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Postcard Honolulu to
England, September 1902. Miss Barbara Thomas Sapass Road- Handford Cheshire, England. Hand-tinted photograph of Native with Surf Board, Waikiki Beach, circa 1898, by Frank Davey. September 18 1902 Honolulu H.T. Dear Barbara, This is a picture of a native man going bathing. The board he carries out into the water & ... ... on a big wave comes in ... and rides up to the shore again. Yours lovingly, Uncle Tom ? |
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Real photograph, undivided back. Inscribed in pencil:
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Photo by Baker Honolulu. Surfboard riders are in
evidence |
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Hall & Co. Hall & Co. Postcard. Body surfing at Manly
Beach, circa 1905. |
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Prone-board surfer, 1906. Sea Shore Hotel, Wrightsville Beach, N.C. How about a swimming lesson? 3/27/07 Skipper
Funderburg identified the prone-board
surfer
in the bottom right of this postcard in 2010. Post card image courtesy of New Hanover Public Library, Robert M. Fales Collection. Also see: Funderburg, Joseph. Surfing on the Cape Fear Coast SlapDash Publishing, Carolina Beach, 2008. |
 Illustration: Surf Riders, Forte
dei Marmi, 1906.
 Postcard: Forte dei Marmi Beach-front, c1910.  Postcard: Small Sailboats, Forte dei Marmi, c1910.  Viareggio,
c1913.
 Forte dei
Marmi,Tuscany, to Leipzig, Germany,1906.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forte_dei_Marmi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leipzig https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viareggio Forte dei Marmi - The beach and the Grand Hotel in an old postcard https://www.nauticareport.it/dettnews.php?idx=6&pg=8508 Photograph: Guests, Byron Hotel, Forte dei Marmi, c1930. http://www.hotelbyron.net/en/gallery/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettercard Bob Green also noted the prone surfboard riders in: http://www.britishpathe.com/video/italian-summer/ |
Prone
Surfboard Riding, Italy, hand-drawn postcard, July
10, 1906. Hand drawn postcard/lettercard, posted from Forte dei Marmi, Tuscany, Italy, in July 1906 to to Leipzig, Germany. Charlie Spurr purchased the item from Germany posted scans to Facebook and re-posted by Rod Rodger's on mypaipoboards.org I was alerted to the re-posting by Bob Green, who contacted Olaf de Vries from Holland and Arthur Pauli from Germany to attempt a translation after the difficult task of deciphering the hand-written text. Rod Rogers also suggested the text could be in Old German and that the addressee was a gentleman doing university studies in Germany and that the writer was probably female (need to check my notes but I think something to do with language word tense), and also written in somewhat formal, respectful form. In the foreground of the illustration one bather is shown riding prone on a small surfboard in the shore-break while another runs into the surf holding a similar board, with a convex tail. It appears that both board-riders are female, which would be consistent with Rod Rodger's suggestion that the writer-illustrator is also female and the greetings also from Frau Sattler, presumably a travelling companion, or chaperone. Another surfer holding a board and approaching the water can be seen further down the beach, along with several sunbathers under temporary shelters along the shoreline, fronting more substantial buildings in the background. The surfboard-riding appears to be confirmed by the opening sentences, with the implication that some type of board, a Girelate, is used; Olaf de Vries notes that a Girelate is like a shape of a Fish or object that has a shape or outline of a Fish, not a surfboard but an actual fish without a tail. Also, the writer found the activity more difficult than it looked, at first it didn’t work well, and there as an element of danger when startled beneath the wave. It appears probable that the writer was a reasonably confident swimmer, was possibly touring the Mediterranean by ship, and that the recent extreme weather, resulting in the sinking of two small sailing ships, may have produced some local swell. Furthermore, that the boards were most likely available for use or hire by tourists from local hotels or beach concession stands. Forte dei Marmi was a summer tourist resort from the end of the 18th century, favoured by wealthy families from the north of Italy for the sea-air and to sand-bathe, and by 1900 its attractions had became known to other European tourists. Early postcards of the beach-front have some resemblance to the illustration of 1906; one depicting two small sailing vessels, possibly similar the two little sailing ships sank in an enormous storm as witnessed by the writer. A postcard (below) of the Grand Hotel at Forte dei Marmi shows sunbathers, deckchairs and temporary sun shelters along the shoreline.  Postcard:
Grand Hotel, Forte
dei Marmi, c1910.
