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

Subtropical sea all but encircled by eastern Mexico, Cuba, and the southeast United States, including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The Gulf of Mexico's 3,000-mile coastline is primarily low and level, filled with estuaries and salt marshes. Except for the southern coast of Mexico, near the Bay of Campeche, and Cuba's northwest coast, the entire Gulf Coast is fronted by a long and shallow wave-depleting continental shelf formed by rivermouth silt deposits. Long-distance ground swells can only enter the Gulf through the Yucatán Channel, the 100-mile-wide gap between the western tip of Cuba and the eastern tip of Mexico that separates the Gulf from the Caribbean Sea. 

Gulf surfers rely almost entirely on locally spawned, short-period, soft-breaking wind swell. The best waves here arrive between late fall and early spring, as wind-generating cold fronts traverse the Gulf. Swells are brief and choppy for the most part, and rarely over four feet, although storm waves of up to 10 feet are not unheard of. The off-season tends to be nearly waveless, aside from the occasional tropical storm or hurricane. Gulf of Mexico water temperatures range from the mid-50s in winter to the low 80s in summer. 

Eastern Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula remain largely unexplored for waves, and the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts are fringed with swampy wave-sucking bayous, but surfing is well established in Florida, Alabama, and Texas, and is also being practiced in Cuba. 

Surfing was introduced to the Gulf sometime in the early 1930s in Galveston, Texas, by a pair of local lifeguards. Yancy Spencer, the 1975 U.S. Surfing Championships runner-up from Pensacola, Florida, was the Gulf's first well-known surfer. His son Sterling, bespectacled star of the website PinchMySalt and former East Coast Champion, also hails from the Gulf. Big-wave rider Ken Bradshaw of Hawaii was born and raised in Houston, and learned to surf in Galveston; present-day world tour pros Cory and Shea Lopez were raised in Indian Rocks, Florida, not far from Tampa Bay.

Gulf of Mexico

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

Encyclopedia of Surfing