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

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

The rockbound coast of Maine, America's northeasternmost state—famous for its lobster, light-houses, and tiny fishing villages—is home to dozens of temperamental surf breaks and a small but dedicated community of surfers. Maine's jagged 228-mile shoreline is filled with peninsulas, points, coves, and rivermouths, many of which contain surf spots that remain either uncharted or unexposed—especially in the rural area north of Portland, as well as hundreds of offshore islands. Established mainland breaks include Higgins Beach in Scarborough, Fortunes Rock in Biddeford and Gooch's Beach near Kennebunkport. Ogunquit Rivermouth, a sand-bottom wave featuring a long right and a shorter, faster left, is the state's best-known break, and the only spot that regularly draws a crowd. 

Maine's primary surf season is from August to early December, before the winter weather settles in. Winter surf can be excellent, but is more often stormy and always shockingly cold. Air temperatures range from 65 (summer) to 15 (winter); water temperatures range from the mid-60s to the low 30s. Winter surfers in Maine at times gain access to the water only after plowing through deep beachfront snowdrifts; many local surfers simply pack it in for the season or travel to warmer climes. Spring and summer are often waveless for weeks at a time. Tides in Maine can be extreme, particularly in the north, where water levels can change up to 30 feet in six hours. (The Bay of Fundy, just north of Maine, has the world's biggest tidal ranges; up to 52 feet.) 

Ogunquit lifeguard Steve Watson introduced surfing to Maine in the summer of 1960, riding without a wetsuit on a 15-foot plywood paddleboard. Surfer Crow surf shop, owned by Watson, opened in 1966—the first shop of its kind in the state—and two years later Watson became the regional director for the just-chartered Eastern Surfing Association. The sport grew slowly in southern Maine during the '60s (the north remained virtually unsurfed), with small but loyal membership in groups like the Ogunquit Beach Surf Club and Drake's Island Surf Club, both established by 1967. The debut Maine Open Surf Contest was held in 1968. 

Maine surfing remained an outlier to East Coast surfing in general through the '70s and '80s; native Mike Morin formed Syco Surfboards, the state's first board factory, in 1984. Bill Woodward was the first Maine surfer to place in the finals of an Eastern Surfing Championship, taking third in the masters division (ages 25–34) in 1995. Only since the late '90s have adventurous surfers begun to systematically explore Maine's remote northern coast and outer islands. 

As of 2003, Maine was home to four surf shops and roughly 100 full-time surfers, most of whom are proud of their no-etiquette approach to the sport. "It's Neanderthal surfing around here," still-active surfer Steve Watson said in 2000. "Myself included."

Maine

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

Contests

Encyclopedia of Surfing

Contests