Hawaiian Roots, Carolina Soul: The Enduring Spirit of Surfing in North Carolina

When visitors flock to Bald Head Island this summer for North Carolina Treasures Weekend, they'll be stepping into more than just a celebration of coastal fun—they’ll be immersing themselves in a centuries-deep cultural story. This year's theme, Legends to Lifestyles: NC’s Surfing History, honors how a Polynesian tradition found its way to North Carolina’s barrier islands, grew roots in places like Wrightsville Beach and the Outer Banks, and helped shape the very identity of our shoreline communities.

Though surfing is often associated with Hawaii’s crystalline waves or California’s famed breaks, North Carolina’s surfing story began more than 100 years ago, and its earliest moments were deeply intertwined with Hawaiian culture.

1910: A Letter from Wrightsville Beach to Waikīkī, Hawaii

The first documented evidence of surfing in North Carolina doesn’t come from a photograph or a local newspaper, but rather from a letter published in a Hawaiian newspaper in 1910. In it, Burke Haywood Bridgers, a young man from Wrightsville Beach, wrote a letter to Alexander Hume Ford, a writer and surf enthusiast in Hawaii.

Brook Haywood Bridgers. Source: Find a Grave (www.findagrave.com)

The Pacific Commercial Advertiser (Honolulu, Hawaii) featuring a letter by Burke Bridgers of Wrightsville Beach, April 7, 1910.

Published on April 7, 1910 in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, the letter asked how to build a surfboard and described recent attempts by Bridgers and his friends to ride waves at Wrightsville Beach . Bridgers and a group of friends had tried their hand at surfing the summer before but were stymied by inadequate gear. He turned to the experts—native Hawaiians—for advice, seeking help from the very culture that had perfected wave-riding over centuries .

“Carolina man writes for surfboard instructions,” the headline read—a polite and inquisitive olive branch from one coast to another. The exchange represents the first written record of surfing in North Carolina and a foundational moment for East Coast surf culture. Bridgers’s curiosity and respect for Hawaiian surfing traditions echo the spirit of shared maritime culture that this weekend celebrates. 

1928: Hawaiian Demonstrations on the Outer Banks

Willie Kaiama and his Hawaiian troupe, who gave surfing demonstrations at the 1928 Virginia Dare Day festivities. Reported in The Charlotte Observer, July 13, 1931.

Another vital moment came in August 1928, when Willie Kaiama, a Hawaiian surfer and entertainer, arrived at Roanoke Island for the Virginia Dare Day celebrations. Kaiama and his troupe gave surfing demonstrations to the local crowd, helping to spark interest in the sport in the Outer Banks. It was a direct transmission of Hawaiian surf culture to North Carolina’s sands—a thrilling spectacle, but also a seminal moment in local maritime history.

During this same period, North Carolinians like John Metts recalled crafting homemade belly boards from wood to “ride waves” off Masonboro Sound, even though they didn’t yet call it “surfing.”

Just a decade later, in 1938, Wrightsville Beach would pay $10 for a Hawaiian surfboard to be used by its lifeguards—not just for rescues, but increasingly as recreation. The seeds planted by Kaiama and inspired by Hawaiian traditions were starting to grow.

Surfing on the Cape Fear Coast, 1930s, featuring hollow wooden surfboards with stabilizing fins introduced in this era (commercially available 1932–1950). Notable local riders included John R. Handby, Katherine Meier Baird, Claire Fergus Funderburg, and Laurence Gray Sprunt.

1930s–1950s: Local Innovation and Wartime Disruption

David Stick (left) and Tom Fearing (right), early surfing pioneers in Dare County, 1941. Photo courtesy of Greensboro Daily News.

In the 1930s, Lt. Thomas Fearing of Manteo built a Hawaiian-style paddleboard capable of carrying multiple people. A local innovator, Fearing surfed and fished off the northern Outer Banks long before there were surf shops or competitions. His story ended tragically in 1944, when he died flying a Grumman Hellcat in the South Pacific during World War II, but his early contributions represent the dedication of local pioneers who saw surfing not just as a novelty, but as a way of life.

By the 1950s, surfing was spreading. Marines stationed at Camp Lejeune surfed Onslow Beach, and lifeguards in Carolina Beach used modified plywood paddleboards to ride waves. According to Lank Lancaster, one of the area’s first documented surfers, “we were riding waves before we even knew what to call it." A new generation was embracing the sport, now buoyed by the cultural tidal wave of surf music and beach films sweeping across the U.S.

Beachgoers at Lumina, Wrightsville Beach, ca.1950–1953. File photo, Wilmington Star-News

1960s: Surf Shops, Competitions, and Coastal Community

Teenagers carry a large surfboard along the beach, 1960s. Photo courtesy of the North Carolina Maritime Museum at Beaufort.

