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    Surfing in South Carolina
    Surfing in South Carolina
    Surfing in South Carolina
    Ebook149 pages40 minutes

    Surfing in South Carolina

    By Lilla O'Brien Folsom and Foster Folsom

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    About this ebook

    For centuries, the ocean waters of the Atlantic have impacted the daily lives of those on the South Carolina coast. Beginning in the 1960s, those waves caught the imagination of young beachgoers who studied magazines and Super 8 films and refined their moves on rent-a-floats until the first surfboards became available in the area. The buildup to the Vietnam War brought GIs and their families from the West Coast and Hawaii to South Carolina, and their surfboards came along with them. Unbeknownst to each other, local surfers concentrated in the beach and military base areas of Beaufort/Hilton Head, Charleston, and Pawley's Island/Grand Strand began to conquer nearby surf breaks. When contests finally brought these groups together, a statewide sport was born.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateMar 14, 2016
    ISBN9781439655313
    Surfing in South Carolina
    Author

    Lilla O'Brien Folsom

    Lilla O'Brien Folsom and Foster Folsom were in that first wave of surfing-aware teenagers. Lilla is a local freelance writer who failed miserably at surfing and went to work at a local surf shop. Foster grew up on Folly Beach and began surfing in the early 1960s. They were directors for the Southern South Carolina chapter of the Eastern Surfing Association for five years. Their life is best described as "surf-dependent."

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      Book preview

      Surfing in South Carolina - Lilla O'Brien Folsom

      unintentional.

      INTRODUCTION

      In 1779, after Capt. James Cook’s demise at the hands of angry Hawaiians, the new commander of the Discovery devoted two pages of Captain Cook’s journal to the natives’ skill and passion for wave riding. At the beginning of the 1800s, Calvinist missionaries were scandalized not only by the free-form fashion of the natives while surfing, but also the amount of time they spent having fun. They called for a ban on the past time for decency’s sake. It took a South Carolinian, a Duke, and an Irishman to bring the royal sport back to its rightful place on the world stage.

      Born in South Carolina in 1868, Alexander Hume Ford wanted to find adventure and write about it for a world audience. Ford was working for the Charleston News and Courier during the Great Earthquake of 1886. It terrified him.

      Moving to New York, he was hired to write about the Trans-Siberian Railroad being built across Russia. Ford stopped in Hawaii on the return trip, fell in love with the Islands, and remained. He was a fearless promoter of the local culture, and when he first saw Hawaiians riding the waves, he was hooked. Realizing even then that access to prime Honolulu beachfront was getting scarce, he negotiated with Queen Emma’s estate for an acre and a half of the shoreline in the shadows of Diamond Head. Promising that the land would only be used to revive and preserve the ancient Hawaiian sport of surfing on boards and in outrigger canoes, Ford founded the Outrigger Canoe Club. Established in 1908, the club guaranteed that men and boys would always have ocean access to ride upright on the crest of waves. He became surfing’s tireless promoter and champion of Duke Kahanamoku and legendary waterman George Freeth, who had taught Ford to surf.

      One of Ford’s first disciples was adventure writer Jack London. Charmaine London wrote about relaxing with her husband one evening in Honolulu after their famous cruise of the Snark. A very animated man sat down, introduced himself, and began to tell Jack London about wave riding. He vowed to make this island past time one of the most popular on earth. Caught up in Ford’s enthusiasm, they never doubted that he would.

      The Londons spent a full day trying wave after wave to learn the technique from Ford. The next day Jack was so sore and sunburned he could not move. Despite the horrible memory, the exhilaration he felt riding the waves shone through in his books and many magazine articles. The world was intrigued.

      Agatha Christie was one of the first British to do it. Mark Twain never could do it. Duke Kahanamoku demonstrated the skill in California, on the East Coast, and in Australia. Famous in his own right after winning five Olympic medals, he brought out the crowds whenever he hit the beach. Word of the sport was spreading globally.

      These people made the sport of surfing accessible to the masses, opening the world’s eyes to the beauty of capturing a wave, if only for a few moments.

      Across the globe from Hawaii, well before Europeans established their colonies, the waterways threading the Lowcountry sustained the indigenous population. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the ocean became crucial to the success of coastal communities, as ocean trade routes took rice and cotton to markets abroad, returning with the goods, fashions, and culture of cosmopolitan European capitals.

      In the last century, South Carolina’s strategic location, ports, and mild climate secured military base contracts along the coast with the Marines centering at Parris Island. Charleston hosted the Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard, while another Air Force base located in Myrtle Beach. The buildup to the Vietnam War in the 1960s brought families and soldiers from the West Coast and Hawaii to tours in South Carolina.

      Military families brought their hobbies, and surfboards began to appear on local beaches. Having practiced their moves on floats, local teens now had access to boards. Not too many pictures are around now from those early days. As one Myrtle Beach surfer

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