Encyclopedia of Surfing

Dedicated to researching, archiving, and presenting surf history and culture.

The book version of Encyclopedia of Surfing, written by Matt Warshaw, was published in 2003. The EOS website launched in 2013, just after EOS became a California-registered 501(c)3, and it includes Warshaw’s follow-up book, History of Surfing, as well an always-expanding collection of interviews, contest results, video edits, and surf commentary of every description, from up and down the sport's timeline.

Encyclopedia of Surfing is funded solely by donors and subscribers and is designed for casual surf fans as well as researchers, writers, reporters, and students. It is ad-free. Along with the website itself, EOS’s main objective is to gather, digitize, keyword, and archive surf media in all forms, including books, magazines, films, and videos.

The Sunday Joint email newsletter keeps subscribers up to date with recent EOS activity and is sent out weekly.

EOS BOARD MEMBERS

  • Executive Director

    Matt Warshaw

    Matt is a former editor of SURFER Magazine and has written a half-dozen books on surfing. His work has been published in the New York Times, Esquire, and the Wall Street Journal. Described by the New Yorker as the “world’s leading surfing scholar," he is the surf consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary. Warshaw was born and raised in Southern California, competed as a professional surfer in the early 1980s, and has a BA in History from UC Berkeley. He lives in Seattle.

  • Patti Paniccia

    Co-founder of the world professional surfing tour in the 1970s, and a pro surfer herself, Patti also holds a JD from Pepperdine and has a long and distinguished career as a broadcast journalist, CNN reporter, lawyer, and author. She is currently an adjunct law professor at Pepperdine and a board member at Surfing Heritage and Culture Center. Patti divides her time between Southern California and the North Shore of Oahu.

  • Treasurer

    Kevin Miller

    Founder and Executive Director of the Florida Surf Film Festival, Kevin holds a BA in Business Administration from Stetson University and is the owner of Kevin Miller Financial Services. He lives, works and surfs in the Orlando area.

  • Secretary

    Steve Cummings

    Originally from Levittown, New York, with degrees from Hofstra and University of San Diego, Steve is the owner of the Law Offices of Stephen Cummings. He lives, works and surfs in San Diego.

  • Justin Housman

    Justin Housman is a former editor at SURFER Magazine and is currently the online editor at Adventure Journal. He graduated from Cal Poly and received a Masters in History from San Francisco State University. Justin lives, works and surfs in the San Francisco Bay Area.

  • Sarah Malarkey

    Sarah was born and raised in San Francisco, holds a BA in Literature from Columbia, became the Executive Editorial Director at Chronicle Books, and is presently the Executive Director at Random House Worlds. While at Chronicle, Sarah edited or produced over two dozen surf-related books.

EOS CREATORS

  • Design & Development

    Mark Augias

    EOS’ web developer and back-end ace Mark Augias lives, works and surfs in Cornwall, UK. He has also worked on projects for Surf Simply and StormRider Guides. In 2020, Mark was featured in the podcast series Talk Wordy to Me, in an episode titled “How to Be Lazy.” He is in fact as reliable as the day is long and on-call 24 hours a day for EOS.

  • Graphic Designer

    Ryan Mahar

    Award-winning graphic designer Ryan Mahar, from Orange County, is responsible for the look of Encyclopedia of Surfing. Ryan is currently the Director of Marketing & Communications at UCI Beall Applied Innovation. He lives, works and surfs in Huntington Beach.

  • Brad Barrett

    Brad Barrett was born and raised in San Diego and began working at SURFER magazine in 1968, as a photographer, photo editor, writer, and jack of all trades. He later worked at Harcourt Publishing and also contributed to surf-photo-centric books by John Severson, LeRoy Grannis, and Ron Church.

  • Ella Boyd

    Ella was born and raised in Maine and received a BA in Philosophy from Scripps College. She is a staff writer for the Inertia, and in 2023 was a finalist in the Follow the Light surf photography grant program. A perpetual traveling surfer, over the past three years Ella has lived in Los Angeles, Honolulu, the North Shore, and Bali.