[2] The project was funded by the founder, along with an initial donation from the family of the late Viscount Ted Deerhurst and ongoing sponsorship from the surfing company Oxbow.

These early exhibitions included the loan of a historic wooden surfboard, belonging to Hawaiian royalty, high chief Abner Paki, that dated back to the time of Captain James Cook.

This exhibition also featured a visit by the Hawaiian cultural ambassador Tom Pohaku Stone, who carried out a public shaping of a traditional 'olo' surfboard which he donated to the Cook museum.

[17] Since 2015, the museum has been run on a voluntary basis by a board of trustees, Kevin Cook, Charlie Spurr, Ian Watson and Christian Dormer.

[20] A recent exhibition concerned the pioneer in agricultural education John Wrightson who is reputedly the first person in Britain to surf when under the guidance of two Hawaiian princes David Kawānanakoa and Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole he took to a board at Bridlington in 1890.