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

Hawaii, located 2,090 miles southwest of the U.S. mainland, is commonly recognized as surfing's birthplace, as well as its spiritual home. "If there's a church of surfing like there's a church of baseball," novelist Kem Nunn wrote in 1993, "certainly Hawaii is its Mecca." Hawaii's four major islands (Kauai, Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii) have a combined 820 miles of coastline; air and water temperatures on each island average between 70 and 80 degrees from season to season; and with a few exceptions waves here break over shallow lava-lined reefs. Summer surf is generally between two and four feet; winter surf is often six to 10 feet, and can get up to 30 feet or bigger. Oahu is by far the most populated Hawaiian island, and also has the most surf breaks, including the gentle rollers of Waikiki, the variegated waves of Makaha, and the thundering arrangement of spots along the North Shore, including Pipeline, Sunset Beach, and Waimea Bay. Maui's best-known breaks are Honolua Bay, Jaws, and Maalaea; Kauai is home to Hanalei Bay. (The Hawaiian chain is actually composed of more than 130 islands and extends for 1,500 miles, ending to the northwest near the Midway Islands; the major islands are clustered together in the southeast.)

While it's likely that the Hawaiian surf was being ridden on bellyboards as early as A.D. 400, shortly after seafaring Polynesians first settled the islands, historians have suggested that stand-up surfing began around 1000. Lieutenant James King, an officer under British explorer Captain James Cook, was the first person to write about stand-up surfing, in 1779, after seeing a group of Hawaiian wave-riders at the Big Island's Kealakekua Bay, noting that "they seem to feel a great pleasure in the motion which this exercise gives." Reports from subsequent explorers and missionaries described surfing as an integral part of daily life for all islanders, male and female, old and young, royalty and commoners. Premodern Hawaiians are thought to have ridden at least 100 different surf breaks throughout the island chain, with the Kona coast of the Big Island being the most popular surfing region, followed by the Waikiki area of Oahu. Villages would empty during a good swell, with everyone picking up their wooden boards made of koa or wiliwili and heading for the surf. Most adults used the shorter alaia boards, measuring between seven and 12 feet; royalty sometimes used massive olo boards that measured up to 17 feet. Surfing was also a method of courtship (a man and woman might ride a wave together prior to lovemaking), a spectator sport (pigs, canoes, and textiles were often wagered; servitude, even life itself, was occasionally put on the line), and a source of myth and legend. Prayers were offered to bring the surf up, and to consecrate the trees from which surfboards were made.

The introduction of western culture was disastrous for the Hawaiians and for their favorite sport. By the mid-19th century, crippled by newly introduced diseases and humbled by the arrival of Calvinist missionaries who disapproved of surfing as licentious (the fact that it was practiced in the nude was particularly galling to the newcomers) and running "against the laws of God," Hawaiians for the most part gave up the sport. By 1892, as physician and missionary's son Nathaniel Emerson wrote, it was "hard to find a surfboard outside our museums and private collections."

Hawaii's surfing renaissance began in Waikiki in the early 20th century and was soon being led by future Olympic gold medal swimmer Duke Kahanamoku, along with Irish-Hawaiian surfer George Freeth and writer/organizer Alexander Hume Ford. Waikiki remained the center of the surf world until just after World War II. Much of America was introduced to the sport through Hawaii-based travel essays written by Mark Twain (published in 1866) and Jack London (1907). The sport was filmed for the first time in 1906 in Waikiki, two years before Ford chartered the Outrigger Canoe Club, the sport's first organized group (and by some reckoning the sport's first surf shop, as boards could be purchased at the Outrigger's palm-frond-covered Waikiki clubhouse). Waikiki was also the base from which surfing was exported to the rest of the world: Freeth introduced surfing to Southern California in 1907, and a few years later, Kahanamoku gave wave-riding demonstrations in California, New Jersey, New York, Australia, and New Zealand.