East Coast Surfboards, opened in 1964 in Carolina Beach. Photo courtesy of the North Carolina Maritime Museum at Beaufort.

Teens gathered with their surfboards on the beach, 1966. Photo courtesy of the North Carolina Maritime Museum at Beaufort.

Surfing caught fire in the 1960s. Films like Gidget (1959), Let There Be Surf (1963), and The Endless Summer (1966) helped turn a fringe activity into a youth-driven craze. In 1963, the Wilmington Star-News noted there were only two surfers in Wrightsville Beach—Gary Peterson and an unnamed police officer. That same year, Robert Parker rode his first wave near Johnny Mercer's Pier on Peterson’s board. The 1960s saw surfing firmly plant itself in North Carolina’s coastal economy and culture:

• In 1961, teens Buddy Hooper and Johnny Conner began making their own surfboards in Buxton.

• Wrightsville Beach established surfing zones in 1964, recognizing the growing popularity of the sport.

• That same year, East Coast Surfboards opened in Carolina Beach, one of the first shops to shape boards locally rather than importing them from California.

• In 1967, Surfer Magazine featured Robert Parker of Wrightsville Beach, giving the town its first national surfing recognition.

  
  

  1970s-Present: Surfing Legends and Historical Recognition

  These years also marked the beginning of North Carolina’s long tradition of competitive surfing, culminating in 1971, when Cape Hatteras hosted the first Eastern Surfing Association Championships—a rite of passage for generations of East Coast surfers.  

From the 1970s on, local surfers began making names for themselves nationally. Will Allison, Bill Curry, and others won major titles, including the United States Surfing Championships in Texas. In 1980, Curry became the first North Carolinian to win the Men’s Division at the Easterns.

Meanwhile, the UNCW Surf Club was officially chartered in 1982, after years of informal organizing. Its founding helped establish Wilmington as an academic and competitive center for East Coast surfing.

Over time, our coast developed its own unique surf identity—shaped by hurricanes, sandbars, military surfers, and community-led initiatives. In 1997, Wrightsville Beach hosted the first East Coast Wahine Championships, an event run by and for women surfers. In 2015, Wrightsville was formally recognized as a “Pioneer of East Coast Surfing” with an official NC Highway Historical Marker.

And just as North Carolina once looked to Hawaii for guidance, today’s generation of surfers honors the past while pushing the sport forward—through sustainability efforts, community surf schools, and celebrations like NC Treasures Weekend.

Hawaiian Roots, Carolina Soul

The cultural exchange between Hawaii and North Carolina was not just historical—it was transformative. From Bridgers’s letter in 1910 to Kaiama’s 1928 exhibition and the adoption of Hawaiian-style boards by lifeguards and innovators like Fearing, surfing in North Carolina evolved through admiration, imitation, and local adaptation of Hawaiian traditions.

East Coast Wahine Championships, Wrightsville Beach, 1997. Named after the Polynesian word for woman surfer. Photo by Ed Potter, courtesy Anne Weber.

Celebrate the Past, Ride into the Future

This June 19–21, join us on Bald Head Island as we pay tribute to the early cultural bridges between Hawaii and North Carolina, and to the people who turned a distant island tradition into a defining piece of coastal Carolina identity.

Event highlights include:

• Free Outdoor Movie Night (June 19, 8PM, Old Baldy Lighthouse): A double feature of surf movies under the stars providing fun for the whole family.

• Historic Happy Hour (June 20, 5:30PM, Assoc. Building): A lively evening with Legend of the Sandbar author and photographer Christopher Bickford.

• Free Surf History Exhibit (June 21, 11AM–3PM, Assoc. Building): Rare photos and artifacts at the Bald Head Association.

• Hawaiian Luau (June 21, 6PM, Shoals Club): Traditional Polynesian entertainment by Aloha Ka’naka O Hula Halau, and an island buffet honoring the cultural origins of our surf story.

From the first paddleboards at Wrightsville Beach to surf breaks formed by hurricanes and historic championships in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina’s surfing story is one of passion, innovation, and cultural connection. We ride the waves today thanks to the Hawaiian surfers who first showed us how, and to the North Carolinians who made those lessons their own.

We invite you to celebrate that journey with us this summer. 

Sources:

• Hairr, John, and Wunderly, Ben. North Carolina’s Surfing History, North Carolina Maritime Museum

• Kelly, Caroline. The History of North Carolina Surfing, Our State Magazine, 2019

• Bickford, Christopher. Legend of the Sandbar

• Cape Fear Surfing Archive, UNC Wilmington

• “Burke Bridgers’ Letter to Hawaii,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin Archives, 1910