Glossary

This glossary of surfing includes some of the extensive vocabulary used to describe various aspects of the sport of surfing as described in literature on the subject. In some cases terms have spread to a wider cultural use. These terms were originally coined by people who were directly involved in the sport of surfing.

About the water

• A-frame: A peak-shaped wave, with left and right shoulders, and the highest point of the crest in the middle of the peak
• Artificial Reef: An underwater structure man-made for one or more reasons: 1) aiding ailing ocean ecologies by giving sea fauna a home/feeding ground or 2) creating quality surf where there's otherwise none or 3) helping with beach erosion by lessening impact of swells pushing sand away from shore
• Backing off: The action of a wave as it passes from shallow water into deeper water closer to shore. The wave becomes less steep, or the broken whitewater fades away. Tends to occur shoreward of offshore reefs or sandbars. The wave may reform and break again in even shallower water closer to shore.
• Backwash: A reflected wave, caused by water pushed up onto a steep grade of beach, which then rushes back out to sea against the general wave movement. This can create spectacular explosive wave effects, as the backwash and incoming waves collide.
• Bathymetry: The measurement of depths of water in oceans, seas, and lakes. The topography of the ocean floor or underwater bottom.
• Beach break: Waves breaking over a sand bottom.
• Blown out: A surf condition caused by strong onshore winds, which create ugly chop on the wave faces and through the lineup. Generally considered unridable.
• Bomb: Bomb-A very large set wave, well beyond the session's normal wave size.
• Bombora: Australian term for big waves breaking further out and isolated by deep water. Also called bombie or cloudbreak.
• Bowl: A section of a given wave in which the line of the wave bends, or appears to bend, toward the shore. The bend creates added intensity, often causing the wave to build into a peak, or grow hollower or steeper throughout its general curve. Nicknamed "bowl" because the wave suddenly becomes concave from a variety of angles, not just from the base or lip.
• Break Line: The line where waves begin to break. All things being equal, waves will begin to break when they reach water depth equaling approximately 1.3 times the wave face height.
• Breaking: Breaking-When a wave passes from deep water to shallow water it steepens as the wave energy is forced upward. We call this "shoaling". With increasing steepness, the wave face finally becomes too unstable and the crest or top part of the wave tumbles or "breaks" down the face of the wave.
• Broken up: A surf condition in which waves approach the beach and break apart into different peaks/lines with a clear separation between the ridable shoulders. This is usually caused by two swells from different directions and or periods overlapping the same break. Also called "scattered peaks".
• Bumpy: Bumps on the ocean surface created by wind, usually between 6-10 knots in velocity. Definitely not clean but not choppy or blown out either.
• Buoy: A floating object moored to the bottom of the ocean to mark a channel, anchor, shoal, rock, etc. Buoys with sensitive meteorological and oceanographic instruments are also moored in deep-water locations to measure wind, weather, and wave information. This information is used to help forecasters monitor the progress of swells as they pass the buoy location.
• Central Pressure Index (CPI): The minimum atmospheric pressure in the eye or center of a hurricane, which is used to estimate the wind velocities in the storm. The lower the CPI, the faster the wind speeds.
• Choppy/Chop: Bumpy ocean and wave conditions that are rough due to strong winds and/or currents. Wind velocities are usually over 12 knots to create choppy conditions.
• Clean: Good surfing conditions with decent wave energy, a smooth or glassy ocean surface and very little onshore wind. Offshore winds blowing into the faces of the waves can create clean, groomed conditions.
• Clean-up set: A much larger wave or a set of waves, which breaks further outside than normal. A clean-up set usually "cleans" the line-up of surfers caught further inside.
• Closeout: When all parts of the wave-down the line or crest of the wave-break at the same time. (Opposite of closeouts, the ideal waves for surfing are ones that break from one side to the other so the surfer can angle across the face of the wave.)
• Combo swell: A combination of swells from varying directions, which will create peaky and crossed up conditions as the waves merge together. Combo swells are great for most beachbreaks but break up the perfect lines at most reef and point breaks.
• Consistent: A surf condition when waves are coming in very frequently and in predictable quantities.
