History

The Dawn of SurfboardRiding in Australia: In the Southern Summer of 1915 at Freshwater beach when the great aquatic Hawaiian, Duke Kahanamoku gave an amazing exhibition of wave riding with a solid surfboard modelled on the very type used by him in Hawaii. the Duke fashioned a solid board from the local timbers, and it was with this board that he first introduced to the Australian Surfing community.
Out through the surf-break "The Duke" paddled, turned around and having paddled onto the face of a breaking wave, caught the wave back into the beach while standing tall on this newly carved timber surfboard. This exhibition of skill and grace captivated the imagination of all those present, and if this were not enough, the Duke selected a young lady from the local crowd - one Miss Isabel Letham - to accompany him on his surfboard. While she lay forward on this surfboard, the Duke paddled out through the surf and then returned to the beach while riding tandem.
The surfboards in the day of the Duke quite heavy timber surfboards were still very much in use through the late 1930's and until the early 1940's, but were later replaced by the hollow plywood surfboards which were to become the base designs and forerunners of the "mal's".
Because mal's were lightweight, easy to transport, and easy to ride, malibus popularized surfing and sparked a unique, hedonistic subculture. This subculture originated in Southern California but spread around the world, from South Africa to Australia.

Surfing's roots lie in premodern Hawaii and Polynesia, where the sport was practiced by both men and women from all social strata from royalty to commoners.
Women competing in professional surfing is a relatively new phenomenon. There were originally so few women surfers that often they would compete in men's events, and this continued well into the 1970s. A women's professional circuit began in 1977, but not until the mid-1990s did women take up surfing in large numbers.