‘Princes of Surf’ explores how Hawaiian teenagers introduced browsing to the mainland : NPR

In 1885, royal Hawaiian siblings David Kawānanakoa, Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole and Edward Keliʻiahonui launched browsing — then referred to as “surfboard swimming” — to mainland U.S. once they took to the waves in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

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Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

The mouth of the San Lorenzo river in Santa Cruz, Calif., is not an amazing place to surf. Rocks, air pollution and swift currents make it precarious virtually year-round. But earlier than the development of a harbor within the mid-Nineteen Sixties altered the environment, the spot was a surfer’s paradise, with straightforward, constant swells. “They looked very much like the breakers in Honolulu,” stated cultural historian and longtime surfer Geoffrey Dunn.

Dunn stated this reminder of house is what impressed three teenage members of the Hawaiian royal household, in 1885, to unleash a sport then often known as “surfboard swimming” on an unsuspecting American public. “It was a royal sport,” Dunn stated. “They were part of that tradition in Honolulu.”

A well-liked sport with little-known roots

Surfing has grown in recognition on this nation lately. The Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s (SFIA) 2025 browsing report reveals an 8% common annual development from 2019 to 2024. “Participation in the sport continues to climb, fueled by youthful energy, broader diversity and a growing appetite for outdoor, wellness-driven lifestyles,” stated a web-based statement from the Surf Industry Members Association, quoting the SFIA’s analysis.

But few Americans understand how the game first got here to those shores 140 years in the past. A brand new exhibition on the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History goals to vary that. “ I think it’s important for us to recognize that the seed of surfing in the Americas was the result of these Hawaiians who brought it here,” Dunn stated.

A view of the Santa Cruz shoreline c. 1900.

Aydelotte/The Geoffrey Dunn Collection

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Aydelotte/The Geoffrey Dunn Collection

Dunn stated Hawaii’s royal household despatched siblings David Kawānanakoa, Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole and Edward Keliʻiahonui to review overseas at St. Matthew’s Military School, an elite faculty in San Mateo County, not removed from Santa Cruz, with the goal of making ready them to be worldly and well-informed trendy rulers. “As part of the globalization of trade in the 19th century, people came from all over the world to Hawaii,” Dunn stated.

From Hawaiian to Californian wooden

The brothers had grown up using the waves atop large surfboards made out of native Hawaiian woods reminiscent of ulu and koa. In California, they usual them out of the native redwood. Dunn identified gleaming replicas of those artifacts, on show within the exhibition, alongside surfboards illustrating the evolution of the spot all through historical past. (The reproductions are based mostly on originals from the property of one of many princes, which are actually housed on the Bishop Museum on Oahu.)

Cultural historian and surfer Geoffrey Dunn poses on the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History in entrance of recent reproductions of the redwood boards the Hawaiian princes constructed and used in the course of the keep within the Eighties.

Jim Ratcliffe

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Jim Ratcliffe

“ They probably weigh eight times more than current surfboards at least,” Dunn stated, including the princes’ boards have been twice as lengthy and did not have fins to assist with stabilization. “So much tougher to surf. But of course, that’s what they had been using in Hawaii.”

An enormous splash

In California, the royal brothers made an enormous splash. An article from the July 20, 1885 version of an area newspaper, the Santa Cruz Surf, instructed all about it. “The young Hawaiian princes were in the water, enjoying it hugely and giving interesting exhibitions of surfboard swimming as practiced in their native islands,” the article stated.

These aquatic feats left a long-lasting impression on the residents of Santa Cruz following the princes’ departure, which possible occurred in 1887, in line with the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. Eleven years after they first demonstrated their artwork, the Santa Cruz Surf noted the way it had been picked up by locals. “The boys who go swimming in the surf at Seabright Beach use surfboards to ride the breakers, like the Hawaiians,” a July 23, 1896 discover within the publication said. (Seabright Beach is a well-liked seashore in Santa Cruz.)

Hawaiian response

The princes’ acts of “surf diplomacy” additionally resonated with Hawaiians.

“The story about the three princes is a famous story in our culture,” stated Brian Keaulana. Keaulana comes from a line of legendary Hawaiian surfers, and can be a producer on Chief of War, the Apple TV+ new drama sequence concerning the battle to unite the Hawaiian islands within the 18th century. (The sequence, which stars Jason Momoa, consists of royal Hawaiian characters, but it surely does not embody browsing — although one episode options an epic underwater “shark surfing” scene.)

The Princes of Surf exhibition consists of surfboards from extra trendy instances — the heirs of the boards created by the Hawaiian princes.

Jim Ratcliffe

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Jim Ratcliffe

Keaulana stated it wasn’t till the early twentieth century the game really caught on within the U.S. and past, popularized largely by the Hawaiian swimming champ and surfer Duke Kahanamoku. “Duke spread surfing around the world,” Keaulana stated.

He added the Hawaiian princes’ go to to California within the Eighties was an vital precursor — one which not solely benefitted folks on the U.S. mainland, however Hawaiians, too.

“They came back with redwood boards,” Keaulana stated, including that the brand new expertise ultimately caught on in Hawaii when redwood turned the dominant surfboard materials on the islands within the first half of the twentieth century. Keaulana added: “ It’s funny how those things get passed on.”