tow surfing
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(VIDEO) Tow Surfing Begins; from "Riding Giants" (2004)
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(VIDEO) Tow surfing, 2010-12
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Raimana Van Bastolaer, Teahupoo, 2005
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Tow surfing pioneer Buzzy Kerbox. Photo: Tom Servais
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Outside Log Cabins, 1998. Photo: Hank
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Garrett MacNamara, Nazare, Portugal, 2012
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See Also
History of Surfing
Above the Roar
Contributing To This Entry
Motorized form of big-wave riding popularized in the early 1990s, in which the surfer, towed from behind a personal watercraft (PWC), is whipped into the wave. For decades surfers had been unable to overcome the rushing trough-to-crest flow of water on waves bigger than 25 or 30 feet. Tow surfers, by giving themselves a running start, broke the 30-foot barrier easily and continued riding ever-larger waves—well over 50 feet by 2001. "Tow-in surfing," surf journalist Sam George said, "has broug...