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

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Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

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Angourie

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Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

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Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

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Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

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Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

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Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

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Barry, Michael

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Bay of Bengal

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beachboys

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Beachcomber Bills Grand Prix

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beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

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Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Beschen, Shane

The second-largest Hawaiian island, Maui is 48 miles long, 26 miles wide, covers over 720 square miles, and is called the Valley Isle for its beautiful volcanic basins and cliff-lined canyons. Maui is fringed by about 70 surf breaks of varying quality and consistency. Because the island is flanked to the southwest by the Big Island and to the northwest by Molokai and Oahu, incoming swells are often blocked or reduced; winter surf on Maui is generally about half the size of that found on Oahu's North Shore, and most of its south shore waves demand a rare southeast swell. 

Maui's main surfing areas include the north shore town of Kahului (near the consistent waves of Ho'okipa), the west coast resort towns of Lahaina and Kaanapali, and the burgeoning south coast town of Kihei. Maui is home to three of the world's best surf spots: the hypnotically perfect right-breaking winter waves at Honolua Bay; the bullet-fast rights of Maalaea on the south shore; and the horrific right-breaking tubes at Jaws, a tow-in-only big-wave break located on the north coast. 

Steady northwest tradewinds bring moisture in from the northeast. The east, north, and upper northwest corners of the island are lushly vegetated and often windy and cloudy; the other side of the island is fairly dry and arid. Haleakala, the world's largest dormant volcano, 10,000 feet high, dominates Maui's eastern half. Temperatures on Maui range from 70 to 80 degrees (except for the upper slopes of Haleakala Crater, which can drop to 40), and water temperatures are in the mid- to upper 70s. About 120,000 people live on Maui, making it Hawaii's second-most populated island, following Oahu.

Premodern Hawaiian surfers frequented at least six breaks on Maui, with hundreds riding at a time in the gentle waves off Lahaina as late as 1823. Thirty years later surfing continued to be an enthusiastically practiced sport on Maui even though it had been all but eradicated on the other Hawaiian islands by visiting missionaries. By the end of the century, however, the sport had faded here as well, and it didn't return until the early 1930s. 

Maui remained a virtually unheard of surfing destination until the early and mid-'60s, when Honolua Bay was presented in surf movies and magazines as the unspoiled tropical version of Malibu. A mini-surf boom followed, as a small number of famous surfers—including

 magazine founder John Severson and ace tuberider Gerry Lopez—took up residence on Maui, while thousands of others flooded in looking for a quick hit of paradise; HERE TODAY, GONE TO MAUI, as the tourist- hawked T-shirts would later proclaim. Honolua was one of the great testing grounds of the late-'60s shortboard revolution, and longtime Maui resident Joseph "Buddy Boy" Kaohi held his own as the best surfers in the world, riding their new "pocket rockets" and vee-bottoms, began carving radical new lines across the wave face. (Maui also became known around this time as the LSD-infused psychedelic Babylon, a part of the island's culture best documented in the Jimi Hendrix concert movie 

, filmed largely in Haleakala Crater—with added Maalaea surfing clips—three months before Hendrix's death.) 

Maui's strong and predictable tradewinds had by the late '70s turned the island into the sailboarding capital of the world, which in turn led to the late-'90s development of kiteboarding. Sailboarders were the first to ride at Jaws in the late 1980s, and were an important part of the Jaws tow-in push in the mid-'90s. Foilboarding was also invented on Maui.

As of 2012, Maui was home more than a dozen surf shops and well over 5,000 resident surfers. The Hawaiian Amateur Surfing Association sponsors a handful of contests here yearly. Maui has also hosted a number of pro events, including the 1999-founded Billabong Girls Pro and the 2002/2003 Tow-In World Cup. 

Maui has been home to a number of surf world notables, including artist Chris Lassen, photographer Erik Aeder, big-wave masters Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama, aerial surfer Randy "Goose" Welch, Dusty Payne, Ian Walsh, and Clay Marzo. 

, a faux-reality television show ran on MTV for a season in 2007, and featured pro surfer and Maui resident and pro surfer Cheyne Magnusson. The Maui surf is detailed in 

Maui

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