Hundreds of places in the world have huge blue waves, white sand beaches, and beautiful young people carrying surfboards. But, when people think of surfing, many first think of Hawaii, U.S.A. Not only because Hawaii has some of the best, and most dangerous, surfing in the world, but also because the Polynesians, natives (1) of the island of Hawaii, were the first people to surf.
Historians believe that Hawaii natives migrated (2) from other Polynesian islands, including Tahiti, where the islanders are known to have ridden waves as they stretched out along on a board. While the first Hawaiian surfers may have ridden their long boards on their stomachs, we know that they soon started standing on the board. How do we know? They carved pictures of men standing on surfboards on lava rocks. They also passed chants from generation to generation that told of amazing surfing feats (3). They wanted to make sure the younger members of the tribe never forget the heroics (4) of their ancestors (5). In addition, explorers from other countries recorded seeing Hawaiians surfing hundreds of years ago.