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

Popular surfing/sailing hybrid sport using a surfboardlike hull and a universally mounted mast supporting a boom and sail. Early American surfer Tom Blake created a prone-position "sailing surfboard" in the 1930s, but the stand-up version of the sport was invented in 1965, when Southern California surfer/sailors Hoyle Schweitzer and Jim Drake developed a prototype for their 1970-patented Windsurfer. The new craft was an instant hit in Europe, and by the end of the decade had begun to catch on in America as well; it was estimated that 100,000 sailboards were sold worldwide prior to 1980. In Europe, the sport was practiced almost exclusively on lakes and rivers, while in America it was for the most part an ocean activity, with wave-riding and -jumping emerging as the main attraction. Sailboarders in Hawaii were soon angling across huge waves; when the surf was smaller, they used waves to launch into spinning midair loops, flips, and rolls. Sailboarding equipment evolved quickly over the years, becoming ever lighter and stronger. Today's high-performance boards (usually between seven to nine feet long, resembling a thick surfboard with footstraps) are generally made from Styrofoam blanks covered in fiberglass and epoxy resin, the mast from carbon-aluminum composites, and the sails (used in various sizes according to wind speed) from some combination of monofilm, Dacron, Mylar, and Kevlar. The first Sailboarding World Championships were held in France in 1975, the sailboarding Pro World Tour was founded in 1983, and the sport became an Olympic event in 1984. Today's competition categories include slalom racing, distance racing, wave- riding, aerials, and free-riding. There are dozens of local, domestic, and international windsurfing leagues and circuits, topped by the Professional Windsurfing Association's (PWA) pro tour, which sanctions 14 to 18 annual international events a year; aggregate PWA prize money in 2001 was just over $500,000. Robbie Naish of Maui is almost universally acknowledged as sailboarding's all-time greatest rider, having won more than 20 overall and individual discipline world titles in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, including six PWA championships. Wind- and wave-filled Hookipa Beach on Maui has long been regarded as sailboarding's Mecca. By 2003, there were an estimated 10 million sailboarders worldwide, eight million in Europe alone. Some of California and Hawaii's best-known surfers, including Gerry Lopez, Richard Schmidt, and Laird Hamilton, became avid sailboarders in the '80s and early '90s; virtually all of the best wave-riding sailboarders, meanwhile, are accomplished surfers. In the early '90s, sailboarders Mike Waltz, Dave Kalama, and Rush Randall were among the first group to ride a Maui big-wave surf break called Jaws; Hamilton, along with fellow Hawaiian surfer/sailboarders Buzzy Kerbox and Darrick Doerner, recognized the advantage of a wind-aided takeoff for big-wave riding, and in the early 1990s took the process a step further by developing motorized tow-in surfing, thereby revolutionizing big-wave riding completely. Sailboarding is also known as windsurfing, boardsailing, and surf-sailing. See also: kiteboarding.

sailboarding

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