along with surfing’s ritual significance within the Hawaiian culture. Following this initial overhaul in their culture, the locals found themselves questioning their own beliefs, and were subsequently won over by travelling Christian missionaries (Finney and Housten, 1996). As a result of this, surfing was discouraged. It clashed with their new found beliefs; nudity, gambling and general neglect of Christian religious duties were involved in the activity, making a taboo, with missionaries even describing the pursuit as ‘evil’ (Finney and Housten, 1996). Western forces continued to cause a decline in the traditional Hawaiian culture and by the 19th Century, Hawaii had a new government, new lifestyles and a new Christian religion (Barr et al, 2005). It is no great surprise that despite its deeply rooted history, surfing struggled to survive during this turbulent time. However, despite its decline, surfing was not completely destroyed by Western encroachment. In the early 1900’s, there was a resurgence of interest in the sport and the preservation of its history. This occurred principally for two reasons. The first of which is the Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Club, the second is Duke Kahanamoku. The Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Club was established on 1st May 1908 by a group of surfing promoters in Honolulu by Ford, officially founded for the purpose of “preserving surfing on boards and in Hawaiian outrigger canoes.” The club became the first formal organisation whose aim it was to preserve surfing. Surprisingly, a number of the original members of the club had previously despised the Hawaiians traditions. However the club rapidly became an elitist club that insisted on a whitesonly membership. Not long after its
establishment, the club offered members facilities for dressing and a grass hut for board storage on the beach at Waikiki (Finney and Houston, 1996, p. 61.). This was an important move in the reawakening of surfing, according to surfer Tom Blake, who wrote the first book on surfing history nearly two decades later. The original charter of the Outrigger Canoe and Surfboard Club read: “We wish to have a place where surfboard riding may be revived and those who live away from the water front may keep their surfboards. The main object of this club being to give an added and permanent attraction to Hawaii and make the Waikiki beach the home of the surfrider.” (Bloom, J. and Willard, M. 2002 p.19) Within a few months of its establishment, the club had increased the interest in the sport significantly and the membership had grown to one thousand two hundred. The second predominant factor that assisted the revitalisation of surfing in its native Hawaii, as mentioned earlier, was Duke Kahanamoku. He was acknowledged as the worlds fastest swimmer as well as its foremost surfer. He gained his nickname as the ‘father of surfing’ by forming the surf club named ‘Hui Nalu’ or ‘The Club of The Waves’. Formed alongside his teenage friends, the club was credited as the first ‘modern’ surf club. It was created as a response to the Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Club, as many Hawaiians resented the prejudice and discrimination displayed by the members. William “Knute” Cottrell , one of Kahanamoku’s contemporaries, described how he, along with other founding members, were ‘disgusted’