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

Group of volcanic islands in the tropical South Pacific Ocean, located roughly halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii; American Samoa, made up of the eastern islands, is a United States territory; Western Samoa is an independent nation. The bountiful Samoan surf is powerful, well-shaped, and lined with sharp coral reefs. Many of the best reefs are set in near-complete isolation. 

The weather is tropically warm from season to season, with water temperatures averaging about 80 degrees; the Pago Pago harbor area, on American Samoa's main island of Tutuila, gets nearly 200 inches of rain a year. Swells arrive from the south and east between May and October and from the north and northwest from November to April. 

Samoa was one of the surf world's best-kept secrets in the '70s and '80s, and even today retains much of its quiet, even mysterious allure— and all its beauty. "The contrasts in color are amazing," Australian pro surfer Pru Jeffries said after visiting in 1998. "A black-lava-lined point is fringed with deep green vegetation, and cerulean blue lefts wall up and spin over a fan-coral bottom." 

Lauli'i Tuai is one of American Samoa's best waves, a fast, tubing, spitting left. Aufaga's long right-breaking waves are among the best in Western Samoa. 

Poisonous reef fish are a worry throughout the entire area, but nothing like the shallow coral-covered reefs, which are regarded as among the most dangerous in the surfing world. Surfing was a part of ancient Samoan culture, but was quashed under the influence of visiting 19th- century missionaries. Unlike Hawaiians, the Samoans didn't pick the sport back up in the early decades of the following century. 

In the 1990s, however, a handful of young natives began surfing, and since 2000 American Samoa has fielded a small team in the Pacific Cup, the Oceania Cup, and other competitions. Two small Australian-owned surf resorts opened on the islands in the late '90s, while travel companies began offering oceangoing Samoa surf boat charters. Surfing is prohibited on Sundays in Western Samoa, along with nearly all other activities, except for church services and feasts. 

Samoa is featured in a small number of surf movies and videos, including Ticket to Ride (1986) and Follow the Leader (1998).

Samoa Islands

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

Features