Q 01/05

Modern stand-up surfing is generally thought to have originated where?

A) Australia

B) Hawaii

C) California

D) Peru

Answer · why

B) Hawaii

Ancient Peruvians rode reed craft thousands of years earlier, but standing on a board was a Polynesian innovation perfected in the islands.

Q 02/05

Which ancient Peruvian culture rode waves on reed boats called caballitos de totora?

A) Moche

B) Inca

C) Nazca

D) Chimú

Answer · why

A) Moche

Archaeology puts their use around 200 CE, and local fishermen still ride them today.

Q 03/05

Which member of Cook's expedition first wrote about surfing and completed the captain's journals?

A) Joseph Banks

B) William Bligh

C) James King

D) John Ledyard

Answer · why

C) James King

Botanist Joseph Banks had described Tahitian wave-riding on the earlier Endeavour voyage in 1769.

Q 04/05

Which author tried surfing at Waikiki and wrote about it in the 1907 essay 'A Royal Sport'?

A) Mark Twain

B) Robert Louis Stevenson

C) Herman Melville

D) Jack London

Answer · why

D) Jack London

Missionaries had suppressed the sport as frivolous; Waikiki tourism brought it back.

Q 05/05

In which sport did Duke Kahanamoku win his Olympic gold medals?

A) Water polo

B) Diving

C) Swimming

D) Rowing

Answer · why

C) Swimming

He took the 100-metre freestyle in 1912 and 1920 and was a five-time Olympic medallist.