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Logan Richards
Mrs. DeBock
English 4
October 21, 2014
Annotated Bibliography
Research Question: How have the shape of surfboards changed over the years?
Working Thesis Statement: The shapes of surfboards have changed so much over the years
from their length and width to how many fins they have as well as what materials they were
made from.
Refined Thesis Statement: The shapes of surfboards have changed so much over the years
from their length and width to how many fins they have as well as what materials they were
made from.
Crossingham, John; Kalman, Bobbie. Surfin USA. Extreme Surfing (2004): 8. Book
Collection Nonfiction: Middle School Edition. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.
This is the first article entitled Surfin USA. This article starts off talking about Tom
Blake and his invention of the first hollow surfboard. Next it tells of how shapers began to
experiment with different materials such as balsa wood, fiberglass and even foam it also
mentions the first skeg, or fin created by the very same man that invented the first hollow
board, but nine years later. Then the article goes on to explain when surfing had been changed
forever with the first shortboard had been used by Nat Young in a surfing competition in San

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Diego, California in 1966. The final thing in said article had been a timeline of modern
surfing witch starts with the first surfing club in Waikiki Beach in 1907, the first fiberglass
surfboard created by Preston Peterson in 1946, to the first professional surfer Corky Carroll.
The time line eventually ends with the invention of the three skeg surfboards. This article is
relevant to research because it brings more information about surfing past that even the other
two articles do not encounter
Mccarthy, Erin. A Brief History of the Surfboard. Popular Mechanics 189.6 (2012):
160.
This article explains the history of surfing, from the first European records to how
surfing evolved into a true sport. In 1778 Capt. James Cook was took the first record of
surfing in the Hawaiian Islands. Then the article goes on to explain how surfboards used to be
made of solid wood and they were 16 feet long. Then it goes on to explaining the birth of a
hollow frame surfboard in the 1930s which became the first mass-produced surfboard. Next is
the introduction of balsa wood which caused the weight from 100lbs to 30lbs. Then
Hawaiians started tampering with the shape of their boards cutting down the tails into
hydrodynamic designs, and adding a fin which became two which 50 years after that became
three. Finally came the introduction of fiber glass surfboards in 1940s which is what we use
now. The last thing in the article was the invention of the leash by Pat ONeill (which is the
son of wetsuit designer Jack ONeill) which was made of a suction cup and a surgical cord.
This article is relevant because it explains a timeline of surfboard history which is a main
thing needed for the research.

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Voeller, Edward. Chapter 2: History. Extreme Surfing (2000): 8. Book Collection Nonfiction:
Elementary School Edition. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.
This article starts with a simple sentence No one knows exactly when surfing began
(Voeller). Historians say that the first surfers had used boards as long as 20 feet. The article
then goes on to explain about Capt. James Cook was the first to document Hawaiians surfing
on 18ft long wooden boards. Then the article explains about a man named Duke Kahanamoku
which is the father of surfing all around the world. Kahanamoku went all around the world
giving surfing demonstrations. He was in the Olympics for swimming and he stopped in
California when he were on his way to the Olympics and had surfed there. The article then goes
on talking about Tom Blake which is the man who made the first hollow wooden surfboard.
Ten years later Blake then added the first fin to surfboards it was called a skeg then went on to
getting three fins in the 1980s. In the 1940s surfboard makers began to use foam and fiberglass
to create surfboards. This article is relevant to the research because it, liked the first, explains
the past and modernization of surfing.