- 360- A maneuver done wherein the board (and rider) spin 360 degrees on the face of the wave.
A Back
- Aerial - Part of a maneuver where the surfer and his/her board leaves the water. This maneuver requires split second timing and is only performed by expert surfers.
- Air - After a good bottom turn with lots of speed, head up the face, off-the-lip, and into the sky! air - getting airborne
- Aerial - airborne maneuver
- Amped - charged up - stoked - fired
B Back
- Backdoor - to pull into a tube from behind the peak
- Backwash - flood of water returning off the foreshore against incoming waves
- Bail - to abandon a board - jump off - usually without regard to the boards future
- Bake - a closeout
- Barrel - A hollow faced wave and great to ride.
- Bashing - body surfing
- Beach breaks - wave is formed over sand and sand bars, can shift seasonally and from storm to storm
- Blown-out - winds blowing so hard as to chop up the surf and render it unridable.
- Bodyguard - AKA boogie boards, sponge, a paipoboard modified in 1971 by Tom Morey to ride dangerous shallow reefs safely. Lay prone and augment with swim-fins
- Booger -Bodyboarder
- Boost - getting airborne off the lip
- Bonzer - in Australia, bonzer is equivalent slang for "Bitchen". The term was adopted by the Campbell Brothers of Southern California in the 70's for their 5 fin surf board.
- Bottom - referring to the ocean floor or to the lowest part of the wave the surfer can ride on - the bottom of the wave.
- Bowl - a shallow spot in the path of the wave, causing the wave to break a little harder.
- Bumpy - choppy water or it could be a decent wave but still the face could be bumpy.
- Brah - from bruddah, Hawaiian pidgin for brother
- Bro - a buddy or friend
- Bucket - helmet
- Bump - a swell
- Bumps - the build-up of wax on a surfboard deck.
C Back
- Cant - angling the outside fins toward the rail so that the inner angle is 90 degrees + some number. Cant really puts the fin in a place where it needs to be. As when you are doing a bottom turn ,the inside fin is angled more toward the rail and is in a better position to hold the board in, especially now that you have 1 or more fins out of the water. This makes the board handle better on its rails carve - symmetrical, fluid turns
- Caught Inside - a surfer on the shore-side of a breaking wave (then he's going to take-it-on-the-head.)
- Channel - a channel of deeper water where excess water, piled up by waves, flows out to sea
- Cheater five - five toes on the nose - keep your weight back on the board to maintain trim and speed, squat down and extend one foot forward
- Choppy - Very small waves on the surface created by local winds.
- Clean - faces are unrippled - usually offshore or no wind
- Cleanup Wave - A wave that breaks outside of the lineup and dumps on the entire lineup.
- Close out - when waves break all the way across a bay or normally safe channel rendering a surf spot unridable (because surfers can't paddle-out to the lineup.)
- Clucked - afraid, intimidated by the wave
- Cnoid waves - as waves come in to shallow water their shape changes to something called a 'cnoid' which has a short, steep crest and a long shallow trough - those are what we see as lines of corduroy.
- Concave - soft chine indentation running lengthways on the bottom of a board, believed to create lift
- Covered - Same as "toobed."
- Crew - a group of surfers defined by break or area
- Cutback - A 180 degree turn that's done on either of the two rails of the surfboard. Turn back toward the curl or breaking part of a wave.
- Cut out - Same as pullout or kickout.
D Back
- Da kine - Hawaiian style talk: The best kind of wave, as in, "I jus caught da kine wave, brah."
- Dogging - going backside in the pit.
- Down rail - the deck curves down to meet the flat bottom at a hard edge
- Drop - as in dropping from the crest of the wave to the pit
- Drop - The initial downward slide on the face of wave after taking off and before the bottom turn.
- Drop-knee - One foot on the bodyboard, with the other hanging off the back. Difficult and fun.
