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

Drizzly, wind-lashed peninsular region of the United Kingdom; bordered by England and the North Atlantic. The Welsh coastline is full of high cliffs, headlands, small sheltered coves, reefs, and sandy beaches, and can be divided into four main surf regions: 1) The industrialized Severn Estuary, separated from England by the Bristol Channel and dependent on the biggest winter swells for ridable waves. 2) The Gower Peninsula, Welsh surfing headquarters and home of most of the area's best waves and best surfers. 3) The remote and largely undeveloped Pembrokeshire area, full of empty point and reef surf. 4) The less-active northwest area, directly across St. George's Channel from Ireland. 

Surf in Wales is small to nonexistent during the mild summer months; from autumn to spring, Atlantic storms regularly send head-high waves into the Welsh coastline—not as big as those found on the premier beaches in England, Scotland, and Ireland, but well-shaped and with lots of variety. Winter surf is chilly, with air and water temperatures both usually in the upper 40s. Wave shape and form changes dramatically with the tide, which can climb or drop as much as 40 feet in six hours. 

The broad and beautiful Langland Bay, located near the city of Swansea, has long been the center of Welsh surfing. Surfing was looked at as something of an oddity when it took root in Wales in the mid-'60s. "Among Welsh surfers," noted the London Sunday Times in 1966, "there are no T-shirts with surfboard slogans; no wild barbecues on the beach in the small hours; not a surfing song, even." 

The Welsh Surfing Federation was formed in 1973, and Crab Islands Surfboards, Wales' first surf shop, was founded two years later. Carwyn Williams, a gregarious and well-traveled surfer from the town of Mumbles, became the first Welshman to win a European surfing title, in 1983. 

As of 2003, Wales was home to about a dozen surf shops and 1,500 surfers. Wales is featured in Made in Britain, a 2001 surf video; the Welsh surf is detailed in The Stormrider Guide Europe (1998) and Surf U.K. (2000).

Wales

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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