Importantly,
small breaking waves are evident in the
background of a photograph of three
guests on the beach at Forte dei Marmi in
front of the Byron Hotel around 1930,
one wearing a two-piece Jantzen swimsuit.
  Photograph: Guests, Byron Hotel, Forte dei Marmi, c1930. Similar surf conditions, and beach-front amenities, are shown (right) in an early postcard from Viareggio, a few miles south of Forte dei Marmi, a major coastal tourist resort in Tuscany known as the Pearl of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The format is unlike most postcards of the period and it may be a lettercard, a folded card with a prepaid imprinted stamp, first introduced in Belgium in 1882. With twice the space of a postcard, the message is written on the inside then folded and sealed around the edges, and opened by the recipient tearing away the perforated selvages. The current transcription of the German script and an English translation reads: L.W. Vor ein paar Tagen haben wir uns Ihre Girelate geholt u. sind seitdem noch einmal so lange im Wasser wie sonst. Es wäre lustig wenn Sie da wären u. mitmachen könnten. Zuerst gings nicht recht, da kam man nur immer ganz erstaunt unter der Welle heraus als man sah dass man eher zurück geschwemmt war. L.W. A few days ago we went to get your Girelate and since then are in the water for as long as usually again. It would be funny if you would be here and could take part. At first it didn’t work well, one always came out beneath the wave wondering as one saw that one was rather washed back. Am 2ten Tag den ich hier war, war ein kolossaler Sturm mit ganz unheimlichen Beleuchtungen, dabei sind zwei kleine Segelschiffe untergegangen die wir noch so lange man sie sehen konnte beobachteten wie sie manchmal fast mit dem Masten auf Wasserfläche lagen. On the 2nd day I was here, there was an enormous storm with pretty eerie [or uncanny] illuminations, thereby two little sailing ships sank which we as long as one could see them watched how they sometimes almost laid down on the water with their masts. Es ist sehr lustig hier u. viel kühler als Florenz, dort flimmerte alles vor Hitze u. Cicaden rasselten, dass es einen ganz betäubte. Jetzt geht’s wieder zumbaden. viele Grüsse v. B. auch von Frau Sattler, u. H. Brief kommt nach... It is very funny here and much cooler than in Florence, everything there glimmered because of the heat and cicadas rattled, which made one pretty numb. Now back to swimming again. Many greetings v.B. Also from Mrs. Sattler, u.H. Letter arrives afterwards… Thanks to Charlie Spurr, Rod Rodgers, Bob Green, Olaf de Vries and Arthur Pauli. |
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Wall, Nichols &
Co. Ltd., Publishers, Honolulu. Hand tinted. For the original
photograph, see |
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Surf Board Riding Wrightsville Beach, 1909. Image from the North Carolina State Archives. North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2016/04/07/surfers-wrightsville-beach-1909 |
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Made in Germany. Number: 3584. Hand tinted. Rider on a long surfboard at Waikiki Beach, circa 1905. Mailed to: Mr. Anatole Kind, St Petersburg, Russia. Message reads: Come on in - the water's fine, Sincerely, [indeciperable]. Honolulu T.H. 4/5/10 Postmarked Honolulu, 6th April 1910. Stamps: Front: 1 cent, Blue, Columbus in sight of land. Back: 2 cents, Red, Washington. |
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18. Surf Riding in Hawaiian Canoe at Waikiki Island Curio Store, Honolulu, 1910. Private Mailing Card, Authorised by Act of Congress May 19, 1898. |
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Sydney N.S.W.,circa 1910. Hall & Co. C. B. & Co. Sydney. Hand tinted. |
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circa 1910. The Paradise Postcard Co. Box 3461, Honolulu. Printed in Saxony. |
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printed on the back of the card. |
| A Catamaran Madras
Native Man on Multi-hulled Boat Raft No.76 Higginbotham & Co. Madras & Bangalore 1910? |
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Breakers, Atlantic City, N.J. Number 2659 Postmarked July 10, 1911 |
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Honolulu, circa 1912. Pub. Exclusively for The Island Curio Co., Honolulu, T. H. Hand Tinted |
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101. Surf Board Rider. Hawaiian islands, circa 1913. Steiner- The Island Curio Co., Honolulu, T. H. Hand-tinted. |
