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National Treasures – First Surfboard (2004)

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Huge, heavy and finless, the first Aussie surfboard was actually handmade by a visiting Hawaiian in 1914 using a piece of local wood.

Curator’s notes

by Digital Resource Writers

It is generally accepted that Polynesians from Tahiti and Hawaii were the first people to surf waves, riding wooden surfboards carved from the timber of sacred trees.

In 1915 Hawaiian Olympic medallist Duke Kahanamoku made a surfboard from a local tree, and became the first person to surf a wave in Australia.

During the 1950s and 1960s a surf culture developed around the sport of surfing. Surf culture is multifaceted. It includes clothing brands and styles, music preferences, literature, films, language, attitudes and values.

Surfing has a global connection, with many surfers trekking the world to find the perfect wave, and cross-pollinating various cultural aspects.

Surfing may also be affected by environmental changes due to global warming. Global warming may produce bigger waves or a return, through altering ocean currents, to a new ice age. Oil spills and toxic algae growth can threaten surfing regions. ‘Sea change’ discovery of small coastal areas may lead to population pressures that deter surfers from using certain areas.

Technological changes are also evident in the sport. Surfboards have undergone great changes in design and manufacture; in some places there are now artificial reefs that encourage waves; and the development of jet skis has meant that some monster waves that could not be caught before are now able to be reached and ridden.

For more films on surfing see Paul Byrnes’s Surfing collection on ASO.

Teacher’s notes

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Classroom Activities

  1. What is the object shown?
  2. Who made the surfboard?
  3. When does it date from?
  4. Where was it used?
  5. How is it different from modern surfboards?

Extension: reading
One of the most interesting and challenging books written about surfing culture is Puberty Blues by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey (the ‘Salami Sisters’). It was written in the late 1970s, and details many aspects of the surf and youth cultures of that time and place, and particularly their sexism and tribalism.

Prepare a talk on the book, focusing on:

  • characters
  • setting
  • attitudes and values
  • gender relations
  • teenage culture
  • conflict with parents
  • conflict and pressures among peers.

The film version

  1. Watch the film version of Puberty Blues (Bruce Beresford, 1981). How do the different media versions of the same story (print and film) compare? Analyse the ways in which a variety of film elements are used to tell a story and create messages and meanings. Look at:
    • style and design
    • setting
    • camerawork
    • music
    • editing
    • script changes – what is kept, what is added, what is omitted from the book.
  2. One of the key changes is the age of the two main characters in the book changing from 13 to 16. What effects does this have? (You can compare a similar change in the novel and film versions of Hating Alison Ashley, 2005.)