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

Tropical to subtropical African island nation, roughly two and a half times the size of Great Britain, located about 240 miles southeast of Mozambique in the Indian Ocean. Surfing's origins in Madagascar are unknown. 

An economically disastrous Marxist revolution in 1975 all but sealed off the country from visitors, and if any surfers explored Madagascar before that point their visits have gone undocumented. The government began to quietly encourage tourism beginning in 1987, with the hope that foreign currency would aid the economy, but Madagascar remains one of the world's poorest nations. 

Still, more than a dozen surf spots were mapped out across the country's 2,000-mile-long coastline by 1991, including a variety of reefs and white-sand beachbreaks, all of which have consistent medium-sized waves from April to June. Most of the reefs are located well offshore on the east coast of the island, and are reached by boat. Water temperatures are generally in the 70s. Sharks are a constant worry, as Madagascar averages 12 attacks annually. 

Two surfers—one from Hawaii, the other from Australia, visited Madagascar in 1968. Both were convinced that surfing was out of the question, as the local waters were believed to be filled with sharks; just before leaving the country, the Aussie surfer quickly out into some small shorebreak surf on a beach near the east coast port city of Toamasina and caught a single wave—just for bragging rights. 

Surf charter travel companies began offering boat excursions to Madagascar in the late 1990s, and as of 2002 the surf here has been featured in at least two surf videos—

(2001). The opening scenes of TriStar's melodramatic 1998 big-wave surf film

Madagascar remains a strange and remote surfing frontier. "For every good wave you ride here," 

 magazine reported in 1997, "you go through a lot of work. The country is poorer than poor and in the most unbelievable state of decay." 

As of 2003, it was thought that fewer than a dozen natives had taken up surfing.

Madagascar

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

Encyclopedia of Surfing