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

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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

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

Baby-faced pro surfer from Cocoa Beach, Florida; world-ranked #8 in 1991; "a scrappy pug," surf journalist Steve Barilotti said, "with a 'don't-cross-that-line' attitude." Holland was born (1968) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the son of an electrical contractor, and spent the first four years of his life traveling up and down the eastern seaboard and living for the most part in an Airstream trailer.

In 1972, the Hollands built a log cabin in Emerald Isle, North Carolina, and settled down; Holland began surfing five years later at age nine; the family moved to Cocoa Beach in 1981. The garrulous Carol Holland, later described in the surf press as "the ultimate Surf Mom," took such an interest in Todd's surfing progress that she became a surf contest judge, and later opened a surfing travel agency.

Holland had a good run as an amateur, particularly in the annual United States Surfing Championships, where he made the finals of the boys' division in 1982 and 1983, placed second in the juniors division in 1984, and won the juniors in 1986. He also placed third in the juniors division of the 1984 World Championships.

Holland turned pro in 1987, three days after high school graduation, and made a slow but determined climb up the world tour ratings, finishing 27th in 1987 (earning rookie-of-the-year honors), 17th in 1988, 11th in 1990, and eighth in 1991. From there he dropped out of the top 10, and retired after finishing 39th in 1998.

Not a supernaturally gifted surfer, the 5'8", 165-pound Holland lifted himself into the first rank by force of will, and at his peak was able to shine in waves ranging from gentle two-foot Floridian beachbreak to raging 12-foot grinders at Pipeline in Hawaii. From 1989 to 1991 he was the only East Coast surfer in the world tour top 16. A career low point came during a 1994 competition in Brazil, when he used legal but heavy-handed tactics to defeat a popular local surfer, and was subsequently pelted with sand by an angry mob of spectators as he left the water; a police escort took him to the airport for a hastily arranged flight back to America.

Holland went without a surfwear sponsor for five years during his professional career, he said, because he didn't "kiss butt" and because he didn't fit the surfer image. A more prevalent notion was that Holland was sponsorless—and to some degree friendless; at least within the surf industry—because he brooded regularly and often lost his temper. He distinguished himself from his peers with a jutting blond Sons of the Confederacy beard and an extensive country-western CD collection. He also loved muscle cars, and for a 1990 surf magazine portrait he stood proudly cross-armed in front of his supercharged cherry-red 1969 Mustang GT.

Holland appeared in more than two dozen surf movies and videos, including 

 (1993). After leaving the pro tour, he was hired by Surf Express, his mother's travel agency; he later became a surfboard shaper, and worked at a Cocoa Beach surfing school.

Holland, Todd

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