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

Alexandre, João (Dapin)

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, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Indestructible goofyfooter from Brazil; four-time winner of the Billabong XXL Best Female Performance Award; anointed by the 

 in 2008 as the "Super Woman of Big-Wave Surfing." Gabeira, born in Rio de Janeiro (1987), is the daughter of popular leftist politican and author Fernando Gabeira—a founding member of the Brazilian Green Party—and noted fashion designer Yame Reis. Gabeira took up surfing at the age of 14 as a means to escape a turbulent childhood. Three years later she moved to Hawaii and began riding Sunset Beach. "When I saw Waimea breaking for the first time," Gabeira later said, recalling a turning point, "I was sure that’s what I wanted to do with my life."

Gabeira began tow-surfing with fellow Brazilian Carlos Burle in 2006, and the following year, she earned the first of four consecutive Billabong XXL Best Female Performance Awards, after regularly taking on huge surf at notorious heavy-water breaks like Teahupoo, Todos Santos, and Dungeons. In 2012, Gabeira added a fifth Billabong XXL title.

While nobody questions her courage, Gabeira has been criticized as a surfer of middling ability who puts herself and others in danger in her pursuit of large surf. Fellow female big-wave rider Keala Kennely indicated as much in 2009 with this backhanded compliment: "A lot of people think Maya takes too many risks and gets in over her head, but to her credit I've seen her take some horrendous wipeouts, and the fact that she still wants to go back and try again, you have to respect that." (Gabeira herself has moments where she seems to agree. "Since I was a kid I’ve been putting myself into critical situations," she told an interviewer in 2009, noting that she'd already broken her nose 10 times. "I was pretty dumb, actually, but somehow I always managed to get out in one piece.)

Gabeira received an ESPY award in 2009 as the Best Female Action Sports Athlete, and the following year she was named top Female Action Sports Athlete at the Teen Choice Awards. In 2011 the diminutive but buxom Brazilian placed third in

 magazine's list of the "Top Ten Hottest Girls in Surfing"; determined to move her marker up even further, in 2013 she posed more or less topless in 

, and in 2014 was featured (dressed, but barely) in 

In late 2013, Gabeira broke her ankle and lost consciousness underwater after wiping out at Nazare, Portugal, and was hospitalized.

Gabeira, Maya

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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The Sunday Joint

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