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

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

backwash

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

Bertlemann, Larry

[Read "More Than My Share," by Bev Morgan, in TSJ, page 47. He and a buddy surfed Easter Island, didn't just write about it; surfed it before the board floated in -- see below]

Rugged 47-square-mile island in the South Pacific, located 2,300 miles west of Chile, its governing nation; best known for its eternally impassive lava-stone head statues, called moai, the largest of which stand 40 feet tall and weigh more than 90 tons. Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as it's known to its 2,000 residents, is the most remote inhabited spot on earth. Wave-riding has been part of its history since it was settled, probably around A.D. 400, by either Polynesians or South American Indians. Both haka honu (bodysurfing) and haka nini (surfing on a long craft made of bundled reeds) have been practiced on Easter Island for centuries, possibly even before the Tahitians and Hawaiians began riding waves. The island's first modern surfboard is said to have mysteriously floated into the east shore in the mid-1960s, where it was picked up by a fisherman who intuited the board's purpose, rode it, and shared it with family and friends. Surf photographer Bev Morgan had by that time already had a look at the subtropical Easter Island surf. "Morgan raves about perfect Malibu-type waves coming off a point," 

 magazine wrote in 1962, "with the left slide equally as good as the right." Twenty years later 

 published photos of two Chilean surfers, Luis Tello and Isaac Tapia, riding steely-blue overhead waves along a rocky, moai-lined coast, in what the magazine called "the most mysterious surf location in the world."

Hawaiian big-wave riders Laird Hamilton and Brock Little arrived in 1994 with a camera crew to film an episode of

, an ESPN documentary series. For two weeks Hamilton and Little shared waves with a few dozen local surfers at a playful break near the island's only town, Hanga Roa—almost certainly the spot that Bev Morgan had seen more than 30 years earlier. Two days before Hamilton and Little departed, the surf jumped to 12 feet, and the Hawaiians reveled in the thick, hollow, dangerously powerful waves.

 magazine sent a handful of pros including world tour vet Fred Patacchia to Rapa Nui in 2009 for a photo/video trip. The crew found powerful surf breaking over urchin-covered reefs, as well as a small number of local surfers who shared their favorite breaks with the pros.

More than 20 surf breaks are scattered around the rocky coast. Waves break here throughout the year, with the biggest surf arriving from July to Sep- tember. Average midday air temperatures range from the mid-60s (winter) to the low 80s (summer). Water temperatures range from 68 to 72. Dozens of native surfers have taken up surfing, riding for the most part at breaks in and around Hanga Roa.

Easter Island

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

Encyclopedia of Surfing