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

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Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

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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

backside attack, Pipeline

backwash

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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

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Beachley, Layne

beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

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