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

Well-connected longboarder, publisher, and film director, originally from Kamakura, Japan. Masuda was born (1971) in Yokohama, the son of a wealthy commercial real estate developer. He began surfing at age 13, at Kamakura, just south of Tokyo, with classmate and future North Shore big-wave standout Takayuki Wakita.

At 12, Masuda moved to Vancouver Island, Canada, to attend boarding school. While playing rugby at age 16, he broke his neck; told by doctors to avoid contact sports, Masuda focused on surfing, and during the summer of 1988, after signing up for the Paskowitz Surf Camp in Southern California, he was encouraged to develop his skills as a longboarder.

While working his way toward an International Communications degree at Pepperdine in the early '90s, Masuda met and befriended longboard legends Donald Takayama, Lance Carson, Herbie Fletcher, and Joel Tudor. Before the decade was out, the compact and smooth-riding Masuda (5' 7", 165 lbs) was an internationally successful competition surfer. Moreover, he'd become a recognized figure at Pipeline, crouching on the nose of his longboard while racing the tube. Occasionally he emerged, more often he didn't. Either result was fine with Masuda. “I wouldn't get the experience I want if I were concerned with escaping the wave,” he told an interviewer in 2004. “That way is actually classic Western thinking: conclusion-oriented, judgment-oriented." In 2001, after not competing for five years, the 30-year-old Masuda became the Japanese National Longboard Champion.

From 1996 to 2003, Masuda, along with collaborators Craig Stecyk and Art Brewer, occasionally published a tri-lingual arthouse surf-skate-music magazine called 

. He had also turned to filmmaking, releasing Origin in Blue (1999) and 

 in (2006), before turning his attention to charismatic surfing hedonist Bunker Spreckles. In 2016, Masuda's long-awaited 

 was released to excellent reviews and a handful of awards, including a Best Documentary nod at the Florida Surf Film Festival.

From 1995 to 2001, Masuda was a guest research fellow at Center for Global Communication of University of Japan. In 2017 he received an MFA in Cinematic Media from Pepperdine. As of 2019, Masuda was living in Malibu with his wife and two children and working as head coach for the Pepperdine surf team.

Masuda, Takuji

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing