Freshwater... birthplace of surfing

This is, of course, absurd!

Freshwater is a beach and a suburb on Sydney's Northern Beaches.  Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely beach and the Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club is home to the surfboard of Duke Kahanamoku's surfboard used in some of the earliest surfing displays in Sydney (1914).

I guess the myth was started by someone on some Chamber of Commerce or some such many years ago and has been perpetuated by other members of some CoC since then.  It's the sort of thing you read and think "Really? I better check that."

Freshwater actually has an interesting post-white-settlement history although far less celebrious than the "birthplace of surfing".  It was originally known as "Freshwater" but was officially named "Harbord" for some decades as a way of distancing it from the original working men's tent city that grew there.  It was only renamed "Freshwater" in 2008.

Despite what it says on Wikipedia, the beach has, to my father's knowledge, always been called or at least known as "Freshwater".

More here if you're interested https://freshie.org.au/2021/02/09/how-campers-at-freshwater-led-to-the-suburbs-name-being-changed-to-harbord/