Longboards are the original, and very first variety of board used in standup surfing. Ever since the sixth-century the anciant hawaiians have used 8 to 24 foot solid wooden boards when practicing their ancient art of he’e nalu. Surfing was brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Polynesians and has since become popular worldwide. The ancient boards were carved and fashioned out of solid wood, reaching lengths of ten to fourteen feet long and weighing as much as 150 pounds. Replicas of these ancient boards have been made and surfed by Roy Stewert and Tom Wegener. Both men and women, royalty and commoners surfed. But the longest of boards (the Olo) was reserved for royalty. During the 19th century, some extreme western missionaries actively discouraged surfing, viewing it as sinful. Surfing almost died out completely.By the early 20th century, only a handful of people surfed, mostly at Waikiki. But there, it started to grow again. Beginning in 1912, Duke Kahanomouku, a Hawaiian Olympic swimmer in the early 1900s, brought surfing to mainland US and Austrailia. Because of this, Duke is considered the “Father of Modern Surfing.” From that point on, surfing became an integral part of the California beach lifestyle. In Malibu (in LA county), the beach was so popular amongst the early surfers that it lent its name to the type of longboard, Malibu Surfboad.
In the 1920s boards made of plywood or planking called Hollowboards came into use. These were typically 15 to 20 feet in length and very light. During the 1950s, the surf trend took off dramatically as it obtained a substantial amount of popularity as a sport. The design and material of longboards in the 1950s changed from using solid wood, to balsa wood. The length of the boards still remained the same at an average of 10.5 feet, and had then become widely produced.It was not until the late 50’s and early 60’s when the surfboard design had closely evolved into today’s modern longboard. The introduction of polyurathene foam and fiberglass became the technological leap in design. In the 1960s, the longboard continued to remain popular as its material changed from balsa wood to fiberglass and polyurethane foam. In the 1960’s, the introduction of the shortboard, averaging 6.5 feet, allowed surfers to make tighter turns, quicker maneuvers, and achieve faster speeds, thus radically changing the way people surfed. This “shortboard revolution” nearly made longboards obsolute for all practical purposes. But in the early 1990’s, the longboard returned, integrating a number of the design features invented during the shortboard revolution. Surfers rediscovered the grace and poise – the “glide” – of the longboard, and the fun of classic manouvers that are not possible on a shortboard. In some circles the battle between longboards and shortboards continues. But many surfers live by a philosophy of finding the joy of surfing a mix of boards and surfing styles to suit the waves of the day.
