Poker and Surfing. Part I: History

Surfing History:

During Captain Cook's third expedition to the Pacific on his trusty ships the HMS Discovery and the Resolution, he made the first European visit to the tropical islands of Hawaii. During his second trip to Hawaii one of his ships were stolen by the local Polynesians. He made an unsuccessful attempt at kidnapping one of the high chiefs in order to force the return of his boat and was killed by the tribe.

Lieutenant James King was then put in charge of the Discovery and was given the responsibility of finishing James Cook's journal entries. It was during a return voyage to Hawaii that James king wrote two full pages describing the Hawaiian's honored pastime of wave surfing:

But a diversion the most common is upon the Water, where there is a very great Sea, and surf breaking on the Shore. The Men sometimes 20 or 30 go without the Swell of the Surf, & lay themselves flat upon an oval piece of plan about their Size and breadth, they keep their legs close on top of it, & their Arms are us'd to guide the plank, thye wait the time of the greatest Swell that sets on Shore, & altogether push forward with their Arms to keep on its top, it sends them in with a most astonishing Velocity, & the great art is to guide the plan so as always to keep it in a proper direction on the top of the Swell, & as it alters its direct. If the Swell drives him close to the rocks before he is overtaken by its break, he is much prais'd.

Thus the world slowly began to learn about what would soon become one of the most popular and most widely practiced sports in the world.

Poker History:

Poker, just like surfing, has its roots based in ancient societies. Nobody is quite sure where the exact origins of poker lies, but there are several theories. It is most likely the result of a mixture of various games from all over the world. Most scholars agree that the name most likely descended from the Irish game Poca or "Pocket" in English. It may have also come from the French game poque which descended from the German pochen (meaning to brag as a bluff). Yet, card games have much more ancient origins.

The earliest known playing cards are believed to have come from Central Asia. The Chinese began using paper dominoes so that they could shuffle and deal them with a greater ease than real dominoes during the 10th century. Four-suited decks also evolved in the Moslem world and were imported by Europeans before 1370.

It was during the 14th century that Mamelukes from Egypt brought cards with them from their native land into Europe. Playing cards are said to have originated from tarot cards although the emergence of tarot is still unknown to this day. What is interesting is that modern day card games actually originated from cards that were used for mystical divination.

Similar?

What is interesting about the histories of surfing and card games is that they their origins are both rooted in ancient cultures. Surfing with the Polynesians and card playing with the ancient Egyptians. Both were used as methods for connecting with the divine.

In Hawaii surfing was originally an activity saved solely for the king who was like a god on earth but eventually it became an activity for many people. Surfing wasn't even a solo sport most of the time. Oftentimes up to 20 people would be on a single plank trying to ride waves as a way to not only enjoy themselves but to prove their worthiness by showing their mastery in the sea.

Tarot cards were a way for practitioners to divine the past present and the future with the aid of spirits. It was a skill that was mastered only by a privileged few and was sought after by all classes in order to help them make decisions about their lives.

Both of surfing and card playing, especially poker, are similar in the way in which they exploded in popularity during the late 20th century. Surfing started to become popular in America during the 1950's and 60's after a slew of well known surf videos hit the big screen. Its popularity continued to soar, but truly took off in the 1990's after Bruce Brown released his second film "The Endless Summer II". "The Endless Summer", released in the 1960's, helped spark the first big surf boom and he did it again with his sequel thirty years later. After the movie "Blue Crush" came out, surfing also began to increase in popularity among women.

Poker has a similar history throughout the 20th century. By the 1960's Las Vegas had already garnered a reputation as a musty Mafia haven. It was during these years in smoky basements and heavily guarded tournaments that legends such as Doyle Brunson began earning a reputation as "Rounders". The 1990's were the years in which poker truly became one of the most widely played games in the world thanks to the advents of Internet Poker and the World Series of Poker being broadcast on ESPN. Nowadays one can hardly flip through the channels without seeing at least two different poker tournaments going on.

The similarities between poker and surfing does not end with their history. The next articles in this series will review some of the finer details of these two activities and will show just how similar they really are.