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

Alexandre, João (Dapin)

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

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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

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Beacham, Debbie

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Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Ninety-five-page book written by Tom Blake, part surf history and part instruction manual, originally published in 1935 as 

 as a "seminal volume of surf literature, [and] the sport's single most important document."

Surfing articles, essays, and journal entries were published before Blake's book, and in 1931 California's Ron Drummond wrote 

, a 26-page pamphlet on bodysurfing. But 

 was the sport's first real book, and was written by surfing's most knowledgeable figure. The Wisconsin-born Blake was the winner of the 1928 Pacific Coast Surf Riding Championship, and the first person to surf Malibu; he was the originator of the hollow surfboard, the sailboard, the surfboard fin, and the water-resistant camera for use in the wave zone.

 was illustrated with nearly 50 black-and-white photos, most taken by Blake (eight were published in a 1935 issue of 

); Olympic swimming champion and surf icon Duke Kahanamoku wrote the book's introduction. The book is broken into four sections: "Ancient Hawaiian Legends of Surfriding," "Early Hawaiian Historical Period, Surfriding," "Modern Surfriding," and "How to Use the New Hollow Surfboard." Blake's prose is dry, often clumsy, and occasionally pedantic, but he does convey the power and beauty of surfing in Hawaii.

The water is so warm one is not conscious of it. The view of the palm trees on shore, the [Waikiki] hotels, the mountains and clouds is marvelous and to me it is part of the pleasure of surfing. The hour before sunset is best of all, for then the mountains take on all the shades of green imaginable, while the clouds near them assume all shades of white and gray. Rainbows are often seen in the far off valleys.

 was published by Paradise of the Pacific press in Honolulu, and the original press run was about 500. As a post-publication marketing tactic, Blake, at his own expense, added a tapa cloth dust jacket; each jacket had a brown and beige pattern, but no two were the same.

 noted that "the book's style could so easily have been improved by submitting the manuscript to an experienced copy editor [but] it will be appreciated for its sincerity and enthusiasm and prized for its magnificent pictorial representations of 'the sport of Hawaiian Kings.'"

In 1983, surf book publisher Bank Wright, from Redondo Beach, California, reissued Blake's book as 

Hawaiian Surfboard

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features