- Dropping in - catching a wave that is already occupied ... taking off on the shoulder while someone is taking off deeper
- Drop in late - catching the steepest part of a wave dune - a big peaky wave
E Back
- Egg - refers to the slow rounded shape of a nose, tail or rail
F Back
- Falls - the pitching lip of the wave - don't get sucked into this
- Falls - top of the wave pitches out and throws a waterfall shoreward.
- Face - clean, smooth wall on the shore side of a wave
- Face-of-the-Wave - The front part of the wave. One rides on the face of the wave.
- Fan - a fan of spray off a turn such as a water skier throws
- Fetch - determines the size of a wave. Wind speed X time X distance
- Fish - short board with added width and thickness, designed to improve wave catching capability while maintaining performance, a shorboard for small conditions
- Flick nose - an increase in the rate of rocker near the nose
- Floater - Where the surfer rides his board loosely along the top of the breaking up or foam of the wave.
- Fluff - spray off the lip frequency downshifting - the increase of wave period within a fetch .... a decrease in frequency is an increase in period.
- Frigged - snaked.
- Fully - with commitment and intensity
- Fun board - mid size board designed for ease of ride in small conditions,
- Full on - with commitment and intensity
G Back
- Gash - very sharp turn
- Goofy-foot - Rider who surfs with right foot as lead foot.
- Goon - Overbearing Locals. Going off - a break under optimum conditions
- Gouge - sharp, fast turn
- Gnarly - awesome and intimidating
- Gremmies - grem or gremmie is short for gremlin - Sixties US term for young, possibly or probably mischievous surfer, pre-adolescent surfer
- Green room - inside a full cover-up tube
- Grom - From grommet. A young surfer.
- Ground swells - waves formed over vast distances, well formed and powerful, mackers
- Grommet - adolescent surfer
- Gun - About seven feet long. Used for big-wave riding.
- Gun - a board for big waves they are long, narrow, and pointy both at the nose and the tail for maximum rail contact. Usually thick and heavy and ranging in length from 7' to 10' AKA "elephant gun", "rhino chaser" so named because you take it with you when you are hunting big game...
- Gunned - undergunned or overgunned refers to the size of your board in relation to wave conditions
H Back
- Hang Ten - All ten toes on the nose. Gotta be on a log to do this one.
- Hard rail - sharper edge to grab a wave
- Hiddie - from hideous, intense
- Hollow - extremely concave curling wave (a good thing!)
- Hodad - A beginner or non-surfer.
- Hoot - howling and yelping approval and encouragement to buddies
- Honey - A female surfer.
- Hybrid - hybrids range from 7'-9' and attempt to give some of the floatation and paddling of a longboard as well as the performance of a shortboard.
I Back
- Inside - Refers to where you are in the lineup, or a place relative to the break. Inside would be on the side of the face of the wave; toward shore. Also refers to a position relative to the shore line, as in, "he craked his head on the inside reef."
- Impact zone - the point where the waves break for the first time inside - where waves continue to break, reform, and break again if it's big enough
J Back
- Jag - retreat after getting worked
K Back
- kneeboard - AKA kneelo
- Kook - If you don't know then you are one (dat's OK. We all were once.)
L Back
- Leash - a line attaching the board to the riders ankle (shortboard), calf just below the knee (longboard) or wrist (bodyboard). Before the mid seventies we used surgical rubber tube. Modern leashes have little elastic property, in line swivels to stop fouling, and optional quick release pins at the ankle.
- Lineup - Place in the water where the wave breaks. Naturally, all the surfers "line up" there and wait for the perfect wave.
- Lineup - just beyond the impact zone where you wait to catch waves
- Lip - curling lip at the top of a wave
- Lip - The top of the face of the wave. Usually curling forward some.
- Log - Longboard, nine feet and longer.
- Log or stick - slang for surf board longboard - longboards are usually over 9' in length. Because of their size they are easier to paddle and get into waves sooner. On the downside, they are less maneuverable and can get pretty unwieldy in steep waves.
M Back
- Make a wave - To go for a wave and "make it" as opposed to getting tossed off your board and pounded by the wave.
- Mushy - Slow, sloppy waves of little power. (Better than no waves.)
- Mal - a longboard most places except America
- Minimal - mid size board with longboard characteristics
N Back
- Nipped - nipples rubbed raw by board or suit
- Noodle - exhausted, overall condition or specific as in noodle armed
O Back
- Outside - offshore, beyond where the waves break
- Outside - Refers to where you are in the lineup, or a place relative to the break. Outside would be on the back of the wave or it would be at the outer most place one could wait relative to the shore yet still catch a wave.
- Over-the-falls - Not good!
P Back
- Pearl - to go pearl diving, the nose of you board submerges and usually the wave pushes the rest of the board over the nose, you too
- Paipoboard - Hawaiian wooden bodyboard
- Period - time between waves. Wind swell less than about 10 seconds /approx./ 12 seconds and longer is ground swell (the energy / power of a wave is proportional not only to its height but its period.)
- Pin tail - pointed tail, aids in stability of board
- Pit - Place directly in front of the crest of the wave. Usually, if you get in the pit you lose speed, get caught and pounded.
- Pit - the hollowest portion of a breaking wave pitch - the act of the lip throwing out in front of the wave pitch - throw - angle of any run to rise
- Pitched - Tossed of the lip of the wave and usually off the board.
- Pitted - being in the pit of the wave
- Plank - Long Board
- Point breaks - wave forms in reaction to the land form, consistent
- Poser - a non-surfer playing the role of a surfer
- Pop - kickout
- Prone - Ride with your belly on the board. The most common and easiest way to ride a bodyboard.
- Pucker factor - the effect an intimidating wave has on ones ability to remain relaxed
- Puff - a spitting wave.
- Pumping - above average large swell
Q Back
- Quad - four fin board, two normal size fins with two smaller fins in line behind them
- Quiver - a surfer's collection of boards, a board bag that holds several boards
R Back
- Rail - side edge of a board,
- Reef breaks - wave is formed over an underwater reef or rock, consistent
- Re-Entry - Attacking the lip, usually going vertically and then turning nose down and re-entering the wave.
- Reverse "V' - hard chine protruding ridge running lengthways on the bottom of a board
- Rhino - a gun - a board for big waves they are long, narrow, and pointy both at the nose and the tail for maximum rail contact. Usually thick and heavy and ranging in length from 7' to 10' AKA "elephant gun", "rhino chaser" so named because you take it with you when you are hunting big game...
- Rickt - deriving from "Richters" deriving from "Off the Richter Scale" meaning that something is awesome / cool / da bomb / etc...
- Rip - to surf to the height of one's abilities
- Ripping - Executing drastic and radical moves on the wave. Having it your way with a wave.
- River mouth breaks - wave forms on the sediments deposited at the river mouth, similar to beach breaks but sometimes more susceptible to change
- Rocker - the arc of the tail that bends up, more rocker = easier turning & less speed
- Room - inside a large barrel.
S Back
- Scabbed - getting damaged by a reef or rock
- Schlong - thick, long, old style single-fin surfboard
- Section - any appreciable length of wave that has common characteristics and timing i.e.: breaking in sections
- Shred - ability to execute rapid repeated turns -
- Shortboard term Short Board - About six feet long or less.
- Shore break - Waves that break very close to the beach.
- Shore-dump / soup / slop - unorganized sloppy foam, no good for nothing
- shortboard - shortboards are the most common, they range in length from 5' to 7'6", and tend to be used for high-performance contest-style surfing. Shortboards usually have pointed noses and three fins, although other configurations are common. A shortboard sacrifices paddling and floatation for the sake of performance.
- Sick - excellent, top notch - describing a surfer, stunt, manoeuvre or conditions
- Sideslip - when your board stops tracking forwards and moves sideways
- Sine waves - in deep water swells are very well-approximated by pure sine waves.
- Skimboards - glassed plywood disc or oval for riding shallow beaches on the waters' edge.... run - throw it down - hop on
- Slam - bounce off the lip as it begins to pitch
- Slash - cutback.
- Soft rail - rounder edge so the board is looser
- Soup Bowl - Steep takeoff point with mushy shoulders on both sides.
- Snake - paddling around behind someone who is in position and stealing their wave. Effectively the snake is taking ownership of the wave by being the closest rider to the breaking portion of the wave.
- Sponge - Bodyboard. Called sponge because its core is made of a sponge like material. Your bodyboard.
- Spoon - concave in the underside nose of a longboard. Increases lift for nose riding
- Sponger - Somebody that bodyboards.
- Steep - refers to angle or pitch of wave face
- Stink-eye - hard, cold, menacing stare
- Stick - Your board.
- Stoked - "I'm stoked man! I jus got toobed!"
- Stoked - geared up, wound up, full of enthusiasm stylie - with good form - with grace
- Stuffed - getting driven under the water by a wave coming down on you
- Squash tail - wide, rounded tail, introduced after the advent of advanced fin systems to loosen the board up
- Square tail - with the introduction of multi fins, it became a advantageous to loosen the board up with a clean profile tail design
- Surfer's knots - large bumps on the tops of feet and on knees caused by callusing where one continuously contacts a board
- Swallow tail - double pointed tail with an indentation in the center. Functional on single fin boards to aid in the holding characteristics of the board.
- Swell - A good thing.
- Swish - a meek or fearful surfer
- Squid - unlikeable individual scab - a reef or rock
T Back
- Thrashed - when a wave lays a beating on you
- Throwing tail - sliding the tail in a turn, breaking the grip of the fins
- Tow-ins - getting towed into waves that are too large to paddle into
- Trim - adjusting your position on a board so that it planes, and achieves its maximum speed
- Tube - the cylindrical or cone shaped hole created when the lip pitches out far and clean enough to create a space between the wave and the falls
- Tail kick - an increase in the rate of rocker near the tail
- Tanker - Same as a log.
- Tanker - longboard
- Tailslide - Part of a larger maneuver in which the surfer purposely makes his/her fins lose their grip and the board slides.
- Take-off point - The best spot to be in the lineup to catch the best part of a breaking wave.
- The ZONE: This is the place where there is no escape from the wrath of the oncoming wave.. You are caught inside, too far in to catch the wave, and the wave is breaking to far out for you to paddle outside THE ZONE. You get pounded in the zone.
- Thruster - three similar size fins
- Toes-on-the-Nose - Riding a wave with one's toes curled around the nose of the board.
- Toe in - pushing the front of the fins in, for some boards they would put the toe in such that a string from the nose of the board to the fin was the alignment for the fins--toe-in. Of course this represents a lot of toe-in! Toe-in causes pressure on the outside of the fins to be greater than on the inside, i.e.., Making the board want to swivel to either side with a little surfer input, this eliminated tracking on the earlier twin fins, and makes for a looser more responsive board.
- Toobed! - Riding inside the "tube." In the green room.
- Top Turn - Similar to the re-entry but the approach is less vertical and usually performed to gain speed.
- Tourist - Non Local
- Tri fin - three fin board, one large and two smaller fins
- Tube - When the crest falls over the hollow barrel, it forms a pipe shaped wave.
- Tube-Ride - Where the surfer rides behind or inside the broken curl of the wave. Also known as "In the Barrel"
- Twinzer - four fin board, two normal size fins with two smaller fins mirrored a few inches outside and forward of them
- Twin - two fin board
V Back
- Vertical - turn straight up the wave
W Back
- Wind swells - waves formed close to the shore by local wind conditions, unorganized, tendency to be slop
- Waffling - rapidly working the board back and forth
- Wannabe - wan-na-be, someone who wants to be
- Wax - paraffin + colour + scent + additives to make it apply at specific temperatures. Used on deck of boards for traction
- Wipe out - a fall, particularly a spectacular fall
- Worked, getting - the action a wave plays on you. It feels like being in a large washing machine
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