2016-09-15

Like any sport with deep roots in culture, surfing has it’s own language. If you’re new to surfing it might take a while to pick up surfer slang but this list of surfing terms should help you know your groms from your kooks and your close outs from your rail bangs.

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360 – a surf move consisting of turning the surfboard at a 360-degree angle while on the face of a wave

A-frame – a wave shaped like a peak that breaks both left and right, equally

Aggro – aggressive surfing/surfer

Air/Aerial – is a maneuver in which the board leaves the surface or the water/wave

Akaw! – awesome, cool

Amped – feeling excited, pumped up

Ankle busters – waves that are too small to ride

Backdoor – going inside a tube/barrel, also known as the curl of the wave, from behind its peak

Bailing – Jumping off your board into the water in order to avoid a bad encounter

Barney – a surfer that is not cool, untalented, rookie

Barrel – a tube, the curl of the wave, the hollow part of a wave when it is breaking, and one of the most sought after things in surfing

Beach break – the places where the waves break over sandbars

Benny – a person who is not a local

Bitchin’ – awesome, amazing, great

Body board – a small surfing board, also known as a booger, a boogie board

Bomb – a massive wave

Bottom turn – a turn that is made at the bottom of the wave; a very important maneuver that sets the tone for the ride

Break – when the swell of the water breaks, turning into waves and white water

Bro – dude, brother, surfer

Carve – a maneuver that is sharp turn on the face of the wave

Caught inside – being caught between the shoreline and the breaking waves

Charging – aggressively going for a wave

Choppy – rough waves due to wind conditions

Clean wave – a smooth wave, with no bumps

Closeout – when a wave breaks suddenly and all at once

Clucked – being scared of waves

Crease – damage to the surfboard by impact

Crest – the highest point of a wave, the top of the wave

Curl – the area of the wave where it is breaking

Cutback – a surf move done sharply in the shoulder or the wave or on its flats to get back on the surf line

Cutting off – the action of catching a wave in front of a surfer, who was going for it and was closer to it, stealing a wave; also known as snaking

Dawn patrol – going surfing first thing in the morning

Deck – the top surface of a surfboard

Dick drag – a derogatory term referring to the action of lying down on your board while riding a wave

Ding – any damage done to your surfboard

Double up/humpback – when two waves combine; one large wave closely followed by a smaller one

Drop – the first part of a ride, when the surfer goes down the face of the wave

Drop in – synonym to cutting off but also to drop down the face of a wave

Duck Diving – diving under a breaking wave, ducking your body and the surfboard under a breaking wave

Dude – a surfer, a friend

Dumping – waves that are break hard, are hollow and not surfable

Epic – great surf session, awesome wave, top surf

Eskimo roll – a surf move that gets the surfer through a large wave or a broken wave without being washed to shore

Face – the part of the wave that has yet to break, where most rides take place

Fade – when a surfer puts themselves into the most powerful part of the wave

Far out! – great, amazing, spectacular

Firing – fun surf

Flat – no surf, no waves

Floater – a surf move where the surfer rides the top of the wave, then drops back into the main part of the wave

Foam – the material surfboards are made of and it also signifies the white water/bubbles that occurs when a wave breaks

Foamies – waves made of foam

Forehand/ front side – surfing with your back to the beach and your face to the wave

Frube – a surfer who does not manage to catch a wave for the entire time they are in the water

Funboard – medium-length surfboard

Glassy – smooth, when referring to the water

Gnarly – nasty, unpleasant

Goat boater – a surf ski

Going off – great surf, as in “It’s just going off today, dude!”

Goofy foot – when a surfer’s right foot is forward and the left is in the back, while on the surfboard

Green room – the inside of a barrel

Grom – a young and inexperienced surfer; also known as grommet

Grubbing – falling off the surfboard while surfing

Gun – a big wave surfboard

Hang Eleven – used to describe a made surfer who rides naked

Hang Five – riding a surfboard with one foot placed on the nose of the board

Hang Loose – the salutation that accompanies the sign of Shaka

Hang Ten – riding a surfboard with both feet placed on the nose of the board

Header – to fall off a surfboard

Heavy – big, awesome waves

Helicopter – a surf move where the surfers spins their surfboard around from its nose

Hit the lip – when a surfer turns up their surfboard to hit the falling lip of the wave, allowing the surfboard to be smashed down

Hodad – a person who hangs around the beach and does not surf

Hollow – barrels, tubes

Impact zone – the place where the waves are breaking the hardest

Inside – the place between the shore and the impact zone

Into the soup – inside the foam, the white water

Jacking – when the wave swells rapidly, from deep waters to shallow ones

Jake – a surfer who inadvertently is in the way of more experienced surfers

Juice – the power of the wave

Junkyard dog – a surfer with poor style

Keg – a barrel, a tube

Kick out – finishing the ride by going over the back or through the wave

Kickflip – rotating the surfboard 360 degrees, while in the air

Kneeboard – a special type of board meant for riding on knees

Kook – a rookie surfer or someone who isn’t very good at surfing

Layback – laying backwards on the wave

Leash – the piece of material that ties the leg to the surfboard

Left – a wave that breaks on the left of the surfer, from the peak

Line up – the area in the water, away from the swell, where the surfers await to get their turn at catching a wave

