This glossary of surfing includes some of the extensive

vocabulary A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...

used to describe various aspects of the sport of

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

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: Wave with a peak that resembles an A and allows surfers to go either left or right, with both sides having a clean shoulder to work with. *

Barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...

: (also tube, cave, keg, green room) The effect when a big wave rolls over, enclosing a temporary horizontal tunnel of air with the surfer inside * Beach break: An area with waves that are good enough to surf break just off a beach, or breaking on a sandbar farther out from the shore *Big sea: Large, unbreaking surf * Blown out: When waves that would otherwise be good have been rendered too choppy by wind * Bomb: An exceptionally large set wave *Bottom: Refers to the ocean floor, or to the lowest part of the wave ridden by a surfer *Channel: A deep spot in the shoreline where waves generally don't break, can be created by a riptide pulling water back to the sea and used by surfers to paddle out to the waves * Chop or choppy: Waves that are subjected to cross winds, have a rough surface (chop) and do not break cleanly * Close-out: A wave is said to be "closed-out" when it breaks at every position along the face at once, and therefore cannot be surfed *Crest: The top section of the waver or peak just before the wave begins to break *Curl: The actual portion of the wave that is falling or curling over when the wave is breaking * Face: The forward-facing surface of a

breaking wave In fluid dynamics, a breaking wave or breaker is a wave whose amplitude reaches a critical level at which large amounts of wave energy transform into Wave turbulence, turbulent kinetic energy. At this point, simple physical models that describ ...

Flat Flat or flats may refer to: Architecture * Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries Arts and entertainment * Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch * Flat (soldier), ...

: No waves * Glassy: When the waves (and general surface of the water) are extremely smooth, not disturbed by wind * Gnarly: Large, difficult, and dangerous (usually applied to waves) *Green: The unbroken portion of the wave, sometimes referred to as the wave shoulder *Inshore: The direction towards the beach from the surf, can also be referring to the wind direction direction traveling from the ocean onto the shore * Line-up: The queue area where most of the waves are starting to break and where most surfers are positioned in order to catch a wave *Mushy: A wave with very little push * Off the hook: An adjective phrase meaning the waves are performing extraordinarily well * Outside: Any point seaward of the normal breaking waves *Peak: The highest point on a wave * Pocket: The area of the wave that's closest to the curl or whitewash. Where you should surf if you want to generate the most speed. The steepest part of a wave, also known as the energy zone. *Pounder: An unusually hard breaking wave * Point break: Area where an underwater rocky point creates waves that are suitable for surfing * Riptide: A strong offshore current that is caused by the tide pulling water through an inlet along a barrier beach, at a lagoon or inland marina where tide water flows steadily out to sea during ebb tide * Sections: The parts of a

that are rideable *Sectioning: A wave that does not break evenly, breaks ahead of itself * Set waves: A group of waves of larger size within a swell * Shoulder: The unbroken part of a

* 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 *Trough: The bottom portion of the unbroken wave and below the peak, low portion between waves *Undertow: An under-current that is moving offshore when waves are approaching the shore *Wall: The section of the wave face that extends from the shoulder to the breaking portion, where the wave has not broken and where the surfer maneuvers to ride the wave *Wedge: Two waves traveling from slightly different direction angles that converge to form a wedge when they merge, where the wedge part of the two waves usually breaks a great deal harder than the individual waves themselves *Whitecaps: The sea foam crest over the waves * Whitewater: In a

, the water continues on as a ridge of turbulence and foam called "whitewater" or also called "soup"

Techniques and maneuvers

* Air/Aerial: Riding the board briefly into the air above the wave, landing back upon the wave, and continuing to ride *Backing out: pulling back rather than continuing into a wave that could have been caught * Bail: To step off the board in order to avoid being knocked off (a wipe out) * Bottom turn: The first turn at the bottom of the wave * Carve: Turns (often accentuated) * 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 * Cheater five: See Hang-five/

hang ten "hang ten" is a nickname for any of several maneuvers used in sports, especially surfing, wherein all ten toes or fingers are used to accomplish the maneuver. * surfing: the surfer stands and hangs all their toes over the nose of the board. Usu ...

Cross-step Surfing terminology {{Short pages monitor *

Board shorts Boardshorts are a type of swimwear and casual wear in the form of relatively long (approximately knee length) loose-fitting shorts that are designed to be quick-drying and are generally made from strong and smooth polyester or nylon material. Or ...

; also known as Baggies. *

Pendleton jacket Mackinaw cloth is a heavy and dense water-repellent woolen cloth, similar to Melton_(cloth), Melton cloth but using a tartan pattern, often "Check (pattern)#Variations, buffalo plaid". It was used to make a short coat of the same name, sometimes ...

; popularized by the Beach Boys. * Rash guard: a shirt that protects surfers from sunburns and abrasion * Wetsuit: Often referred to as "rubber", sometimes surfers also wear a

neoprene Neoprene (also polychloroprene) is a family of synthetic rubbers that are produced by polymerization of chloroprene.Werner Obrecht, Jean-Pierre Lambert, Michael Happ, Christiane Oppenheimer-Stix, John Dunn and Ralf Krüger "Rubber, 4. Emulsion R ...

hood and booties in cold conditions

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Use dmy dates, date=March 2017

Surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

About the water

Techniques and maneuvers

Further reading

See also

Notes

References

External links