Surfing

Lore & Background

About three to five thousand years ago, cultures in ancient Peru fished in kayak-like watercraft made of reeds that the fishermen surfed back to shore. The Moche culture used the caballito de totora, with archaeological evidence showing its use around 200 CE. In Polynesian culture, surfing was an important activity. Modern surfing as we know it today is thought to have originated in Hawaii. The history of surfing dates to c. They brought many of their customs with them including playing in the surf on Paipo boards. It was in Hawaii that the art of standing and surfing upright on boards was invented. Various European explorers witnessed surfing in Polynesia.

Reader's Guide

Surfing encompasses a range of wave-riding techniques, from body surfing, considered by some the purest form, to stand-up surfing, which is the most common modern practice. The sport also includes tow-in surfing, where a motorized vehicle helps surfers match the speed of large waves, and derivative activities like kite surfing and windsurfing, which rely primarily on wind. More recently, wakesurfing on a boat’s wake has emerged. The equipment varies significantly: body surfers and handboard users experience more drag and ride in more turbulent parts of the wave, while hydrofoil riders face less drag and can ride unbroken waves in the open ocean. Stand-up surfing itself is subdivided into stand-up paddling, longboarding, and shortboarding, each with distinct board designs and riding styles. The largest wave ever surfed, as recognized by Guinness World Records, was ridden by Sebastian Steudtner at Nazaré, Portugal. Ecologically, surfing is tied to specific coastal conditions; the North Shore of Oahu is renowned for winter waves, with breaks like Waimea Bay and Pipeline attracting global surfers, alongside other famous spots such as Teahupo’o in Tahiti and Mavericks in California. Historically, the practice originated in ancient Peru, where the Moche used reed watercraft known as caballitos de totora, and in Polynesia, particularly Hawaii, where standing upright on boards was invented. European explorers, including Joseph Banks and Lieutenant James King, documented surfing in the 18th century, and writers like Herman Melville and Mark Twain later described it. In 2016, surfing was added to the Olympic program, debuting at the 2020 Tokyo Games, where Ítalo Ferreira and Carissa Moore won the first gold medals.

Did You Know?

• The Moche of Peru surfed on reed craft around 200 CE.
• West Africans (e.g., Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Senegal) independently developed surfing, with accounts from the 1640s CE.

The Long Bid for Olympic Recognition

For years, surfing's path to the Olympic program was blocked by two persistent concerns. First, the sport requires open water, which made it nearly impossible to stage when a landlocked nation hosted the Games. Second, the inherent danger of drowning in the ocean made the International Olympic Committee reluctant to assume the liability that could accompany a fatal incident. These obstacles kept the sport on the outside looking in for a long time. The breakthrough came in September 2015, when surfing landed on a shortlist alongside baseball, softball, karate, skateboarding, and sport climbing as candidates for the 2020 Summer Olympics. The following June, the IOC executive board signaled its backing for the entire shortlist, and on August 3, 2016, all five sports—counting baseball and softball as a single entry—received formal approval for the 2020 program. Surfing's inclusion marked the culmination of a long campaign to prove that an ocean-based, inherently variable sport could meet the standards of the world's premier multi-sport event.

One Board, One Event: The Olympic Format

Under the governance of the International Surfing Association, Olympic surfing is distilled into a single competitive discipline: shortboard surfing. There are no longboard heats, no bodyboard divisions, and no team events—just one format in which athletes ride shortboards and are judged on their performance. This streamlined approach means that every nation that sends a surfer to the Games fields competitors in the same narrow discipline, whether in the men's or women's shortboard category. The sport has appeared at two editions of the Summer Olympic Games so far, the 2020 and 2024 tournaments, in both cases as a discretionary addition rather than a permanent fixture of the program. The ISA oversees the competition structure, ensuring that the same rules and judging criteria apply regardless of which coastal venue hosts the event. By limiting the Olympic offering to one board type and one set of events, the organizing bodies have created a format that is logistically manageable even when the host city must arrange ocean access, while still giving surfers a clear, singular path to Olympic glory.

Medal Rivalries: The United States and Brazil

In the brief Olympic history of surfing, two nations have distinguished themselves at the top of the medal table. The United States claims the most gold medals, with two victories across the men's and women's shortboard events at the 2020 and 2024 Games. Brazil, meanwhile, has accumulated the highest total medal count, reaching three medals overall. This split—American dominance in the top spot versus Brazilian consistency across the podium—paints a picture of two surfing powerhouses approaching Olympic success from slightly different angles. The fact that both the men's and women's shortboard events are contested means each Games offers two gold-medal opportunities, making the competition for the top step intensely concentrated. With only two Olympic editions completed so far, the medal table remains compact, and the gap between the leading nations is measured in single digits. As the sport moves toward its mandatory 2028 appearance, both the United States and Brazil will be under pressure to defend their early Olympic legacies, while other participating nations look to close the gap in a discipline where a single wave can decide a career-defining moment.

From Discretionary to Mandatory: The 2028 Threshold

Surfing's Olympic status is in a state of transition. At both the 2020 and 2024 Summer Games, the sport appeared as a discretionary addition—selected by the host committee rather than being a permanent part of the Olympic program. This meant that surfing's presence was contingent on the host city's willingness and ability to stage ocean-based competition, a practical concern given the sport's dependence on coastal geography. That uncertainty is set to end. Surfing has been confirmed as one of the mandatory sports for the 2028 Summer Olympics, elevating it from an optional extra to a guaranteed fixture of the Games. This shift is significant: it removes the dependency on a particular host's discretion and signals that the International Olympic Committee now regards surfing as a core component of the Olympic sport portfolio. For athletes, the change means that the 2028 Games will carry the same structural certainty as established disciplines. For the International Surfing Association, it represents the final step in a journey that began with the 2015 shortlist and the 2016 approval, transforming surfing from a novelty inclusion into a permanent pillar of the Olympic movement.