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

Hybrid sport that combines surfing, skateboarding, and skiing; performed for the most part at mountain resorts on a double-ended board ridden in a surfing-like stance. In 1965, Michigan chemical engineer Sherman Poppin invented the "Snurfer," a narrow plywood stand-up board with footstraps and a rope handle tied to the nose, as a snow toy for his daughter. A half million Snurfers sold the following season, and the boards remained popular for years to come. Throughout the '70s, several different innovators—including skier Jake Burton in Vermont, skateboard manufacturers Chuck Barfoot and Tom Sims in California, and former East Coast surfer Dimitrije Milovich in Utah—independently produced early versions of the snowboard. (California surfing champion Mike Doyle tried and failed in the early '70s to market the "single ski," or "mono-board," a wide-beamed ski with side-by- side boot bindings.) By 1980, commercial snowboards were being made from hard wood coated in polyurethane, and featured a sturdy boot-binding system; Burton and Sims, in that order, were the two largest snowboard companies. Attendant media soon followed, with International Snowboard Magazine launched in 1984, followed by TransWorld Snowboarding and Snowboarder. The sport by that time was borrowing liberally the moves and the rebel attitude of skateboarding, and its popularity exploded over the next decade, particularly in the early and mid-'90s: in 1985 snowboarding was permitted at less than 10 percent of American ski resorts. By 1995 it was allowed virtually everywhere, with a majority of resorts providing snowboard-only "half-pipes": long, U-shaped inclines that riders use to launch a variety of skateboard-inspired aerial maneuvers. Hundreds of companies—including many crossovers from the surfing, skateboarding, and skiing industries—began manufacturing snowboard equipment and clothing lines, sponsoring top riders and events, and producing videos. The International Snowboard Federation was formed in 1989 (the USA Snowboard Association was also formed that year), and held its first world championship event in 1993; two snowboarding events— half-pipe and parallel slalom—were included in the 1998 Winter Olympics. (Frustrated international surf- ing competition boosters, in contrast, have been trying for 40 years to get their sport Olympic-certified.) American snowboarders won the gold, silver, and bronze medals in the 2002 Olympics. A small percentage of snowboards are designed for downhill/speed riding; the vast majority are for half-pipe/trick riding. The average snowboard is about 150 to 160 centimeters long, side-cut and cambered, rounded and upturned at both ends, and made from the same polyethylene-composite materials as snow skis. Snowboards, like surfboards, have a nose and tail; unlike surfboards, they're designed to be ridden in either direction; backward riding is called "fakie." Riders wear padded boots, which attach to the snowboard by one of a few different boot-specific binding systems. A high-end snowboard setup— board, bindings, and boots—costs about $1,000. Snowboarding feels more like surfing than any other sport, and tens of thousands of surfers are also proficient snowboarders, including Pipeline icon Gerry Lopez, big-wave riders Laird Hamilton, Brock Little, Darrick Doerner, and Mike Parsons, and aerial wizards Nathan and Christian Fletcher. The early '90s saw the introduction of combined two-day surfing/ snowboarding events, such as the Op Wintersurf Pro in California and the Quiksilver Boardriders Pro in France, which included professionals from both sports. But a majority of rank-and-file snowboarders, along with many top sponsored pros, have little interest in contests, viewing the sport instead as a free-form activity; snowboarding's inclusion in the Olympics in 1998 was met by indifference and even scorn in most quarters. Snowboarding has moved toward the mainstream over the past few years, but to a large degree it remains a scruffy and rebellious alternative to skiing.

snowboarding

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews