<P> Three major subdivisions within standing - up surfing are stand - up paddling, long boarding and short boarding with several major differences including the board design and length, the riding style, and the kind of wave that is ridden . </P> <P> In tow - in surfing (most often, but not exclusively, associated with big wave surfing), a motorized water vehicle, such as a personal watercraft, tows the surfer into the wave front, helping the surfer match a large wave's speed, which is generally a higher speed than a self - propelled surfer can produce . Surfing - related sports such as paddle boarding and sea kayaking do not require waves, and other derivative sports such as kite surfing and windsurfing rely primarily on wind for power, yet all of these platforms may also be used to ride waves . Recently with the use of V - drive boats, Wakesurfing, in which one surfs on the wake of a boat, has emerged . The Guinness Book of World Records recognized a 78 feet (23.8 m) wave ride by Garrett McNamara at Nazaré, Portugal as the largest wave ever surfed . </P> <P> For hundreds of years, surfing was a central part of ancient Polynesian culture . Surfing may have first been observed by British explorers at Tahiti in 1767 . Samuel Wallis and the crew members of the Dolphin who were the first Britons to visit the island in June of that year . Another candidate is the botanist Joseph Banks being part of the first voyage of James Cook on the HMS Endeavour, who arrived on Tahiti on 10 April 1769 . Lieutenant James King was the first person to write about the art of surfing on Hawaii when he was completing the journals of Captain James Cook upon Cook's death in 1779 . </P> <P> When Mark Twain visited Hawaii in 1866 he wrote, </P>

How long has surfing existed as a water sport
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