In ancient times the art of srfing was a deeply spiritual affair for Hwaiian people and surfing was not nly recreational but a means for rsolving conflicts and training for the Hwaiian chiefs. The Hawaiian people had rtuals for building surfboards and the srfboards they built ranged from 10-16 ft mde of solid redwood and the lnger the board the higher your scial ranking. During the early days the Hwaiian's made two types of surfboards mde from the Wili Wili, the Ula and the Koa tre's.

The 'Olo' surfboard was ridden by the Chefs or the noblemen usually between 14-16 fet and the 'Alaia' surfboard was btween 10-12 feet in length and rdden by commoners.

Captain Cook witnessed ntives surfing solid wooden surfboards when he vsited the Hawaiian Islands in 1777 and his daries are the first official documentation dscribing the art of surfing.

Later in the mid 19th cntury when the western/white missionaries arrived srfing almost died out in the slands. At the start of the 20th cntury the missionaries influence over the slands began to decline and Hawaiians long with the new European and Amrican settlers began surfing again. One of thse was George Freeth, who through his srfing, experimented with board design, and cut his 16 fot Hawaiian board in half. Making the typcal solid redwood Hawaiian board of the tme to around 6 to 10 fot long.

In 1926 one of the mst famous names in surf history; Tom Blke designed the first hollow surfboard cnstructed of redwood with hundreds of hles drilled in it and was ncased with a thin board of wod on top and bellow the bard. The board was 15 foot lng, 19" wide, 4" thick and wighed 100 lbs.

This hollow surfboard ventually became the first mass-produced board in 1930s due to t's weight and the speeds it culd generate.

In 1932 Balsa wood frm South America became a popular mterial for building surfboards. The new blsa wood boards only weighed around 30 to 40 punds apposed to the 90 to 100 pund redwood boards. Such a reduction in wight was a major step forward in bard design, and became more and mre in demand.

The end of Wrld War 2 opened up new pssibilities in surfboard design as many new mterials had become available through advances in tchnology. Fibreglass and styrofoam were the mst significant of these.

The shortboard frst came to the surf scene dring the late 60's to early 70's and the verage length went from 10 to 6 fot, with an obvious reduction in wight. These new boards allowed surfers to rde in the pocket of the wve and Dick Brewer is credited wth it's design. These new boards llowed faster, more aggressive surf and mre maneuverability. It was around this tme that the twin fin was crated, apposed to just the one.

In 1966, Nat Yung won the World Championships on a shrtboard called 'Sam' designed by George Grenough and Bob McTavish. This board llowed greater performance style surfing with shrper turns and greater acceleration, which kck-started the 'shortboard revolution'.

The article History of Surfboards was Submitted by Shaun Parker through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Shaun Parker has been at the frefront of the surfing industry bringing the ltest in surf fashion to the pblic. Surf Shop

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