Living in a premier surfing destination, it is no surprise that surfing is so popular among Australians. Australia is a leader in innovative surfboard design and the birthplace of the greatest number of surfing world champions.
The 1915 demonstration of surfboard riding at Freshwater Beach in Sydney by Hawaiian Duke Paoa Kahini Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku, is often marked as the introduction of surfing to Australia. However, even before ‘The Duke’ visited, there are examples of people surfing the waves. For years, Aboriginal people in the Sydney area expertly canoed, fished, swam, and bodysurfed. In the 1880s, Tommy Tanna (or Tanner), a young Pacific Islander (probably from Vanuatu) who worked as a household servant/ gardener for a family in Sydney’s northern beaches, was well known in the area for his bodysurfing exploits. There is even a photograph from 1912, which shows Australian, Tommy Walker performing a headstand on a solid wooden board at Yamba (NSW). As a merchant seaman, Walker travelled around the Pacific Ocean and he bought the surfboard in Hawaii.
Surf Life Saving Clubs
In the early 20th century, most of Australia’s white population couldn’t swim, but were attracted to the beaches by the hot summers. The increasing number of beachgoers and ‘surf bathers’ enjoying the ocean and invigorating waves led to rise in drownings. This led to the establishment of surf live saving clubs in the 1930s and ‘40s, and with them the increasing numbers of surfboard riders. Around this time, surf bathers and bodysurfers were colloquially known as either ‘dippers’ or ‘surf-shooters’.
Surf Ski
The surf ski was first invented about 1912-13 by Harry McLaren, a Port Macquarie fisherman. The surf ski assisted access oyster beds and could be used recreationally. It was subsequently introduced to Sydney beaches by McLaren’s surfing partner, Dr ‘Saxon’ Crakanthorp of Manly, in the 1930s – who later patented the design.
Hollow surf skis, made of timber frames and plywood proved effective in the surf, and were widely adopted by surf lifesaving clubs. Variations emerged including the slim, pointed Australian Racing 16ft craft, colloquially known as ‘toothpicks’. These were surf skis with a blunt nose and pointed tail, with a length of about 16ft (4.88m), of hollow balsa or plywood construction.
Toothpicks were finless and weighed about 30-35kg. They were primarily designed for knee paddling or stand-up paddling, and not stand-up surfing. However, with their rocker bottoms, they performed better than the heavier, older style solid wood surfboards, and became increasingly used for both kneeling and, at times, stand-up surfing.
Toothpicks reached the peak of their popularity between the late 1940s and early 1950s. Sydney surf craft manufacturer Bill Wallace was making four toothpicks a week for surf clubs in Sydney by the early 1950s. Some stand-up surfers reportedly surfed 16- and 20-foot toothpicks in giant 20-foot waves off Bronte and Fairy Bower, in Sydney. In 1956, visiting US surfers, including Greg Noll, visited Australia with their new shorter, lightweight balsa Malibu boards. Wallace copied these designs, but in the absence of balsa constructed hollow Okanui (or Okinuee) boards out of plywood. In the early 1950s Western Australian surfers were using hand-made plywood 16-foot toothpicks and 10-foot Okanui surfboards to surf waves in the Perth metropolitan area, also travelling ‘down south’ to Yallingup and Dunsborough.
Modern boards
Following the development of chemical products such as fibreglass, polyester resin and urethane foam during the Second World War, surfers and shapers experimented with these lighter materials. During the 1950s and 1960s, a schism emerged between the conservative surf lifesaving movement and free-thinking surfers that transformed surf philosophy and culture into what is it known as today. Surfers and shapers designed shorter, high-performance boards and travelled up and down the coast searching for perfect waves. By the 1970s, boards were down to 6 feet, and by the 1980s single fins started to give way to twin fin and three fin ‘thruster’ designs. The mainstream popularity of surfing further increased with the development of wetsuits, boardshorts, leg-ropes, and surf fashion brands. Manly Beach was the birthplace of the Surfing World Championships in 1960, which helped develop an international professional surfing circuit, and since that time, Australia has hosted numerous prestigious competitions and produced internationally successful surfers. Since the early 2000s, there have been increasing numbers of women taking up surfing and participating in high level competitions. Today, Australia is recognised as a surfer’s paradise, and surfing is considered part of Australia’s identity and way of life.
