The strange origins of surfing
When one thinks of surfing, Hitler's Nazi Germany is usually not the first thing that comes to mind. The sport is, after all, one of peace: blue water, flying pelicans, and one's friends. What people usually first imagine is Hawaii, more well known for its friendliness to strangers than for genocide. Everyone knows that the sport was born in Hawaii, and then modified by Californians during the 1960's. But are these its true origins?
Perhaps we should make a distinction between old Hawaiian surfing and modern surfing. The first consisted of wooden boards mainly used to catch small waves in places like Waikiki. It was a relatively simple exercise, and the weight of the board meant that one just went in a straight line. Tthe style of modern surfing, however, could not be more different; it expects agility throughout the entire wave, parts of which were previously considered unridable. In its modern version, the surfboard becomes an appendage of the human body, literally.
Yet the only reason the two are so different is because of what is now called materials science. As the word suggests, it tries to create new materials which have better physical properties than the materials which are currently used. It has revolutionized many industries. The wings of modern airplanes, which share similar physical demands as surfboards, would not exist without it. It is here where the German influence in surfing emerges.
The modern surfboard is made with materials that are not naturally found in nature, lending it the unique properties of being strong while at the same time very light: polyurethane foam and fiberglass. As in the airline industry, the use of new materials revolutionized the sport in ways unimaginable. Although part of this revolution occurred because of changes in board design, the latter could not have occurred with the use of older materials, as balsawood, which did not have as high strength-per-weight ratios. This 'second revolution' in design was in a sense innate with the use of new materials which preceded it--in particular polyurethane.
The story of polyurethane is both long and complex, as is its molecular structure. Invented in Germany by Otto Bayer at IG Farben immediately preceding WWII, its use was oddly not appreciated by Hitler's generals--somewhat surprising given the strong ties between the company and the Nazi regime. Without the company’s financial support, it is unlikely Hitler would have risen to power as he did. In 1937 Bayer discovered that when polyisocyanates were 'mixed' with polyhydroxyl compounds, one obtained polyurethane. When Bayer answered the questions of a military official about his work, the official criticized the work. “Nothing new at all!” The reception by the scientific community in Germany was also relatively poor. Although recently appointed head of a research division (organic chemistry) at a plant in Leverkusen, Bayer was threatened with dismisal for his time spent in the discovery.
Curiously, when the U.S. confiscated German patents, U.S. companies as Goodyear also did not see polyurethane's importance. Gordon Kline, the principal U.S. chemist in charge of collecting all chemical patents before they were destroyed by the retreating German army, had even given polyurethane some note in his reports of 1945-46. Although these had also been published in British chemical journals, their importance was likewise ignored across the Atlantic. Shortly after the war, Bayer created a way of turning the plastic into a foam.
What is surprising about the common dismissal of this discovery is that the production of polyurethane products eventually emerged into a huge industry, producing a wide variety of goods across countless industries. If you count the number of car seats in the world, you can count a fraction of the number of polyurethane products sold in the world today. The surfboard industry alone is a $100 million dollar industry producing 425,000 surfboards a year (1999). It is said that the richest individuals in the field are not those known for their surfboard designs, but rather those who produce the foam blankets on which the designs are carved.
Yet the story of surfing also reveals the links between science and economic prosperity--perhaps too much so. The nineteenth century is known as Britain's century. By creating methods of production using self-powered machines during the Industrial Revolution, England eventually obtained a lead over her European rivals which lasted almost a century. By 1900, this little island literally ruled the world, controlling one fifth of the world's landmass and one third of its people. James Watt's scientific analysis of the steam engine helped start it all.
Similarly, Germany's rise to world leadership towards the end of the nineteenth century was due in part to the fact that she took advantage of a science which England had neglected: organic chemistry. The rise of chemistry in Germany goes hand in hand with the number of dyes the nation was inventing for the world market. The total volume of clothing revealed her new wealth. Soon thereafter, all of the companies which had been involved in the dye industry--Hoescht, Bayer, BASF, and AFGA--formed a cartel called IG Farben. The twentieth century could have been Germany’s; fortunately it was not.