Three Hawaiian noble youths spearheaded the introduction of surfing to the U.S. mainland.
In the summer of 1885, the sport of surfing made its debut in America, thanks to three teenage members of the Hawaiian royal family. The surfboards they brought with them, crafted from local redwood instead of native Hawaiian woods like ulu and koa, were twice as long and didn't have fins for stabilization, making them much tougher to surf compared to modern surfboards.
The Hawaiian royal family members, including Princess Kaʻiulani, Princess Liliʻuokalani, and Princess Kawānanakoa, attended St. Matthew's Military School in San Mateo County, California. Their visit to the area left a lasting impression on the citizens, with the Santa Cruz Surf reporting on their aquatic feats in its July 20, 1885 edition.
According to cultural historian and longtime surfer Geoffrey Dunn, the Hawaiian royal family brought surfing to the United States as a reminder of home and a royal sport they were part of in Honolulu. Duke Kahanamoku, a Hawaiian swimming champ and surfer, played a significant role in popularizing surfing in the U.S. and beyond in the early 20th century.
The irony of the situation was not lost on Brian Keaulana, who pointed out that the technology brought to Hawaii by the royal brothers eventually spread back to the U.S. mainland. This historical connection is now being highlighted in a new exhibition at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, which aims to educate the public about the origins of surfing in the Americas.
Fast forward to the present day, and surfing continues to be a popular sport with an 8% average annual growth from 2019 to 2024, according to the SFIA's 2025 surfing report. The sport has even made its way into popular culture, with the Apple TV+ series Chief of War featuring an epic underwater "shark surfing" scene, although the series does not include surfing as a central theme.
Brian Keaulana, a producer on the Apple TV+ series Chief of War, stated that the story about the Hawaiian princes is a famous story in Hawaiian culture. The series, which is set in the 18th century and follows the battle to unite the Hawaiian islands, stars Jason Momoa as the titular Chief of War.
While the Hawaiian royal family's surfboards from the 1880s may no longer be in use, replicas of the original boards are on display in the exhibition, along with surfboards illustrating the evolution of the sport at the San Lorenzo river. The river, once a surfer's paradise with easy, consistent swells, was altered by the construction of a harbor in the mid-1960s.
Despite these changes, the spirit of surfing lives on in Santa Cruz, California, and the story of the Hawaiian royal family's introduction of the sport to the United States continues to inspire a new generation of surfers and historians alike.
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