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

England's 1,100-mile coastline is bordered by the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea, the North Sea, and the English Channel, and features an assortment of temperamental surf breaks, some of them first-rate on occasion, and all greatly affected by the tides, which can rise or drop as much as 30 feet in six hours. 

While surfing is an all-year activity in England, the best waves generally arrive between September and April, when storms in the mid-Atlantic as well as the North Sea often produce clean four- to six-foot waves, along with the occasional 10-foot-plus sweeper swell. Most of the premier breaks are found in the country's more temperate southwestern corner, where the coast has the broadest exposure to the Atlantic. 

Newquay's Fistral Beach (sometimes called "Surf City U.K."), with its cluster of breaks including North Fistral, South Fistral, and Little Fistral, has long been the capital of English surfing, and the site of virtually all major professional and amateur British surfing competitions. Top breaks in other parts of the country include the variegated surf of East Runton in East Anglia; Porthleven, a barreling reef-bottom wave in South Cornwall; and the sandbar-filled beach at Croyde Bay in North Devon. Surging tides can produce a ridable wave several miles up the Severn Bore River, located 100 miles west of London. Good surf is also found on Guernsey and Jersey, the two biggest of the Channel Islands. 

Summer water temperatures in Newquay (to the south) and Newcastle (to the north) peak at about 68 and 62 degrees, respectively; Newquay drops to 45 in winter, while Newcastle dips to the low 40s. England's climate is mild, windy, and wet, with average midday air temperatures in Cornwall ranging from the mid-40s to the mid-60s. Rocks and polluted water are the only real surfing hazards.

A small number of Englishmen, including Agatha Christie and Edward, Prince of Wales, learned to surf while visiting Waikiki in the early decades of the twentieth century. Bellyboarding was practiced along a few English beaches prior to World War II, and American servicemen stationed in Cornwall during the war reportedly brought boards and rode stand-up at Newquay's Watergate Bay. 

But British surfing is often said to have began in 1959, not long after Newquay staffed the local beaches with full-time lifeguards, who sometimes used their hollow wooden paddleboards to ride waves. In 1962, four visiting Australian surfer/lifeguards—Bob Head, Ian Tilley, John Campbell, and Warren Mitchell, all from the Avalon Surf Lifesaving Club in Sydney—surfed in Newquay on their foam and fiberglass Malibus, the first such boards brought to England. Newquay remained the hub of a fast-expanding English surf scene. 

In 1963, Head, along with local shaper Bill Bailey and two other English partners, started Newquay's successful Bilbo Surfboards, the country's first homegrown surf retailer. Local surfing communities across England began hosting regional surfing competitions, and the first Great Britain National Championships were held in 1965 in Jersey, with natives competing against a small number of overseas surfers. The well-organized British Surfing Association (BSA) was formed in 1966 and remains the governing body for amateur competitive surfing in England. In 1970, Jersey hosted the first European Surfing Championships.

Watford-born Rodney Sumpter was all but synonymous with English surfing from the mid-'60s to the early '70s. Sumpter grew up in Australia and returned to England in mid-1966 having won the juniors division in both the 1963 Australian Championships and the 1964 United States Championships, and the men's division in the 1965 European Championships. Sumpter flew from London to San Diego, California, for the 1966 World Surfing Championships, where he unsheathed his Britannia signature model Bilbo surfboard, decorated with a nose-to-tail Union Jack flag, and finished fifth. Sumpter produced 

, the area's first surf magazine, in 1969, and also made England's first commercial surf films.

Following a commercial slump in the early '70s, English surfing was reinvigorated beginning in the late '70s, influenced in part by natives Nigel Semmens (Europe's first professional surfer) and Tigger Newling, and later by Spencer Hargraves. The Foster's Pro, a world pro tour event, was held at Fistral Beach from 1983 to 1986 (winners included world champions Tom Carroll, Martin Potter, and Tom Curren); the Foster's was replaced by the Hot Tuna/UK Surf Masters, which ran from 1987 to 1989; the Alder Surf Pro ran in 1991. Fistral also hosted the 1986 World Amateur Surfing Championships. In 1997, Newquay surfer Russell Winter became the first English surfer to qualify for the world pro tour.

In 2012, England was home to about 250,000 surfers and around 50 surf shops. 

You Should Have Been Here Yesterday: The Roots of British Surfing

 was published in 1994; English surfing has been featured in dozens of domestic surf movies and videos, and a lesser number of international releases, including

 (2001). The English surf scene was the background for 

, a 1995 movie starring Ewan McGregor and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The English surf is detailed in 

The British Surfing Association Guide to Surfing in Britain

The Stormrider Guide Europe: UK and the Atlantic Islands (2007). Wavelength

 were the leading English surf publications in the 2010s.

England

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