Surf History: Tahiti & the Brits 1769
added to the website on Jan 01, 1970
During his first ‘voyage of discovery’ Captain James Cook sailed to Tahiti in 1769, and saw the locals out surfing. On his ship Endeavour moored in Matavai Bay was the talented botanist Joseph Banks, who wrote about the spectacle of wave riding for fun in his diaries – it’s the earliest written description of surfing ……»
Surf History: Resolution & Bounty in Tahiti 1777
added to the website on Jan 01, 1970
Cook arrived back in Tahiti in 1777 on his ship Resolution, shortly before he would make first contact with Hawaii. They again saw surfing and this time the ship’s surgeon William Anderson put quill to parchment and wrote: “He went out from the shore till he was near the place where the swell begins to ……»