Riding waves on boards. Ancient Hawaiian tradition called it "The Sport of Kings". And it was in Hawaii that surfing was first seen to be practiced with unsurpassed skill. Captain James Cook was stunned by the way the surfers managed to stay erect on their surfboards and ride the waves at such velocities. The entry of Christianity led to the decline of the sport because the missionaries of those times frowned upon the scant way the surfers were dressed. But the sport did not die out completely and the art of riding the wave was acknowledged as a blend of athleticism and the understanding of the beauty and power of nature by the Reverend Henry T. Cheever, who documented it in 1851. Mark Twain tried it and failed in 1866.

Riding waves on boards. Ancient Hawaiian tradition called it "The Sport of Kings". And it was in Hawaii that surfing was first seen to be practiced with unsurpassed skill. Captain James Cook was stunned by the way the surfers managed to stay erect on their surfboards and ride the waves at such velocities. The entry of Christianity led to the decline of the sport because the missionaries of those times frowned upon the scant way the surfers were dressed. But the sport did not die out completely and the art of riding the wave was acknowledged as a blend of athleticism and the understanding of the beauty and power of nature by the Reverend Henry T. Cheever, who documented it in 1851. Mark Twain tried it and failed in 1866.

Alexander Hume Ford introduced the sport to Jack London when London and his wife Chairman visited Hawaii in 1907. Together with George Freeth, an intrepid surfer, they brought the art of riding the waves to it own. Subsequently Duke Kahanamoku, a Polynesian, brought it to California in 1912. From then on the popularity of the sport grew exponentially.

It was in 1907 that Jack London and his wife Chairman went to Hawaii and was introduced to the joy of surfing by Alexander Hume Ford and together with George Freeth, breathed life into the Sport of the Kings. This was further followed up by duke Kahanamoku, a Polynesian known for his prowess on the waves. It was Duke who introduced it to the Californians in 1912 and since then the sport has never looked back.

Meanwhile, as stated previously, the T-Shirt had come into its own rights and everyone, man, woman and child, people from all walks of life and all ages - from the youngest to the oldest - were wearing t-shirts. It had graduated to a National Phenomenon. Printing on T-Shirts had boosted the popularity of the T-Shirt to such heights and it had become a medium of expression of just about anything and everything.

But it was only in 1961, about half a century since its induction as an undergarment that the t-shirt became a "Surfing T-Shirt". It was then that Gordon & Smith, the manufacturers of surf boards hit on the notion of printing the symbol of their company, free of cost, on to white shirts, as an advertisement gimmick. It isn't surprising that everyone had to have this fad on their t-shirts. It did not matter if they surfed or not.

When Dave Sweet, the inventor of the foam surfboard followed it up with a print of his arrowhead insignia on the t-shirt the surfing t-shirt took off on its flight to fame and left an indelible on the world of fashion. In tandem with the growing popularity of the sport of surfing, also grew the fame of the surfing t-shirt. The popularity gained to such heights at an international level that some 300 million surfing t-shirts were made in 2002.

Then came along Mackenzie Phillips in her Dewey Weber Surfboard Surfing T-Shirt in the 1973 movie, "American Graffiti" followed by Robert Duval, as Colonel Kilgore in "Apocalypse Now". Needless to say, Hollywood had done it again. The rating for both the sport and the shirt shot up. Incidentally, surfing t-shirts were then made by surfboard manufacturers and purists still consider them as the true ones.

So it is time to get yourself a surfing t-shirt and wear it. Whether you know how to surf or not, you might be looked at with awe if you come back wearing it from a vacation to one of the coasts where surfing is practiced. Get yourself photographed in one, and you can boast about your prowess to your grandchildren, they won't know.