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2. Surf-Board Riders of Hawaii - The Sport of Kings. Oceanic S.S. Co's splendid 10,000 ton twin screw steamers sail every 21 days. Oceanic S.S. Co., Line to Hawaii, Samoa and Australia. 1918 Linen postcard. |
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Surf Boat Riding, Waikiki Beach, circa 1920. |
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Princess Parade and War Memorial, North Shore, Blackpool, circa 1920. |
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Valentine and Sons Publishing Ltd. PO Box 1685, Cape Town. British manufacture, Hand tinted. Timber prone boards, Muizenberg, South Africa. Rod Rogers notes that surf-board riding was so popular that Strict rules implemented by Council in 1911. Walker, Michael. Muizenberg - A Forgotten Story, St. James, South Africa, 2009, page 154 The Cape Peninsula Publicity Association brochure,1918: In the Pacific the islanders have made it an art. At the Cape it has become a cult. The wild exhilaration is infectious. It steadies the nerves, exercises the muscles and makes the enthusiast clear headed and clear eyed. Life and good spirits are qualities of the surf bather. http://muizenberg.info/history/muizenberg--a-century-of-surfing-south-africa |
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Valentine & Sons Publishing Co. (S.A.) P.O. Box 1685 Cape Town. Hand tinted. Timber prone boards, Durban, South Africa. Handwritten message: "This is where we going surfing on boards during the summer time at our Beach. Note the way the surfboards are put flat on the water & the force of the waves pushes it along until you strike the sandy shore. Love from Vi, 1926." Durban - South Africa (1900s- 1970s) | Vintage Historical Footage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dEbLXkd3C0 1920s: 1:28 Beach Hotel, 1:54 Beach Enclosure, 2:11 Surf-bathers, 2:28 End. 1962 colour: 9:58 Skim-boards, 10:03 Sail-boats, 10:18 Malibu riders,10:45 End . |
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The Surf, Ocean Beach, Durban,
Copyright E.803. circa 1930. A crowd of bathers, some with prone-boards, wait for a broken wave inside the enclosure pier while a lone surfer, of considerable skill, rides upright on the outside break. While prone board riding was well established at Muizenberg and Durban following WW1 (see above), this appears to be an very early photograph of stand-up riding. Postcard and detail forwarded by
Alex Williams, with thanks, May 2018.
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Hawaii - The Island of Dreams, circa 1930. Illustrated Luggage Label |
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Gilbert
and Ellice Islands Postage Stamp [SG 45], 1939-1965. , who noted: SG 45 was printed by De La Rue and depicts a native canoe crossing a reef. The Gilbert and Ellice Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, were a British protectorate from 1892 and a colony from 1916 to 1976. Since independence the Gilbert Islands have been part of Kiribati, and the Ellice Islands are now known as Tuvalu. This gorgeous set of engraved definitive stamps was first issued in January 1939 and the same designs (with George VI later replaced by Elizabeth II) remained in use until 1965, when they were replaced by much less attractive lithographed designs. The stamps were engraved by very talented anonymous staff engravers. The set was engraved and printed by the three main British Empire/Commonwealth stamp printers: Bradbury Wilkinson, Waterlow, and De La Rue. Engraved Stamp Beauties, viewed 17 may 2014. http://www.stampboards.com/ |
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Honolulu, circa 1940. "C.T. Art-Colortone" Made only by Curt Teich & Co., Inc., Chicago. Hand
tinted. |
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Greetings from California, circa 1940. 505: Beach between Venice and Sunset Municipal Pier Venice, California. Paddleboards, Venice, California, circa 1940. |
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Surfing Australia, circa 1939. Australian National Travel Association. Wentworth Hotel, Sydney, Australia, circa
1939.
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Sport of Kings... surfing at the beach of Waikiki. Color photography by Stewart Fern. Ray Helbig's Hawaiian Service. *Reg. 1951, Hawaii, U.S.A. Outrigger
canoe, hollow and solid timber surfboards.
