Looking back at a century of surfing in Jersey

An exhibition is aiming to help islanders learn more about its surfing history which dates back more than 100 years in Jersey.

Jersey Heritage's outreach curator Lucy Layton said she believed the exhibition at Jersey Maritime Museum was the first time the story of surfing in Jersey had been properly told.

"We've got some really amazing images from the very, very early days of surfing in Jersey, right back in 1923," she said.

Layton said surfing was first brought to Jersey by Nigel Oxenden in the 1920s.

She said Oxenden learned to surf in South Africa, Australia, and Hawaii during his travels after the First World War and when he returned to Jersey he made his own wooden boards for his friends and family.

One of Oxenden's boards features in the exhibition and was donated by one of his descendants, Jeremy Oxenden.

Layton added: "He let us borrow family photographs and scan those for the exhibition so we've got some really amazing images from the very, very early days of surfing in Jersey, right back in 1923.

Layton said she found it "really fascinating" to look at albums of early photographs of surfing.

"Back in the 1920s it was primarily bellyboarding," she said.

"At the time, they didn't think the waves in Jersey were suitable for stand-up boarding."

She added she found it interesting to see many women were involved.

"It was very much a family activity. Nigel Oxenden's wife, Pat, and friends and family, they're as many women surfing as there are men," she said.

Layton said everything came to a standstill while the islands were occupied by the Germans in 1940 because beach access was prevented.

"It was really only in the sort of mid to late 1950s that the surfing we know today, stand-up surfing, was introduced," she said.

"In Jersey it all took off in 1958, some South African workers came to Jersey, they had been working in London, and they'd seen one of the tourism films that were shown at cinemas at the time.

"They'd seen some shots of the waves ... so they decided to relocate and they moved from London to Jersey .... and took to the waves."

Layton said the exhibition was small but a permanent part of the Jersey Maritime Museum.

"We worked with the Jersey Surf Club and the Channel Islands Surfing Federation, they were very supportive in providing information and fact-checking ... and helping source images as well."

"We really felt that surfing was such an important part of our way of life in Jersey."

Layton said she considered surfing to be an accessible sport for everyone.

"You see couples surfing together, families surfing together, lots of young women," she said.

"Then of course there's a really important work that Healing Waves are doing to give people access to the waves that might not be able to do it without support."

"There's a real recognition of the benefit of ocean therapy being in the water for people who have, you know, mental health issues or physical disabilities," Layton added.

She added: "I think surfing has become recognised is a really important part of our island identity but it also is just so much more accessible and so many more people can participate in the sport and I think it's fantastic that it's become so inclusive."

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