A picture from the early years of the 20th century has sparked a debate online as it seems to include a time traveler. The 1917 picture was recently shared by YouTuber Jamie D. Grant, and his video has since gone viral.
In the buildup to developing a story for the video, Grant did some research on the old picture and the mysterious surfer. He first stumbled upon the picture while reading The Great Cape Scott Story, a historical book by Lester Ray Peterson, first published in 1974.
From Peterson’s book, Grant discovered the said picture dates back to 1917, but one of the people captured looked like he was from another age. The picture looked like a group of people lounging close to the beach.
For some context, the footnote of the picture indicates it was taken in Canada, on the San Josef Bay of Vancouver Island. While almost every other person in the picture frame wore clothing that qualified as moderate and appropriate for their time, an obviously distinct man’s choice of beachwear made him look like he time-traveled from the future.
While the women were mostly wearing long skirts complete with bonnets, the men had on trousers paired with either a waistcoat or jacket. However, the ‘time-traveling surfer’ in the picture was sporting a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, more like someone going for a walk on San Francisco Bay in the 21st century.
It took Grant’s attention to detail to single out the ‘time-traveling surfer,’ as we are certain that a million other individuals have read that book and glossed over the oddity. Interestingly, it appears that not only the 21st-century viewers of the picture noticed the surfer to be out of place.
When you look at the picture closely, it seems like a couple of individuals in the frame were astounded by the surfer’s outfit, about the same way onlookers would react if someone fully clad in a 17th-century knight’s armor strutted through Times Square.
For example, the man directly to the right of the surfer was staring at him in astonishment. In fact, the surfer himself looks bewildered and amused. Another clue of his oddity is the long hair lazily dropping over his shoulder, and he appears to be the only man in the picture without a hat.
Jamie Grant has not arrived at any conclusion about this strange man. However, he has thrown open a discussion about the possibility of time travel. The major question raised in his YouTube video about the ‘time-traveling surfer’ is: “Could this strangely dressed man have traveled back in time to 1917?”
There are diverse opinions about time travel, but Grant strongly believes that the uniquely dressed man was from a different time when compared to the modestly clad men and women in the same picture frame.
Do you agree that this man could have traveled from the future, or is this simply a man who lived before his time?
