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

History-rich Massachusetts has by far the largest population of any New England state, and a fair number of worthwhile breaks along its crooked-finger mainland and offshore islands, but the surf scene here is nonetheless small and insular. 

Massachusetts can be broken into four surfing regions: 1) North of Boston, primarily around Cape Ann and Gloucester, offers a series of beachbreaks and cobblestone pointbreaks, most of which produce cold and mediocre surf, with the best waves usually arriving in winter and early spring. The area in and around the peninsula town of Nahant, on the north side of Boston Bay, is the area's best-known surf zone. 

2) South of Boston is home to the state's most popular surfing areas, around the towns of Hull and Scituate, with a small number of surf shops and several Web cams focused on nearby breaks. As Cape Cod blocks incoming south and southeast swells, the area only receives waves generated by local winds or winter nor'easters. 

3) The 65-mile east-facing arm of Cape Cod, positioned well into the Atlantic, contains dozens of beachbreaks, is best in fall and winter, but receives surf throughout the year. Beach crowds can be a problem in the summertime. 

4) The offshore islands, primarily Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Island, have a small number of breaks, with the best surf arriving during the fall. Famously exclusive and restricted, Massachusetts island surfing is generally practiced by wealthy visitors. 

Average coastal daytime air temperatures in Massachusetts range from the low 70s in summer to the mid-30s in winter; water temperatures range from the low 30s to the low 70s, although Cape Cod rarely gets above 62. 

Bodysurfing and bellyboarding were popular on Cape Cod and the north coast of Massachusetts as far back as the early 1930s, but stand-up surfing wasn't introduced to the state until 1963, when native Bob Stevens began riding the beaches near his Nahant home. Nahant Beach Surf Shop, the first retail outlet of its kind in Massachusetts, opened the following year, and not long after the Short Beach Competition Team sponsored the state's first surfing contest in Nahant. 

Dave Williams of Nantucket Beach is believed to be the first person to ride the area south of Boston in 1963; surfers from Springfield helped introduce the sport to Cape Cod around the same time. "It's a little cool maybe in the spring," a founding Cape Cod wave-rider told Surfing magazine at the time, "but some of the boys wear rubber jackets [wetsuits], and others wear sweatshirts and baggies and we enjoy it to the fullest." 

Massachusetts later became a novelty destination for a small number of East Coast surfers ("the place is so historic," surf journalist Any Vansant wrote in 1995, "even the squirrels live in ivy-covered brick houses"), but was for the most part left alone. 

By 2003, Massachusetts was home to seven surf shops and an estimated 1,000 surfers, most of them seasonal. Massachusetts is included in the New England district of the Eastern Surfing Association. The Massachusetts surf is detailed in The Stormrider Guide North America (2002).

Massachusetts

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

Encyclopedia of Surfing