Lines – the swell, when it is approaching the shore

Lip – the upper-most part of a wave, right before it breaks

Localism – hostility shown by local surfers towards non-local surfers

Locked in – when a surfer gets caught inside a crashing wave

Longboard – a surfboard with a round nose that is at least 8 foot long

Lull – the moment of calm between swells

Macking – huge waves breaking

Making the drop – catching a wave and sitting on the lower part of the wave’s shoulder

Maxed out –waves that are too large to break without closing out

Men in grey suits – sharks

Messy – irregular and unpredictable waves

Mullering – wiping out

Mush/Mushburger – soft non-surfable waves, without any energy

Namer – a surfer who shares a secret surf spot with others

New school – trick surfing

Noah – shark

Noodle arms – tired arms

Nose – the front and pointed part of the surfboard

Nose guard – a rubber tip meant to protect the nose of the surfboard

Nose riding – a longboarding move where the person surfs on the nose of the board

Nug – a good wave

Off the lip – re-entry

Offshore – winds that are blowing from the shore towards the ocean

Onshore – winds that are blowing from the ocean towards the shore

Out back – beyond the place where the waves break

Outside – the place beyond the lineup

Outside break – the furthest place from the shore where the waves are still breaking

Over the falls – refers to when a surfer goes over the lip and into the face of the wave

Overgunned – when the board is inappropriate for the surfing conditions

Overhead – when a wave is higher than an average surfer

Paddlepuss – a person who plays in the white water and is afraid to stray from the beach

Party wave – a wave that several people are surfing

Peak – the highest point of a breaking waves that generates both left and right surfable shoulders

Pearl – when a surfers buried the nose of their surfboard into the wave

Peeling – when a wave breaks perfectly

Pig dog  – a position that reflects the surfer grabbing onto the rails while inside a barrel

Pintail – a surfboard tail shape that is perfect for hollow surfing

Pit – the barrel of a large and strong wave

Pocket – the power pocket of a barrel or powerful wave and where you want to position yourself

Point break – a type of wave that is found around a point of land, a coastline with a headland

Pop up – the move surfers make to move from lying on the surfboard to standing up to surf

Pull in – turning the surfboard up to enter a barrel

Pumping – decent surfing conditions

Quimby – a beginner surfer who is usually annoying

Quiver – a surfer’s surfboard collection

Racy – a fast surfable wave

Rad/radical – awesome and impressive surfing

Rails – the sides of the board

Rail bang – to take a surfboard between the legs, while falling

Raked over – to be pounded by strong waves when paddling out to catch a wave

Re-entry – when a surfers goes through or over the lip of the wave and then goes back in

Regular footed – a surfer who surfs with their left foot forward (this means that they don’t face the wave on lefts)

Ricos – rich, perfect

Right – wave that breaks on the right of the surfer, from the peak

Riptide – a stretch of water that is particularly turbulent

Rock dance – the moves made by surfers who exit the water through a rocky section

Rocker – the curve under the surfboard

Section – the location in the water, where the waves aren’t breaking and where surfers are waiting their turn to advance and ride

Set – a series of waves that are approaching the line up

Shacked – riding a great, big barrel



Photo: Chris Hunkeler

Shaka – a sign surfers use, made from extending the thumb and the little finger

Shape – a word used to rate the quality of the breaking waves (perfect shape is when the wave breaks evenly)

Shore break/ shorepound – mostly unsurfable waves that break very right on the shore

Shoulder – the part of the breaking wave that is unbroken

Shove-it – the action of moving the surfboard (180 or 360 degrees) under the surfer, while riding a wave

Shubie – a person who buys a surfboard and surf clothing, but does not surf

Sick – astounding, impressive, amazing

Sketchy – bad form when surfing

Slotted – a surfer well-positioned inside a barrel

Soft board – a surfboard with a soft surface, meant for beginners

Soup – white water

Spat out – the action that occurs when a surfer exits a barrel alongside air and foamy water

Spit – the water that gets sprayed out from a barrel

Sponger – derogatory term for body boarder

Stall – a surf move meant to slow down the surfboard

Stick – a surfboard

Stoked – pumped, extremely happy, excited

Sucking dry – the action performed by powerful breaking waves, causing the sea bed to become exposed

Surf camp – surf vacation with accommodation included, where an instructor teaches surfing

Surfer’s knots – swellings on the back side of the leg, below the knee, as a result of kneeling on the surfboard waiting for a wave

Swell/groundswell – surfable waves

Tail – the back side of the board

Take off – to catch a wave

Through – the bottom of the wave as it starts breaking

Tombstoning – when the surfer is wiped out and sinking below the surface and their surfboard is bobbing up and down connected to them through a leash

Tow in – used by big wave surfers, it refers to being towed in by a jet ski to the place where the big waves are

Tube – barrel, the hollow of the wave

Tubular – awesome, great, rad

Turtle roll – a technique used to get the surfboard to go through a breaking wave; it implies hanging on to the rails, turning over so that the surfer is fully submerged and the fins of the surfboard become visible.

Twin fin – a twin fin surfboard

Wall – a face of the wave that has no area to ride on

Washing machine – getting rolled around underwater by a breaking wave

Wave hog – a surfer who will not share a wave

Wax – the substance surfers use on their surfboard to help with traction

White water – a broken, foamy wave

Wipe out – falling off a wave while surfing

Worked – getting knocked off by a wave and then being in the washing machine

This glossary of surfer slang was pulled together by Cristina, the community manager from BookSurfCamps.com, a themed travel website offering a vast collection of surf camps and holidays. She is also a passionate traveler, cat aficionado and novice writer.

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