Australia is a big country, but nearly all Australians live near the sea. On hot summer days, you can see thousands of people at the beach. Many beaches have waves are very high. These large waves are known as surf and the people who ride them are called surfers. Surfing is a skill, and it needs learning. Don’t to be able to surf properly the time you try. However, by practising a few times you will learn to do it.
Surfing is not a new sport. Perhaps its origins need explaining. It started hundreds of years ago in Hawaii. Men swam to sea to catch fish and found they could come back to land very quickly by riding the waves. These first surfers did not a board. They were “body surfers”. Many people do this type of surfing today.
After a while, people started to use boards and rode the waves by lying, kneeling, or standing them. These first surfboards were made of wood and the water made them rot after a while. Today, surfboards are made of plastic or fibreglass .