• Continental Shelf: The underwater shelf extending from a continent out to sea to a depth of about 165 fathoms or 1,000 feet. Long period swells of about 20 seconds will begin to feel the ocean floor at about 1,000 feet.
• Contour: A line on a map or chart representing points of equal value compared to datum or starting point. An isobath is a line connecting points of equal depth below a datum to measure bathymetry, and an isobar when used to represent atmospheric pressure.
• Corduroy: Describes the vision of a series of swells marching in from the horizon.
• Corners: The end sections or shoulders of waves. A term usually used on the more closed out days when surfers try to find shoulders or corners to ride.
• Crest: The top part or lip of the wave or swell.
• Curl: Older term used to describe the concave face of the wave just before breaking; the area just before the barrel. ("Shoot the curl" was a popular longboard expression from the '60s.)
• Cyclone: An atmospheric closed circulation rotating counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Can be a high-pressure or low-pressure cyclone.
• Deep Water: Water deep enough so that surface waves are not affected by the bathymetry on the ocean bottom. Generally, water more than 1,000 feet, or at least deeper than one-half the wavelength of the existing waves is considered deep water.
• Deepwater breaks: Surf spots where the swells have a steep transition from deep water to shallow water so the waves are generally bigger and more powerful than elsewhere. Also includes surf spots where the deep water bathymetry of the ocean floor can greatly focus longer period swells (over 16 seconds) to create larger and more powerful waves. Spots with underwater canyons like Blacks are a prime example.
• Degrees: A) The unit of measurement for direction to analyze where wind and swell direction is coming from. North is 0 or 360 degrees (12:00 o'clock); and then moving clockwise, east at 90 degrees (3:00 o'clock), south at 180 degrees (6:00 o'clock) and west at 270 degrees (9:00 o'clock). Northeast may be anywhere between 0 and 90 degrees, southeast between 90 and 180 degrees, southwest between 180 and 270 degrees and northwest between 270 and 360 degrees. B) Degrees also are used to measure Latitude and Longitude, with minutes and seconds used a fractionals between the degrees. One degree of Latitude will always equal 60 miles at that same location. One degree of Longitude will always vary due to the curvature of the Earth toward the poles.
• Diffraction: The process of wave energy filtering into the lee of obstacles such as breakwaters by the transfer of the wave energy along wave crests. Diffracted waves are smaller than the original waves.
• Direction: Where the wind or swell is coming from. In the marine community, directions are always identified as the direction the swell or the wind is "coming from," not the direction it's headed. Surfline uses directions in true degrees as:
• Double up: When two waves combine, often creating an extra powerful wave with twice the amount of energy. Double up waves often create the best waves to get barreled or tubed on because the interaction of the waves forces the waves to break in shallower water than normal, which creates hollower, steeper waves.
• Down-the-line: A reference to the direction further along the crest of a wave from the location from where a surfer drops into the wave. The direction toward which the surfer is riding. Waves can also be described as "down-the-line" when the wall is long and fast.
• Face: The forward-facing surface of a breaking wave
• Flat: No waves
• Gas chamber: The effect when a big wave rolls over, enclosing a temporary horizontal tunnel of air with the surfer inside
• Glassy: When the waves (and general surface of the water) are extremely smooth and glossy, not disturbed by wind
• Gnarly: Large, difficult, and dangerous (usually applied to waves)
• Line-up: The area where most of the waves are starting to break and where most surfers are positioned in order to catch a wave
• Off the hook: A positive phrase meaning the waves are a very good size and shape
• Outside: The part of the water's surface that is farther from the shore than the area where most waves are breaking
• Point break: Area where an underwater rocky point creates waves that are suitable for surfing
• Sections: The parts of a breaking wave that are rideable
• Set waves: A group of waves of larger size within a swell
• Shoulder: The unbroken part of the wave
• Stoked: happy, excited
• Shorey/shore break: A wave that lasts all the way to the shore before crashing
• Surf's up: A phrase used when there are waves worth surfing
• Swell: A series of waves that have traveled from their source in a distant storm, and that will start to break once the swell reaches shallow enough water
• Whitewater: After the wave has finished breaking, it continues on as a ridge of turbulence and foam, the whitewater

