According to the Encyclopedia of surfing, the surf boat descended from the rugged wooden dory boats used by fisherman and whalers.
And was later adapted for rescue purposes in the late 1800s.
The average surfboat is 22 feet long and four to five feet wide, and the sport started among Sydney-area SLSA clubs during the early 1900s.
The basics of surf boat racing remain nearly identical today to what they were a century ago. Teams launch their boats from the beach, paddle through the surf and around a buoy anchored about 300 yards past the surf line, and race back to shore, trying to pick up waves on the way.
Australia and New Zealand, in that order, have always been the two dominate surf boat nations.