By the late '30s, Waikiki surfers John Kelly and Wally Froiseth were riding the bigger and faster waves at Makaha on the west side of Oahu; by the early '50s, a small number of surfers were regularly taking on the raw and powerful waves of the North Shore. The Makaha International Surfing Championships, the islands' first major surf contest, debuted in 1954, and was soon drawing entrants from California, Australia, and Peru. (Oahu would later become the crucible for professional surfing, as the home of International Professional Surfers—founders of the world pro circuit in 1976—and as host island to dozens of events, including the Duke Kahanamoku Classic, the Pipeline Masters, the World Cup, the Smirnoff Pro, the Billabong Pro, the Gotcha Pro, and the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau.) By the late '50s, the first generation of California transplant big-wave riders (most notably Buzzy Trent, Peter Cole, Ricky Grigg, and Fred Van Dyke) had moved to Hawaii, while dozens of other mainlanders were visiting for weeks or months at a time, a seasonal influx that would soon rise to hundreds, then thousands. Surf movies of the '50s and early '60s showed not only the more familiar Oahu spots like Makaha and Sunset, but ventured out to highlight more exotic breaks such as Honolua Bay on Maui or Kauai's Hanalei Bay. Hawaii continued to be viewed as the ultimate surf destination in the 1970s, where big-wave surfing and tuberiding were practiced at their highest levels and where cash prizes, reputations, and world championships could be won. By the early '80s, however, Indonesia was beginning to overtake Hawaii as the ultimate tropical surf destination, as perfect waves were discovered by the score up and down the gigantic Indian Ocean archipelago.

Hawaii continues to be a vital surf center today: thousands of tourists get their first and perhaps only taste of wave-riding while visiting resort-packed Waikiki; local surfers, like their island forebears, have made wave-riding an integral part of their everyday lives; the pro circuit ends each year with a series of events on the North Shore. Big-wave riding was reinvented in Hawaii in the early '90s as surfers began using personal watercraft to tow each other in to giant waves inaccessible by the standard paddle-in method, and the limits of big-wave surfing are tested nearly every winter in the giant Hawaiian surf. Maui has long been the creative wellspring for surf- associated sports like windsurfing, kiteboarding, and foilboarding.

Hawaii has regularly produced world champions (including Fred Hemmings, Margo Oberg, Lynne Boyer, Derek Ho, Rusty Keaulana, Sunny Garcia, Bonga Perkins, Andy Irons, and Carissa Moore), pro tour standouts (Michael Ho, Dane Kealoha, Shane Dorian, Kalani Robb, Rochelle Ballard, Keala Kennelly), big-wave riders (Peter Cole, Ricky Grigg, Eddie Aikau, James Jones, Darrick Doerner, Mark Foo, Ken Bradshaw, Laird Hamilton, Brock Little, Dave Wassel, Kamalei Alexander), first-rate surfboard shapers (Dick Brewer, Ben Aipa, Glenn Minami, Pat Rawson, John Carper), photographer/filmmakers (Warren Bolster, Steve Wilkings, Don King, Bill Ballard), and industry-leading surf companies (Lightning Bolt, Town and Country, Hawaiian Island Creations, Local Motion). Other Hawaiian surfers who've made indelible imprints on the sport include Rabbit Kekai, Joey Cabell, Gerry Lopez, Larry Bertlemann, Jeff Hakman, Barry Kanaiaupuni, Reno Abellira, Jock Sutherland, Paul Strauch, Rell Sunn, and Johnny-Boy Gomes.

As of 2012, Hawaii was home to well over 100,000 surfers, about 100 surf shops, 

 magazine, and a small number of local surfing TV shows (including 

). The Hawaii Amateur Surfing Association runs dozens of events annually. The Bishop Museum in Honolulu is home to the world's most extensive collection of pre– 20th-century surfboards. Hawaii's surfers, surf history, and surf breaks have been detailed in dozens of books, including

 Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport

Fierce Heart: The Story of Makaha and the Soul of Hawaiian Surfing 

Waves of Resistance: Surfing and History in 20th Century Hawaii

Hawaii

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

Encyclopedia of Surfing