Surfen

Surfen (of golfsurfen) is de meest oorspronkelijke vorm van boardsporten die er is. Sporten als windsurfen, maar ook skateboarden, snowboarden en wakeboarden zijn hieruit ontstaan.

Golfsurfen is het principe van voortstuwing op een plank door gebruik te maken van de golfslag van de zee. Door energie van stormen op de oceaan ontstaat deining op de oceaan. Deze deining verplaatst zich richting de kusten en neemt geleidelijk in energie toe. Als al deze energie bij de kust komt wordt deze afgeremd en wordt de energie omhoog gedwongen waardoor golven? ontstaan. Een surfer gebruikt de voorzijde van de golf om zijn plank voldoende vaart te geven om staand op de plank met de golf mee te kunnen rijden.  

Het golfsurfen is waarschijnlijk duizenden jaren geleden ontstaan in Polynesië. Deze sport is door de Polynesiërs meegenomen naar Hawaii en is daar bekend geworden bij het grote volk. Vooral de Olympisch zwemmer Duke Kahanamoku heeft de sport enorm bekend gemaakt.

De sport is in de loop der jaren veel veranderd. De massieve balsahouten planken werden eerst vervangen door holle planken en vandaag de dag bestaat een plank uit een soort piepschuim met daarom heen een glasvezeldoek en een kunstharslaag. Ook worden er kleinere boards gemaakt waardoor de bewegingsvrijheid enorm wordt vergroot.

[Uit de wikipedia-encyclopedie; www.wikipedia.com]

Geschiedenis van vrouwelijke surfers

Surfing is often thought of as a male sport, but in fact women have enjoyed surfing since the days of ancient Hawai'i, and in California since the early 1920's. Today, you can find "wahine" surfers in every surfing country. Like the men, they range from amateurs to accomplished professionals, competing for cash prizes and corporate sponsors.

One of the earliest women surfers from California was Mary Ann Hawkins. She was the first of a long line which stretched down in the 60's to Marge Calhoun and her daughters, and naturally to Linda Benson, followed by some of the top pro surfers of today.

surfing women in the old days.....

The first Australian to ride a surfboard was, in fact, a woman: Isabel Letham, who rode tandem with Duke Kahanamoku when the Duke introduced Australians to board riding at Freshwater in 1915. In the early60's, Australians Phyllis O'Donnell and Gail Couper were very influential for women's surfing. 

Surfing among women really became popular with the arrival of the Hollywood movies, like Gidget Goes Hawaiian, or Ride The Wild Surf. Linda Benson did the surfing action sequences for Gidget Goes Hawaiian, and while this is among her more memorable surfing experiences, she was Pacific Coast Women's Champion in 1959, 1960 and 1961. In 1963, at the age of 18, Linda was one of the best-known young women in surfing. 

[Voor het hele artikel kun je naar surf.about]

Hawaiian roots of surfing

 Although no one knows for sure exactly where and when stand-up surfing began, there is no doubt that over the centuries the ancient sport of "he'e nalu" (wave-sliding) was absolutely perfected by the Kings and Queens- and the men and women of the Sandwich Isles, long before the 15th century AD. Their fortuitous position by way of longitude and latitude brought the great waves of the Pacific in all shapes and sizes to these islands. 

He'enalu, a Hawaiian term adopted by ancient poets to describe their spectacular sport of surfing, is a word rich nuance. Like many subtleties expressed by this highly-evolved civilization, the world for this popular form of recreation is rich in what Hawaiians call kaona, or hidden meaning. The first half, "he'e," can mean for instance, "to change from a solid to a liquid form, or to run as a liquid"; the second part, "nalu" can refer to the surfing motion of a wave, or the foaming of a wave, hence he'enalu, wave-sliding. 

Klik hier als je een aantal Hawaiaanse woorden wilt leren!

Hawaiians attached great mystique to the ocean and her moods. Not unlike the Eskimo, who utilizes several hundred words to relate forms and concepts of ice and snow, the Hawaiian people likewise assigned numerous persona and poetic metaphors to the ever changing sea, the kai. 

All these natural forms had a significant effect on he'enalu, as any modern day surfer will readily testify. Hawaiians even had an appropriate word, hopupu (ho-poo-poo), that referred to a state of being stoked, or emotionally excited about something. In his important manuscript Traditions of Hawaii, the 19th Century Hawaiian scholar Kepelino Keauokalani (kay-ow-o-ka-la-ni), recalled that "during November, which in the Hawaiian calendar is called 'ikuwa,' in honor of 'deafening' wind, storms and waves that occur during that month, early Hawaiians would become particularly hopupu." 

[Voor het hele artikel kun je naar surf.art]

Geschiedenis van het merk O'neill

In 1952, Jack opened his first surf shop in a garage across the Great Highway in San Francisco, a sand dune away from his favorite bodysurfing break. There he sold his first wetsuits, a few vests he made from gluing together pieces of neoprene. From that very garage Jack expanded the average surfer's playground from Steamer Lane to J-Bay, Antarctica and those fun reefbreaks off the coast of Iceland. Thanks to Jack O'Neill, "It's always summer on the inside."