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

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

Bertlemann, Larry

Pro surfer from Christchurch, New Zealand; five-time national champion from 1983 to 1987; later a surfboard shaper and competition judge, as well as the New Zealand national team coach.

Buchanan was born (1961) and raised in Christchurch, the son of school teacher parents, and began surfing in 1972. It was pretty bloody cold" in winter, Buchanan later recalled. "We used to go to the dive shop and buy sheets of rubber and make our own booties and gloves. We'd wear rugby jerseys in the water and think they were keeping us warmer. It was tough."

At 16 he dropped out of school himself and moved to Sydney, Australia, then spent a year in South Australia, "dole-bludging" (drawing unemployment) and surfing.

Buchanan's five-year world tour career, launched in 1983, never really got off the ground (he managed a pair of quarterfinal appearances in 1984 and finished the year at #36), but in his home country he was virtually unbeatable, and the national titles came one after the other. Buchanan's five-straight national titles equaled the Wayne Parkes' run from '66 to '70.

In 1981, after a surf-factory apprenticeship in which he did a little of everything involved with boardmaking, Buchanan began shaping for Hot Buttered—a job he held for nearly a decade. It was early on during this period that Buchanan picked up the nickname Ratso—"because I always had long hair."

From 1990 to 2000, Buchanan coached the New Zealand national amateur team, which, during this period, competed in six world contests. Buchanan went on to become a WCT contest judge; he served as the head judge for European world tour events, and later became the head priority judge—responsible for determining which competing surfer, at any given moment, has right-of-way for the next good wave.

In 1999, not long after moving back to New Zealand for good, Buchanan opened Lion Rock Surf Shop, in the popular black-sand coastal village of Piha, west of Auckland.

Unexpectedly, Buchanan took top honors in the Grand Masters division at the 2011 Supersurf World Masters Championships, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; on the final day of competition he beat former world tour heavyweights Shaun Tomson and Glen Winton, on his way to taking out Wayne Bartholomew in the final.

Buchanan was elected to the Surfing New Zealand Hall of Fame in 2001.

Buchanan, Iain

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

The Sunday Joint

Videos

Encyclopedia of Surfing

The Sunday Joint

Videos