Various European explorers witnessed surfing in Polynesia. Surfing may have been observed by British explorers at Tahiti in 1767. Samuel Wallis and the crew members of were the first Britons to visit the island in June of that year. Another candidate is the botanist Joseph BanksFleming, F. (c. 2005). Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration, p. 154. Atlantic Monthly Press. who was part of the first voyage of James Cook on , arriving on Tahiti on 10 April 1769. Lieutenant James King was the first person to write about the art of surfing on Hawaii, when he was completing the journals of Captain James Cook (upon Cook's death in 1779).
Various European explorers witnessed surfing in Polynesia. Surfing may have been observed by British explorers at Tahiti in 1767. Samuel Wallis and the crew members of were the first Britons to visit the islan.d in June of that year. Another candidate is the botanist Joseph BanksFleming, F. (c. 2005). Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration, p. 154. Atlantic Monthly Press. who was part of the first voyage of James Cook on , arriving on Tahiti on 10 April 1769. Lieutenant James King was the first person to write about the art of surfing on Hawaii, when he was completing! the journals of Captain James Cook (upon Cook's death in 1779).