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

Surfing Web site based in San Juan Capistrano, California; founded in 2000 by East Coast surfers and financial analysts Jeff Berg and Nicholas Nathanson. Plugging into the late-'90s Internet boom, Berg and Nathanson were able to raise more than $20 million in venture capital to produce what they described as a "comprehensive surfing Web site." Swell.com quickly hired some of the biggest names in surf publishing, including writers Nick Carroll, Steve Hawk, Ben Marcus, Evan Slater, Dave Parmenter, and Matt Warshaw, and photo editor Larry Moore, in addition to a dozen or so top names in Web design, management, and marketing. Swell also purchased Surfline.com, the popular surf report and forecasting Web site, and created a skateboarding site (monsterskate.com) and a snowboarding site (crossrocket.com). An expensive print ad campaign announced the Swell.com launch in October 2000. Web surfers on opening day were able to choose from an extensive content menu that included a 10,000-word feature on the history of tow-in surfing, a daily news feature, a contest report page, dozens of highly detailed surf break maps, an environmental section, surf product reviews, and an A-to-Z surfing almanac. Bluetorch. com and Hardcloud.com, Swell's primary rivals, had also spent millions putting together comparable all-purpose surf sites; all three expected to generate revenue through online surf shop sales. The Bluetorch and Hardcloud sites, however, were both gone by late 2000. Swell fared better, even during the beginning of the Internet bust, attracting more than one million unique monthly visitors by the summer of 2001 (a majority going directly to Surfline's popular onsite surf break Web cams), and winning a Webby Award for Best Sports Web site in July. The 2001 Swell XXL Big-Wave contest, with entrants judged on photographic evidence of their biggest wave from the previous winter, was won by California surfer Mike Parsons, and earned Swell a burst of mainstream press coverage. But deep editorial staff cuts had already been made and by the end of summer the company was divided into three somewhat- related sites: Surfingthemag.com (Surfing magazine's Web site) took much of Swell's editorial content, including daily features, reviews, and competition reports; Surfline.com retained the Web cams, surf spot maps, and almanac pages; and Swell.com became an online and mail-order surf shop. See also Internet and surfing.

Swell.com

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