknown nearly everywhere else in Australia. It consists in utilising an incoming wave as a force of propulsion for the body. It is done by either springing or swimming into a billow just before the crest begins to curl over; the easier method is to spring off the sand.

But the adept’s method is to let himself go with the backwash that occurs just prior to the onrush of a wave. Thus he is sucked into the wave. Instantly turning, he gives a kick and at the psychological moment, throws himself in advance of the breaker. Then, like a log of wood, he is driven swiftly shorewards before the foam, and landed well up on the beach.

The skill is in the timing, just as it is the skill in the timing that brings down a bird on the wing or cuts a cricket ball to the boundary. The stiffening of the body assists the driving power of the water. The acquirement of the art needs practice, but once acquired it generally makes a lifelong enthusiast of its devotee. (p.606)

Swimming and Surfing

Swimming and Surfing is a how-to manual written in 1931 by Olympic swimmer Harry Hay. This instructional book includes a chapter titled “surf shooting” about learning to bodysurf.

Walk up to waist-deep water. Do not go further at first. When you see a broken wave coming, turn round facing shorewards. Just as it reaches you, plug so that your chest and head are in front of the wave and the rest of the body is in it. Keep your head down and your hands and arms straight in front, legs together and relaxed. Do this for a dozen or so times.

You will find that you are carried a little further each time. Soon you will be able to stay on the wave until it reaches shallow water.

Now walk out again to waist-deep water to where the waves are just about breaking. Watch for a wave which you think is going to break nicely for you. Just as it breaks, face shorewards, push off from the bottom, arms out in front, head down after taking a big gulp of air. 

After you have mastered so much of the art of surf shooting, you can try lifting your head and taking a breath or two as the wave carried you forward. Then you can try keeping your head up all the way. To ride in with your head up it will be necessary for you to relax the body more and to arch the back so that you will keep the trunk of the body in the wave. (p.11)

A group of bodysurfers catching a wave at the St. Kilda Baths in the late 1930s.