A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

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Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

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alaia board

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Alexander, Kala

Alexandre, João (Dapin)

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

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Alvarez, Pepe

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Andaman Islands

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Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

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Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

Arakawa, Eric

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Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

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Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

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Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

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Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

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Belgium

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Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

America's first known African-American surfer, Nick Gabaldon of Los Angeles (born 1927) taught himself how to ride waves in the mid-1940s from inside a segregated strip of Santa Monica oceanfront known as "Negro Beach" or "Inkwell Beach." He was encouraged by surfing champion and longtime Santa Monica lifeguard Pete Peterson, as well as future big-wave kingpin Buzzy Trent.

Gabaldon graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1945, and enlisted in Navy. Before the decade was out, he enrolled in Santa Monica City College, and worked as a postman.

One morning, probably in the summer of 1949, Gabaldon rode Malibu for the first time after paddling 12 miles up the coast from Santa Monica. That afternoon he paddled back. He followed the same route almost daily for the next few weeks—he didn't own a car—before some of the local surfers began driving him to and from the break. "Race wasn't really an issue at Malibu," said Ricky Grigg, who as a teenager surfed the break with Gabaldon. "Nick was perhaps considered more like a Hawaiian than anything else. Everyone liked him. And he was a pretty smooth surfer, too."

On June 5, 1951, at Malibu, during an eight-foot south swell, the 24-year-old Gabaldon rode a wave long past the normal kick-out zone and was killed after running into the Pier. He was a student at Santa Monica City College, and one week before his death had submitted to the college literary magazine a poem titled "Lost Lives," which included the lines: "The sea vindictive, with waves so high / For men to battle and still they die."

Gabaldon's death was mentioned in the 1957 book 

. In 2008 Santa Monica dedicated a plaque honoring Gabaldon at a section of beach where he learned to surf. 

, a documentary, was released in 2012. The following year, the city of Santa Monica named June 1st as "Nick Gabaldon Day."

Gabaldon, Nick

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features