nudity and surfing

Surfing developed across Polynesia as a nude activity, and remained so until top-coated 19th-century missionaries shamed the natives into covering themselves, even while at play in the ocean. The dress code was often ignored; a British engraving from 1874 shows a set of waves being ridden by nearly a dozen Hawaiian surfers, male and female, all of them naked. No other sport lends itself to nudity...