Techniques and maneuvers

• Air/Aerial: Riding the board briefly into the air above the wave, landing back upon the wave, and continuing to ride
• Angling: Original step toward performance in surfing. Refers to a surfer's riding across the wave face at an angle to the shoreline, rather than riding straight toward the beach
• Backdoor: (verb) The act of taking off deep behind the peak or a section on a hollow wave, and surfing through the barrel or tube of the wave to the other side of the peak. (Also a proper noun: the short intense right peeling off the reverse side of Pipeline in Hawaii.)
• Backside: Surfing with your back to the wave, a goofyfoot going right, or a regularfoot going left. (Also called 'backhand'.)
• Bail/Bail out: To abandon or ditch one's surfboard before getting wiped out by the wave, either paddling out, or while riding the wave.
• Barrel: The space inside a breaking wave between the lip and face. A surfer may be completely hidden from view during a barrel ride, especially from shore. One of the most difficult, best and most enjoyable acts in surfing, but often very difficult to complete due to changing variations in every different wave. Another name for tube.
• Bodysurf: The act of catching waves by swimming without a board. The most original form of surfing. In shallow water bodysurfers can push off the bottom, but usually need swim-fins to catch waves in deep water.
• Bottom Turn: A turn made at the bottom of a wave, following the drop down the wave face. Often (but not always) the first real move of a ride, a bottom turn is a sweeping, powerful move that enables the surfer to establish speed and direction for the ride. The bottom turn also establishes or re-sets the rhythm of turns to be completed during the course of the ride. Probably the most important turn in surfing as it sets up all other maneuvers.
• Carve: Turns (often accentuated)
• Carving: A surfing technique in which the surfer creates big, deep turns by sinking much or all of the rail of the surfboard during each turn; when a good surfer slices up a wave using his board like a large knife.
• Caught inside: When a surfer is paddling out and cannot get past the breaking surf to the safer part of the ocean (the outside) in order to find a wave to ride
• Climbing and dropping: Turning up and down the face of a wave as you surf down the line. A very good technique for gaining speed with each turn.
• Cross step: crossing one leg over the other across the board (usually to make it to the nose)
• Cutback: A classic surfing move used to change direction when streaking ahead of the curl of a wave with a powerful turn back towards the breaking part of the wave. Cutbacks are an important element in surfing as the maneuver repositions the surfer closer to the power of the wave. See also Roundhouse cutback.
• Dawn patrol: Early morning surf session before the sunrise. This time usually offers the least crowded and cleanest conditions before the winds pick up. Also the name of Surfline's early morning surf report.
• Drop: The initial part of a ride when a surfer slides down the face of the wave.
• Duckdive: To duck under a broken wave by pushing the front of your surfboard under the water, then levering the back of the board with pressure from your knee or foot as the wave passes overhead. The desired result is to pass your body and surfboard underneath the powerful whitewater to pop out the back of the wave. Originated by Shaun Tomson and the South Africans in the '70's.
• Duck dive: Pushing the board underwater, nose first, and diving under an oncoming wave instead of riding it
• Fade: On take-off, aiming toward the breaking part of the wave, before turning sharply and surfing in the direction the wave is breaking
• Fins-free snap (or "fins out"): A sharp turn where the surfboard's fins slide off the top of the wave
• Floater: Riding up on the top of the breaking part of the wave, and coming down with it
• Goofy foot: Surfing with the left foot on the back of board (less common than regular foot)
• Hang Heels: Facing backwards and putting the surfers' heels out over the edge of a longboard
• Hang-five/hang ten: Putting five or ten toes respectively over the nose of a longboard
• Off the Top: A turn on the top of a wave, either sharp or carving
• Pearl: Accidentally driving the nose of the board underwater, generally ending the ride
• Pop-up: Going from lying on the board to standing, all in one jump
• Pump: An up/down carving movement that generates speed along a wave
• Re-entry: Hitting the lip vertically and re-reentering the wave in quick succession.
• Regular/Natural foot: Surfing with the right foot on the back of the board
• Rolling, Turtle Roll: Flipping a longboard up-side-down, nose first and pulling through a breaking or broken wave when paddling out to the line-up (a turtle roll is an alternative to a duck dive)
• Smack the Lip / Hit the Lip: After performing a bottom turn, moving upwards to hit the peak of the wave, or area above the face of the wave.
• Snaking, drop in on, cut off, or "burn": When a surfer who doesn't have the right of way steals a wave from another surfer by taking off in front of someone who is closer to the peak (this is considered inappropriate)
• Snaking/Back-Paddling: Stealing a wave from another surfer by paddling around the person's back to get into the best position
• Snap: A quick, sharp turn off the top of a wave
• Soul arch: Arching the back to demonstrate casual confidence when riding a wave
• Stall: Slowing down by shifting weight to the tail of the board or putting a hand in the water. Often used to stay in the tube during a tube ride
• Switch-foot: Having equal ability to surf regular foot or goofy foot (i.e. left foot forward or right foot forward), like being ambidextrous
• Take-off: The start of a ride
• Tandem surfing: Two people riding one board. Usually the smaller person is balanced above (often held up above) the other person
• Tube riding/Getting barreled: Riding inside the hollow curl of a wave

