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

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backside attack, Pipeline

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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

Type of balsa-core surfboard designed after World War II by California boardmaker Bob Simmons, and refined primarily by Joe Quigg and Matt Kivlin, also from California, with most of the field testing done at Malibu."Chip" was short for "potato chip," as the new boards were so much lighter than those used in the '30s; they were also called "Malibu chips."

Surfers in the prewar years either rode blunt-nosed redwood or redwood-balsa "plank" boards that weighed anywhere from 45 to 100 pounds, or tippy, streamlined, and somewhat lighter "cigar-box" hollow boards. Simmons's fiberglass-sealed balsa boards ('30s boards were finished in varnish) had scooped-up noses, wider and curvier outlines, and weighed about 30 pounds. Subsequent boards by Quigg and Kivlin were lighter still.

The rear-anchored stabilizing fin, introduced in the mid-'30s but not popularized until the mid-'40s, was standard on the chip. All these features combined to make an easier-turning board that also rode tighter to the curl. The chip, Quigg said in 1984, "busted the whole surfing thing right open," with bottom- and top-turns coming about as a direct result of the new boards.

The beginning of the end for the chip board came in the mid-'50s, with the introduction of the wide-backed "pig" model, and by the end of the decade, with polyurethane foam taking over as the near-universal core material for surfboards, the chip was all but extinct. By the end of the century, collectors were paying up to $18,000 for an original Simmons chip.

chip board

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