Hawaii, Tahiti, Peru, Ghana and China all have claims, and Surf City USA has a trademark

Birthplace of Surfing Debate Settled Locally by Huntington Beach, Which Was Not Asked

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. – City boosters moved swiftly this week to correct what they called “a dangerous outbreak of nuance” after a published history suggested that surfing may have begun in several places, none of them within walking distance of Main Street. The offending article is SurferToday’s survey of the many birthplaces of surfing, which finds that there is no universally accepted single origin and that Hawaii, French Polynesia, northern Peru, West Africa and China each have a serious historical case.

“We read it with interest and we reject it with pride,” said Gary Hultquist, executive director of the Huntington Beach Bureau of Having Been First. “Polynesians riding boards centuries ago, fishermen in Peru on reed craft around 3,000 BC, written accounts from Ghana in the 1640s, people riding a tidal bore in Song dynasty China. Very impressive. But did any of them have a pier? Did any of them have a parking structure? I rest my case.” Hultquist then unveiled a bronze plaque reading “Surfing: Est. Here.”

The Official Local Account

According to the Bureau’s version of events, surfing was first performed on a Saturday in the late 1950s by a man remembered only as Gordo, who fell off the pier holding an ironing board and “made it look intentional.” Everything before that date is classified by the Bureau as “people standing near water.” Asked about the long-established Hawaiian tradition, which historians regard as the foundation of modern surf culture, Hultquist said Hawaii had “a nice program” and that he wished them well.

The Bureau’s position has been complicated by neighbors. Within hours of the plaque going up, three other California towns issued statements. Santa Cruz noted that it also calls itself Surf City and has done so in court. Malibu said that surfing may have been born elsewhere but that it “became good-looking” at First Point. San Onofre’s regulars said nothing, because they were surfing, which several observers considered the strongest argument presented.

Competing Claims, Ranked by the Bureau

To assist visitors, the Bureau released its own assessment of the rival birthplaces:

• Hawaii: strong heritage, no boardwalk churro
• Tahiti: beautiful, but a long drive from the 405
• Peru: reed boats are “more of a kayak situation”
• Ghana: earliest written account, but “writing it down first is not the same as charging twenty dollars to park”
• China: riding a river wave “sounds like Sacramento”

A poll of 220 beachgoers near the pier found that 58 percent believed surfing started in California, 22 percent believed it was started by the Beach Boys, 14 percent believed it was started by a clothing brand, and 6 percent correctly said nobody knows and were asked to keep their voices down.

Historians Request a Word

Scholars have tried to explain that the places are not all claiming the same thing. Some mean the origin of wave riding itself, others the birthplace of the modern sport, others simply where it started locally. One line of thought, explored in a SurferToday essay on why surfing is a religion, treats the whole question as closer to faith than fact. Hultquist welcomed the comparison. “Exactly,” he said. “And every religion has a holy site with a gift shop. Ours is on Pacific Coast Highway and it validates.”

A visiting historian from Honolulu, asked for a response, looked at the plaque for some time. She noted that Hawaiian surfers demonstrated the sport in California in the early twentieth century, which is how it got to Huntington in the first place. Hultquist said he was aware of that and considered it “a soft launch.”

Merchandise Already Available

Main Street retailers have embraced the Bureau’s findings. T-shirts reading “Birthplace of Surfing (Ask Us)” went on sale Thursday. A local brewery has released a lager called First Wave, with a label showing Gordo mid-fall. The city is considering a re-enactment each summer, pending a volunteer and an ironing board rated for saltwater.

The Tourism Board Runs the Numbers

City accountants have quietly studied what being the birthplace would be worth. A consultant’s memo estimates that an undisputed origin claim could add 40 million dollars a year in visitor spending, most of it on parking, sunscreen and a sandwich. The same memo warns that the claim would require “a degree of historical flexibility” and recommends the phrase “a birthplace of surfing,” with the article “a” printed very small. Hultquist rejected the advice. “You do not put an asterisk on a plaque,” he said. “People come here to feel something. What they feel is that they are standing where it all started, next to a store that sells toe rings.” The Bureau has since commissioned a mural of Gordo greeting Polynesian navigators and showing them where to stand.

Britain Enters a Late Claim

The controversy has reached the United Kingdom, a country that cheerfully claims to have come up with most sports and then lost at them. The London Prat’s British satirical news on history reported that a parish council in Cornwall has found a 1783 diary entry describing a vicar “borne shoreward upon a coffin lid, to the delight of all.” It is, according to the latest satirical news out of London, being submitted to UNESCO with a cream tea.

At the pier, the plaque has already been amended once. Someone added the word “allegedly” in marker on Thursday night. The Bureau has polished it off and posted a volunteer. Surfers below continued riding waves that came from a storm near New Zealand and owed Huntington nothing. Bohiney Magazine has asked Gordo’s family for comment and is told there are several.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/