Accidental

• Axe/axed: A heavy wipeout, usually involving the wave's lip impacting directly on a surfer. Also called drilled, pummeled, guillotined etc.
• Caught inside: A circumstance in which a surfer is trapped between the shoreline and breaking waves. This usually means the surfer will have to wait for a lull between the larger breaking waves for a chance to slip into clear water.
• Drop-in: When a surfer initially goes down the face of the wave after catching a wave. Also a term used to describe catching a wave in front of another surfer who is already riding, which is a general breach of surfing etiquette.
• Over the falls: When a surfer falls off the board and the wave sucks him or her up in a circular motion along with the lip of the wave. Also referred to as the "wash cycle", being "pitched over" and being "sucked over"
• Rag dolled: When underwater, the power of the wave can shake the surfer around as if he/she were a rag doll
• Wipe out: Falling off, or being knocked off, the surfboard when riding a wave

People

• Bodyboarder: One who rides waves lying down on a bodyboard. Often beginners, although some bodyboarders, like Hawaii's Mike Stewart, are considered among the best surfers in the world.
• Grom/Grommet: A young surfer
• Hang-loose: Generally meaning "catch that wave" or "well done". This message can be sent by raising a hand with the thumb and pinkie fingers up while the index, middle and ring fingers remain folded over the palm, then twisting the wrist back and forth as if waving goodbye, see shaka sign
• Kook: A wanna-be surfer of limited skill

