A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

Aeder, Erik

aerial

Aguerre, Fernando

Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

Airshow

Ala Moana

Alabama

alaia board

Alaska

alcohol and surfing

Alexander, Kala

Alexandre, João (Dapin)

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

Alter, Hobie

Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

Andaman Islands

Andersen, Lisa

Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

Angola

Angourie

Antarctica

Apocalypse Now

Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

Ashton, Juan

Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

Atlantic Ocean

August, Robert

Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

Avalon, Frankie

Azores

backdoor

backside

backside attack, Pipeline

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bail out

Bain, Rob

Baja California

Baker, Bernie

Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

Baltic Sea

Banks, Jim

Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

Barland, Michel

Barreda, Sergio “Gordo”

Barry, Michael

Bartholomew, Wayne

Baxter, Jackie

Bay of Bengal

Beach Boys, The

Beacham, Debbie

beachboys

beachbreak

Beachcomber Bills Grand Prix

Beachley, Layne

beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Hard-charging but gentlemanly big-wave surfer from Recife, Pernambuco, in northeast Brazil; winner of the 1998 Reef Brazil Big Wave World Championship, and the 2009 Big Wave World Tour. Burle was born (1967) and raised in Recife, the son of a chicken farmer, and began surfing at age 13. Four years later he was the third-ranked juniors division amateur surfer in the country, and in 1987 he turned pro, finishing fifth that year on the Brazilian domestic pro tour. Burle developed a taste for big surf during a 1989 visit to Easter Island, where he used a stable, low-squat stance to good effect in 12-foot-plus reef waves.

Already highly regarded in Brazil, Burle was a virtual unknown to the rest of the surf world when he won the 1998 Reef event, held in 20- to 30-foot surf at Mexico's Todos Santos, coming out ahead of Brock Little, Ross Clarke-Jones, and other celebrated big-wave riders. Burle was justifiably upset the following year when he was left off the invite list for the season's two major big-wave events—the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau contest at Waimea and the Maverick's Men Who Ride Mountains—claiming, not without merit, he'd been overlooked because of surf industry bias against Brazilians. Undaunted, the slender-framed Burle (5', 8", 140 pounds) turned in a magnificent series of performances in 1999 and 2000, made the invite list for the 2001 Maverick's contest, and finished third in the 2001 Tow-In World Cup, held at Jaws, in Maui.

In April 2002, Burle was announced as the winner of the XXL Big Surf Awards for having ridden the largest photographed wave of the winter season—a Maverick's giant measuring over 65 feet from trough to crest. Although Burle didn't win an event during the four-contest Big Wave World Tour in 2009—the BWWT's inaugural season—he was the year's most steady performer, and at 42 he took home the championship. In 2012, he finished the year ranked #3.

By that time, Burle had become tow partners with fellow Brazilian Maya Gabeira; they were big-wave surfing's only male-female tow team. In 2013, at Nazare, Portugal, Gabeira wiped out on a huge wave and Burle, racing in on the jetski, discovered her face-down in the shorebreak. He pulled her to shore, where lifeguards performed CPA, saving her life. After Gabeira was taken to the hospital, Burle motored back into the lineup with another surfer, and was towed into a wave that was later described as nearly 100-feet high. It was his only ride of the day.

As Burle approached 50, he seemed as resigned to the life of a big-wave surfer as he was excited by it. "There is no Christmas Day for you; no New Year's Day, your wife's birthday, you son's birthday. Nothing. You don't rule your life. Waves rule your life"

Burle, Carlos

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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