This photo, taken in Honolulu around 1890, shows a man holding an alaia surfboard that was used for riding across gentle rolling waves. The image is just one of many vintage photos compiled by Jim Heimann for Taschen's photo book "Surfing."
Frank Davey/Courtesy TASCHEN
George Freeth, left, surfs at Honolulu's Waikiki Beach around 1907. Freeth is often referred to as the "father of modern surfing." He insisted on riding upright rather than prone, angling across the wave rather than going straight in with the foam.
Ray Jerome Baker/Courtesy TASCHEN
People with surfboards stand in front of a beach house in Joe Creek, Washington, around 1910. Surfing made its way to the Pacific Northwest via descendants of the Dole family of Hawaii, who built a sawmill and shingle factory near the Washington coast. They called it the Aloha Shake Company.
Kogan Collection/Courtesy TASCHEN
A surfer rides a wave at Waikiki Beach around 1914. Some of the sport's earliest forms trace back to ancient Polynesia in 2000 B.C.
Jim Heimann Collection/Courtesy TASCHEN
This surfer was photographed by Tom Blake around 1932. Blake designed and built the first camera water housings to take close-up surfing photographs. He would wade out and stand on the shallow reef at Waikiki or take a canoe out to deeper water. A surfer himself, Blake had a natural eye for framing the wave and the rider in a way that caught the peak of action.
Tom Blake/Courtesy TASCHEN
Jim Bailey rides a wave on California's Hermosa Beach circa 1936. Bailey was an outstanding Los Angeles County lifeguard and one of South Bay's best surfers. He was renowned for tandem surfing and taking his dog, Rusty, out for a ride.
Don James/Courtesy TASCHEN
Lifeguards walk on Sydney's Bondi Beach around 1938. As an island nation with more than 22,000 miles of coastline, Australia needed an army of surf-savvy lifeguards to look after its citizens. The Surf Life Saving movement began in 1907 as an all-volunteer service.
George Caddy/Courtesy TASCHEN
The first National Surfing Championship took place in Long Beach, California, in 1938. There were 144 entrees.
Ian Lind Collection/Courtesy TASCHEN
Surfers in Makaha, Hawaii, circa 1939. Heimann's photo book focuses on surfing culture since 1778, taking viewers into the depths of the sport's rich and complex history.
Jacoby Collection/Courtesy TASCHEN
Actress Joan Crawford poses with a surfboard in Waikiki around 1946. Surfboards provided a convenient prop for glamorous Hollywood movie stars visiting Hawaii.
