Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

Indigenous Polynesian people invented surfing in ancient times and likely brought the practice with them when they established the first human settlements in Hawaii. In Barbarian Days, Finnegan explains that historically, the practice was one aspect of Hawaiian religion:

After prayers and offerings, master craftsmen made boards from sacred koa or wiliwili trees. Priests blessed swells, lashed the water with vines to raise swells, and some breaks had heiaus (temples) on the beach where devotees could pray for waves. (27)

Finnegan explains that Hawaiians’ mastery of skills such as fishing, hunting, and agriculture allowed them to produce an abundance of food in the tropical landscape of the Hawaiian islands, which indicates that their communities often had copious leisure time to dedicate to surfing.

This all changed with the arrival of European explorers and colonizers. Captain James Cook, an Englishman, arrived in Kauai in 1778; local Hawaiians murdered him a year later when he returned a second time. European colonization didn’t occur overnight, however. Hawaiian King Kamehameha defeated other Hawaiian chieftains and consolidated all the Hawaiian islands into one kingdom by the early 19th century. Soon, European missionaries, as well as workers such as whalers and traders, began working and settling in Hawaii.

Upon contact with Indigenous Hawaiians, Europeans passed on lethal contagious diseases to which the locals had no immunity, decimating the Indigenous population. In the midst of this tragedy, European missionaries tried to Christianize the Indigenous population and harshly judged native practices. Missionaries such as American Hiram Bingham judged surfing practices as “‘destitution, degradation, and barbarism’” (27) and decried the relative nakedness of Hawaiian surfers. Typical of European missionaries in Hawaii at the time, Bingham considered surfing fundamentally opposed to “‘modesty, industry, or religion’” (27). Missionaries attempted to ban the practice.

In Barbarian Days, Finnegan cites scholars Westwick and Neushal to argue that while Christian missionizing strongly discouraged surf culture, the collapse of the Indigenous population and the introduction of a colonial cash economy took a terrible toll on surfing too:

Westwick and Neushal count Hawaiian surfing less a victim of successful missionary zeal, however, than of extreme demographic collapse, dispossession, and a series of extractive industries—sandalwood, whaling, sugar—that forced the surviving islanders into a cash economy and stripped them of their free time. (27-28)

Many, including Finnegan, credit the “Father of Surfing,” Indigenous Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku, with repopularizing the practice in the early 20th century. An Olympic gold medalist in swimming, Kahanamoku was also an expert surfer. With no formal surfing events to compete in, Kahanamoku showcased his surfing abilities in exhibitions around the world. Surfing’s popularity steadily grew as people took up the sport, particularly in places like California and Australia.

Finnegan reflects in Barbarian Days on how surf culture changed over the course of the 1960s and 1970s as many surfers, including himself, embraced the counterculture movement in the US. This association helped give rise to the stereotype of the “surf bum,” given that surfing was associated with youth, hippies, drug users and other counterculture elements. The author admits that the perception of surfing as a form of “outlaw uselessness” only made the sport more appealing to his teenage self.

As the sport grew and surf technology improved, surfers discovered new surf spots and tackled waves with more advanced boards. Finnegan points to diverging approaches to surfing in which some, including him, began regarding it as a compelling pastime, while more purist friends considered it a calling, or a way of life. Conversely, more surfers began to see surfing as a sport or even a career choice. Even amateur surfers embraced the more competitive side of surfing by establishing surf clubs, jostling for the best positions on crowded waves at urban beaches, and frequenting manmade waterfronts designed to produce ridable waves. By the late 20th century, people could surf competitively and professionally, pursuing careers through international competitions and vying for corporate sponsorships. In 2020, surfing officially became an Olympic sport, solidifying this trend and creating another manifestation of this ancient practice.