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A fascinating pastime at Korolevu Beach Hotel is to take a boat and venture out over the coral reef, where one may either gaze into a wonderland of marine life or indulge in the gentle art of fishing. #1024. Ektachrome by Charles Stinson. Suva, Fiji. Surf ski (or variation). |
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Surfing Santa in Australia, 1958. NAFTA Postage stamp |
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circa 1960. H-9188 - The State of Hawaii. Ponoi-Craft by WW Distributors Ltd., Honolulu-Hawaii. The
map of the island of Hawaii |
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Waikiki Beach, circa 1960. International
playground at the Cross-roads of the
Pacific, #1060
Many
of the canoes have canvas covers. The
club was relocated from this |
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circa 1966. FW-659 - Surfing is an ever increasingly popular sport on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Color by Frank B. Whaley. The surfer entering the water carries a board fitted with a Hatchet fin by Dewey Weber, circa 1965. |
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ISF-USSA World Surfing Championships San Diego, California, 1966. Adhesive decal. |
| Vinyl Car Stickers, 1970s. Not postcards, but unable to provide alternative entry point. International Surfing Contest Makaha Beach Hawaii. In plastic bag with original price sticker, 79c. Tunnel Shooter
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Surfing Capital, circa 1970. Some of the world's finest surfing spots all within three miles of each other. Home of the 1968 World Championship. Photo by Norm and Sue Grosskreutz. |
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Souvenir Programme Australia, 1970 Captain Cook Bi-Centenary Fifth World Surfboard Riding Championships Bells Beach, Victoria. . |
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Surfing in French Polynesia, 1971. Postage Stamp |
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(Sunset Beach), circa 1972. Riding the big surf is becoming more and more popular at the beaches in Hawaii by both residents and visitors alike. Nani Li'i Natural Color Card. Postmarked September 1978. |
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Surfing Goofy Turks and Caicos Islands, 1979. Postage stamp. |
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(Fairy Bower), 1979. Bartel Photography P/L, Sydney. The
photograph originally featured |
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Tokelau:
Water Sports, 1980, SG73-76 Postage Stamp Noted by Hervé Manificat in the Surf Blurb, April 2019. Tokelau is a dependent territory of New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean.  Highly interesting illustrations with unusual prone surfboards, possibly intended to illustrate a puke, the shaped bow-covering for a canoe. See: Donald G. Kennedy : Ellice Islands Field Notes,1930. |
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(Surfing Kangaroo). Art Mail Press, Freemantle. Background Photograph: The most popular postcard at the Sydney Olympic Games 2000. |
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Surfing Taiwan, 1999: Postage Stamp Special 404 Outdoor Activities Postage Stamps (1999) 1999-09-09 China Color Printing Co. Designer: Lee Kuan-chi Along with the increase of national incomes our citizens are gradually devoted to outdoor activities recently. To comply with the government's promotion for building up both physical strength and healthy bodies through leisure activities, this Directorate General of Posts continues to issue a set of four stamps on the topic "Outdoor Activities Postage Stamps. Surfing: Taiwan is surrounded with the sea, which is a good key to developing the surfing. Riding waves between the fearful storms above the roaring sea under the blue sky gives one an enjoyment for the sense of speed and excitement. https://www.post.gov.tw/post/internet/W_stamphouse/index_en.jsp?ID=2807&file_name=D404 |
| 2008 Martin. Mary L.: The Ultimate Collector's Guide to Surfing Postcards. Schiffer Publishing Ltd 4880 Lower Valley Road, Atglen, PA 19310, 2008. Soft cover, 165 pages, Extensive black and white and colour images.. Review Unfortununately the book fails to live up to the Ultimate of its title and merely reproduces a limited selection of the available material. There are a number of printing errors and some, mostly insignificant, images appear in multiple versions (up to five times). These are not collated, but are spread through the book. The catagorisation is haphazard and there is a distinct lack of analysis of the quality or historical significance of the postcards. Critically, in the chrome era, there is no distiction between professional surfing photographs and those shot in unattractive surfriding condtions. The pricing is rudimentary - everything is worth $7, some rare items more. Most of the significant postcards appear in previous Schiffer publications; Nancy Schiffer's Surfing (1998) and Mark Blackburn's Surf's Up : Collecting in the Longboard Era (2001). Very disappointing. cardcow.com |
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 Mid-Pacific Carnival, 1915. |
 Pan American , 1949.
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 United Airlines, 1965. |
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