Contemporary surfing is undeniably grounded in Indigenous knowledge sets that predate colonization. Numerous scholars have contended that riding waves on boards in specific manners, before it became known as surfing, was an Indigenous Hawaiian and Polynesian activity. In this chapter, I examine the discursive intersections between Indigenous wave riding and its Western manifestations as surfing. I focus on the symbolic and material shifts involved as he‘e nalu or wave sliding was deliberately transformed into surfing. To examine its symbolic representation is to examine its material performance, and, in this shift, many other contextual realities come into focus. I first discuss Indigenous surfing as an aspect of Austronesian seafaring cultural knowledge. Second, I illustrate how Western surfing developed from Hawaiian he‘e nalu. Finally, I examine the ways in in which this development both helped advocate for Indigenous representation and fuel colonial ends.