The birth of Aussie surfboard riding

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1915 Duke Kahanamoku (‘The Big Kahuna’; 1890 - 1968), from Hawaii performed surfboard riding for the first time in Australia, at Sydney's Freshwater Beach near Manly Beach. Sixteen year-old Isabel Letham became Australia's first female board rider.

The birth of Aussie surfboard riding
Legendary surfer Duke Paoa Kahanamoku was an Hawaiian Olympic swimming champion, in Australia for a competition swim at the Domain Baths. He toured Sydney's northern beaches and chose Freshwater Beach, near Manly, to show Sydneysiders the finer points of surfboard riding, a hitherto unknown sport in Australia. The Duke made a board out of a piece of sugar pine provided by a surf club member.

After some graceful acrobatics, he called for a volunteer from the crowd that had assembled on the sand, to join him in a display of tandem riding. Sixteen-year-old Isabel Letham rode with the Duke for three hours becoming the Australia's first female surfer, on the day the sport was first demonstrated in Australia ...

Tagged: surf, surfing, australia