Riding the Native Wave: Surfing’s Hidden Roots in Peru

 

When we speak of the contributions indigenous cultures of the Americas have made to the modern world there are almost too many to name. And not just in food, art or music; several popular sports have indigenous origins, such as lacrosse and archery. Most people don’t know, however, that contemporary surfing can be traced back thousands of years, not just to Polynesia as most modern surf writers claim, but to the ancient Indians of Peru.

Modern surf culture can fairly be attributed to the legendary Hawaiian surf champion Duke Kahanamoku who made his way to California and Australia, sharing Hawaii’s surf stoke with dedicated watermen in the early 1900s. Although misleadingly dubbed the “Sport of Kings” by the early tourist industry in Hawaii, surfing in Native Hawaiian culture was a pastime shared by all—royalty and commoner, men and women alike—and likely came with the original Polynesians who settled in the Hawaiian Islands 1,000 to 2,000 years ago.

“The Duke,” as he is affectionately known in the surfing world, brought with him ancient Hawaii’s style of surfing, which centered on the type of boards Hawaiians used and eventually evolved into the iconic surfboards of today. It was not until the late 1980s, however, that a new story about surfing’s antiquity in ...more