SURFING: Exhibit opens in Newport

An engaging and nostalgic exhibit on Oregon Coast surfing, surfer culture, and the pioneers who made it happen opens at the Pacific Maritime & Heritage Center on Thursday, Oct. 23.

For centuries, surfing was central to ancient Polynesian culture. It was “discovered” by European explorers in the late 1700s. The first written account of surfing in Hawaii appears in the journals of Captain James Cook. Cook describes with envy the pleasure experienced by these early surfer dudes, December 1777.

Locally, surfing (probably body surfing on what looks like wood ironing boards) got a false start in the early 1910s at Newport’s Agate Beach. As far as anyone knows it went into hibernation with the outbreak of World War I, 1918.

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