The board

• Airbrush: The tool used by an artist to spray color onto a surfboard. The airbrush is powered by compressor and sprays paint from a container (usually screwed or otherwise attached to the airbrush) out through a thin nozzle in a manner similar to an aerosol spray can
• Alaia: A type of surfboard, made of wood and usually around six feet in length, used by Hawaiian commoners to surf prior to the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in the late 19th century
• Balsa: Light, porous wood used through the 1940s and 50s as a key core material for surfboard manufacture. Balsa grows only in Ecuador and must be imported to the USA; it became popular when laminating techniques allowed surfboard cores to be sealed from contact with water. By the early 1960s it had been largely replaced by polyurethane foam, but is still used for some big wave guns and collector pieces.
• Bamboo: Can be used in thin laminar sheets as a replacement for fiberglass in the surfboard manufacturing process; i.e., Bamboo Surfboards Australia.
• Blank: The original block of foam used to shape a surfboard. A blank often comes from a pre-shaped mold with a basic outline and rocker depending on the length and type surfboard being shaped. Usually made from polyurethane foam.
• Bodyboard: A small soft foam board used primarily with swim fins, and ridden prone (occasionally drop knee). Originated with the Morey Boogie-board invented by Tom Morey in the 70's.
• Bonzer: A surfboard design first invented by the Campbell brothers, Duncan and Malcolm, in 1971. Forerunner of today's popular single-to-double concave bottom shape.
• Bottom: Bottom-The underside of a surfboard.
• Bottom Curve: (see rocker)
• Buckle: (see crease)
• Carbon Fiber: A type of super-strong fiber, soakable in resin, which is occasionally laid in strips along the length of a board during glassing to help prevent creasing.
• Catalyst: (see MEKP)
• Channel: Bottom shape dating back to 1970, credited to Jim Pollard of Australia, in which grooves are cut lengthwise along the surfboard, usually through the tail half. Many different types of channels have a variety of effects on performance; generally they add drive and direction to turns, especially in the most common modern variation, the six-channel "clinker" bottom.
• Computer board/Computer shape: Many top shapers currently use highly accurate machines to cut blanks into near-ready shapes, or "pre-shapes". These are driven by computer programs, which use data from the shapers' prototype designs (see "plug"). The computer has reduced man-hours on a shape job to as little as 15 minutes.
• Concave: Design feature involving a slight scooping out of an area of the board, usually the bottom from rail to rail, during the shaping process. Concave is a paradox because it provides both lift (a skatey freeing up of the board) and drive (from pressure on the water along the exit rail).
• Crease: Damage to a surfboard caused by heavy general impact, in which the surfboard flexes further than the glass and resin allows. Usually indicated by a fracture line running across the board on bottom, deck or both. A bad crease may shatter glass around the rail and lead to a complete break in the affected board.
• Deck: The top surface of a surfboard on which you stand.
• Deck Grip: Rough-surfaced material patch, usually a fraction of an inch thick, which can be glued to the deck of a surfboard to increase traction instead of wax.
• Delaminate: A breakdown of the bond between the fiberglass and foam of a surfboard, where the fiberglass becomes separated from the foam. Usually caused by water seeping in under the fiberglass due to a ding of other fracture of the waterproof bond. Can also be caused by the surfboard being exposed to excessive heat like in a hot car, which will cause the foam to shrink slightly away from the fiberglass bond. Delaminations should be fixed immediately as they will spread and the surfboard strength will be weakened dramatically.
• Designer: An expert surfboard shaper or rider who originates ideas for surfboard shapes. See shaper.
• Ding: Damage to surfboard caused by dropping or collision with another hard object or surfboard. Dings must be dried out and repaired immediately otherwise water will weaken the strength of the board.
• Down Rail: A rail (see rail) shape in which the deck slopes down to meet the bottom, rather than vice versa. Credited to Mike Diffenderfer of the USA in the 1960s.
• Drag: The effect that causes water flow to be slowed or disrupted as it passes along a surfboard's surfaces. Causes of drag are usually present in the leading edges of a surfboard: the forward rail line, the forward rocker and outline, and the leading edges of fins, and in bottom features which cause water resistance, such as tail vee. Controlled drag is an essential requirement of surfboard design.
• Drive: The effect of water pressure pushed against a surfboard's surface, which creates acceleration down the line on a wave. This is the simple way of describing drive and its immediate effect. Looking at it more closely, we see that "drive" in a surfboard context implies a couple of factors. - First, it's about pressure. Specifically, water pressure working against a surface. To harness the pressure, you've gotta have a surface for it to work against (ie., a fin). - Second, it's about direction. Drive is aimed; it's purposeful, not random. Drive doesn't have an opposite so much as a corollary, which is Drag. Drag results from friction between waterflow and wetted surface, and it's not altogether a bad thing; without some elements of Drag, as without Drive, a surfboard would be virtually impossible to control. (Best example I can think of: a surfboard without any fins at all.) Almost without fail, wherever you create the possibility of Drive, you'll also have the possibility of Drag. Getting that balance right is the key to great surfboard design. A middle fin adds Drive and Drag at a central point of a surfboard's tail. This adds control and direction, providing an anchor for turns. In the classic Thruster setup, the side fins are reduced in volume in order to balance the design. Take the middle fin away, and both Drive and Drag are removed; waterflow gets past the fins more easily, giving the board a skatier, skimmier feel, but some control and direction is lost. This is only partially made up for by the larger fin size of the classic Twin-fin design.
• Fin or Fins: Fin-shaped inserts on the underside of the back of the board that enable the board to be steered
• Leash: A cord that is attached to the back of the board, the other end of which wraps around the surfer's ankle
• Nose: The forward tip of the board
• Quiver: A surfer's collection of boards for different kinds of waves
• Rails: The side edges of the surfboard
• Rocker: How concave the surface of the board is from nose to tail
• Tail: The back end of the board
• Wax: Specially formulated surf wax that is applied to upper surface of the board to increase the traction so the surfer's feet do not slip off of the board

Clothing

• Asymmetrical zippers: Wetsuit zippers with staggered teeth, invented to keep a tighter seal and let less water in. Common in newer zippered suits
• Beavertail: Early wetsuit design in the '70s with a large flap affixed to the suit's lower back, wrapped under the crotch and secured in front. Designed to hold the suit in place, the innovation didn't really work and surfers took to letting the slab dangle. (Hence the term, "tail".)
• Blindstitched: Seam that's glued together, then sewn halfway through the material so you don't see the stitching on the other side; generally on higher-end suits and considered flexible, fairly watertight and durable.
• Board shorts: Shorts originally developed for aquatic sports, specifically for surfing
• Double blindstitched: Seam is glued together and blindstitched on the outside, turned inside out and blindstitched on the inside; considered a very watertight seal.
• Rash guard: A close-fitting top for swimming or surfing, worn under a wetsuit, over swimwear, or alone
• Wetsuit: Often referred to as "rubber", sometimes surfers also wear a neoprene hood and booties in cold conditions

Culture

• Aloha: Hawaiian word used as a greeting, a send-off, a sign of affection and/or a wish for good fortune or mercy