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, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Beschen, Shane

Even though small, mediocore surf is the rule in Florida, the state is home nonetheless to an astonishing number of world-class surfers. Composed of a long and nearly unbroken string of subtropical beachbreaks (580 miles long on the Atlantic side, 770 miles in the Gulf) punctuated by jetties, inlets, and piers, Florida can be divided into three main surfing regions: 1) The Gulf Coast hooks down from the Alabama border southeast to Key West, and is filled with erratic, here-and-gone beachbreak waves. 

The best-known spots include Picken's Point in Pensacola, 12th Avenue in Indian Rocks, and Naples Pier. 2) The southern Atlantic coast, Florida's most popular surfing area, extends south from Cape Canaveral and is home to the ferociously crowded peaks of Sebastian Inlet, the sloping semireef waves at RC's (which holds the biggest surf in the state), and the inconsistent but well-shaped lefts of Reef Road. 3) The northern Atlantic coast from Cape Canaveral to the Georgia border contains more than 50 breaks, including the crowded but dependable peaks at Jax Beach Pier and the sometimes-tubing waves of New Smyrna Beach. The Florida Keys, a 150-mile chain of islands extending southwest from Florida, generally has poor surf. 

Florida's entire coast is bordered by a wide continental shelf that filters out much of the power of incoming swells. The fall hurricane season is the best time to surf, although winter and spring produce plenty of small but ridable wind swells and a few larger ground swells. Summer can be flat for weeks at a time. 

Average daytime air temperatures in Florida range from the low 90s in summer to the upper 50s in winter; water temperatures range from the high 70s to the low 60s. More than half of America's total reported shark attacks took place in Florida, although a majority were nonfatal strikes by spinner or black tip sharks.

Stand-up surfing was introduced to Florida at Miami Beach in the early '30s by a small group of local bodysurfers and bellyboarders—including Bill and Dudley Whitman, Paul Hart, and Gauldin Reid— who built their own solid-wood surfboards after watching a pair of visiting Virginia surfers ride Miami's easy-rolling waves. 

Wisconsin-born surfing pioneer Tom Blake befriended the Whitman brothers in 1933 and showed them how to build hollow paddleboards for surfing. Daytona Beach then became the main surfing area, and in 1939 was the site of the East Coast's first surf competition. Florida surfing died out during World War II, then reemerged in the mid-'50s, largely due to the efforts of the original surfing pioneers, who later formed the Daytona Beach Surfing Association in 1960, and taught hundreds of interested beachgoers how to ride. 

Dudley Whitman was the first Hobie Surfboards dealer on the East Coast, and began selling boards from his Daytona home in the late '50s; Daytona Beach Surf Shop, the first retail store of its kind in the state, opened in 1961. Soldiers stationed at the Pensacola Naval Air Station meanwhile brought surfing to Florida's Gulf Coast in the early '60s, making their own boards under the "Hutson" label—the name of the local hardware store.

The Florida Surfing Association was formed in 1962, and the first annual Daytona Beach Surfing Championships were won that year by Cocoa Beach surfer and soon-to-be-infamous jewel thief Jack Murphy. The Eastern Surfing Association held its first annual Championships event at Sebastian Inlet in 1970, before moving the contest to its permanent location on North Carolina's Outer Banks. 

Surfing grew rapidly in Florida throughout the '60s and '70s, and the state's organized and highly competitive surf scene was immediately recognized for producing the best riders on the East Coast. Top Floridian surfers from the '60s and early '70s included Mimi Munro, Gary Propper, Mike Tabeling, Claude Codgen, and Yancy Spencer; high performers from the next generation included Greg Loehr, Jeff Crawford, Jim Cartland, Isabel McLaughlin, and Greg Mungall. 

The Wave Rider Magazine Florida Pro, mainland America's first world pro tour event, took place at Sebastian Inlet in 1976, and carried on through 1979; Sebastian was also the location of the United States Surfing Championships, held in 1986, 1990, and 1994. Another seven world tour events—including the Wave Wizards Pro, the Tropix Pro, and the Aloe Up Cup—were held in the state between 1983 and 1989. Pro tour competitors Matt Kechele, Charlie Kuhn, Todd Holland, and Frieda Zamba were among the top Florida riders in the '80s. 

"Florida waves have half the juice of California waves, and one-quarter the form," local boardmaking guru Dick Catri said in 1976, explaining why the state produces such talented surfers. "So these guys push that much harder to compensate . . . and when they finally get the good stuff, man, they're crying for it." Florida surfers continued to be a force on the pro tour in the '90s and early '00s led by eleven-time world champion Kelly Slater, four-time world champion Lisa Andersen, and 2001 world champion CJ Hobgood, with support from Damien Hobgood, Cory and Shea Lopez. The Florida surf contingent in the '10s is led by Eric and Evan Geiselman and Peter Mendia.

 magazine was published out of Cocoa Beach from 1975 to 1982; 

 magazine was headquartered in Melbourne from 1977 to 1979; 

 has been publishing out of Indialantic since 1991. 

Ron Jon Surf Shop, which opened in Cocoa Beach in 1963, was remodeled in the early '90s into a mind-boggling 52,000-square-foot, 24-hours-a- day retail emporium, making it by far the largest shop of its kind in the world. By the mid 2000s, Florida was home to 250,000 surfers and 120 surf shops. 

 magazine named New Smyrna Beach #9 in its list of the ten best surf towns in the U.S. 

The Floridian surf has been featured in dozens of surf movies and videos, including 

, by surf journalist Amy Vansant, was published in 1995. 

Florida

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