Surfing at Muizenberg, Cape Town, 1919.
The earliest recorded surfing event that we can varify in South Africa took place in 1919 at Muizenberg. A Capetown woman, Heather Price befriended two United States Marines in Capetown who had disembarked a US naval vessel that was returning to America after World War One. The two men whose identities are being investigated had solid wooden "Hawaiian" style surfboards with which they introduced Heather to stand-up wave riding. Ross Lindsay whose wife Kay, is Heather Price's niece visited Heather in Zimbabwe before she passed away. It was there that she gave him the images you see here and told Ross emphatically that "she surfed standing up" and made it very clear that she had advanced beyond the general waveriding technique of the day which was to lie down on wooden belly boards.
We cannot find any evidence that this event sparked a culture of surfing in South Africa and Heather said the Marines took their boards with them when their ship sailed.
