How Imprtant Is It To Be A Good Swimmer When Learning To Surf?

Back in the old days 1970’s even beginner surfers had to be excellent swimmers because the surfboard leash had not been invented.  Duke Kahanamoku, the Grandfather of modern surfing won 5 Olympic gold medals in swimming because he swam a lot chasing his board down after loosing it surfing in Waikiki. Now days most beginner surfers and even expert surfers rely on a leash attached to their surfboards so that after a fall or wipeout they don’t have to swim to the beach to collect their surfboard which usually got washed to shore by a wave.  This has created generations of surfers who have simply spent most of there time in the water on a surfboard rather then swimming to shore like Duke Kahanamoku did for so many years surfing in Waikiki.  The result is that over all most surfers don’t swim as good as they used to and probably none as good as the Duke.  This is a problem too for our sport of surfing which also has a deeper tradition of being a waterman/women which implies that one is good in all aspects of ocean sports most especially swimming.  Although I’ve not answered the question “How important is […]