Surfing Guinness Book of World Records recognized a wave ride by Garrett McNamara at Nazaré, Portugal as the largest wave ever surfed. 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 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 , who arrived on Tahiti on 10 April 1769. Lieutenant James King was the first
Stafford (1769 EIC ship) Stafford (1769 EIC ship) Stafford was an East Indiaman launched in 1769 that made two complete voyages to India and China for the British East India Company. During her third voyage she was wrecked in 1779 at Calcutta. Captain Thomas Lyell sailed from The Downs on 6 February 1770, bound for Madras and China. On 11 March "Stafford" was at Brest, France. She reached Johanna on 29 July, and arrived at Madras on 31 August. She continued her voyage, reaching Malacca on 8 November and Trengganu on 17 May 1791 before arriving at Whampoa on 12 July. Homeward bound, she