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

Maryland surfing is generally friendly, safe, and uncomplicated. The state's 31-mile coastline is lined with a series of long, narrow, sand barrier islands; eastern Maryland is part of the Delmarva Peninsula, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay. 

The Maryland beachfront is divided into two main areas: the 10-mile strip in and around Ocean City, a famously manic summertime resort destination; and, in poetic counterbalance, the clean, empty, sand-and-shrub-filled Assateague Island National Seashore, located just south of the Ocean City Inlet. 

Ocean City has more than a dozen jetties that help create sandbars, and popular surfing areas here include 8th Street, 47th Street, and 80th Street. The surf along Assateague Island, which curves gently south for 20 miles into northern Virginia, is far less crowded than Ocean City, and will sometimes hold shape during larger swells, when Ocean City waves lose form. 

Winter air temperatures often drop below freezing, and the water dips into the mid-30s; air and water temperatures in summer both average about 75, but the relentless humidity makes it feel much hotter. Surfing is an all-year sport in Maryland, but best in fall and early winter; as the humidity falls, the Ocean City population drops almost 90 percent from its summertime high, and North Atlantic storms and hurricanes can produce clean surf with offshore winds. 

Maryland lifeguard George Feehley occasionally surfed in front of his Ocean City post in the late 1950s, but surfing didn't really take hold here until 1962, when Delaware residents Bill Wise and George Pittman began riding Ocean City's North Beach, and were soon joined by Dan Herlihy, Bryant Hungerford, Jim Phillips, and the Johnson brothers, Richard and Al. The Eastern Surfer, Maryland's first surf shop, owned by Wise and Pittman and located in an Ocean City hotel basement, opened in 1964. On July 4th of that year, Bruce Brown did a live-narration screening at a local high school of his just-finished movie The Endless Summer; the morning before the show, Endless Summer stars Mike Hynson and Robert August, along with top California surfer Corky Carroll, gave a surfing demonstration at 17th Street that drew nearly 5,000 spectators. 

By 2003, Maryland had eight surf shops, all located in Ocean City, and about 1,500 resident surfers. The Eastern Surfing Association runs about a half-dozen surf contests here annually. Richard "Skill" Johnson, a first-generation Maryland surfer and finalist in the masters division of the 1980 United States Surfing Championships, is Maryland's best-known surfer, along with 1986 national champion bodyboarder Jay Reale. Jack Shipley, world pro tour judge and cofounder of Lightning Bolt Surfboards in Hawaii, was born and raised in Maryland.

Maryland

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features