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

Fearless wave-rider from Cape Town, South Africa; world-ranked #15 in 1976. "An awesome surfer," journalist Derek Hynd said of Paarman in 1989. "He is to the beastly waves of Cape Town what [Hawaii's] Barry Kanaiaupuni is to Sunset Beach."

Paarman was born (1954) and raised in Cape Town, one of five brothers and the son of a commercial fisherman, and began surfing at age 10. Older brother Donald Paarman was one of South Africa's original high-performance surfers and was elected to the Surfing Magazine International Hall of Fame in 1966; John Whitmore, his uncle, often called the "father of South African surfing," was Cape Town's first surfboard builder.

Jonathan Paarman won the boys' division of the national surfing championships in 1967 and 1968; competed in the 1970 World Surfing Championships; and was runner-up to former world champion Midget Farrelly in the 1970 Gunston 500, held in Durban. Paarman served his two-year mandatory military service in 1974-75, then returned to competition; in 1976 the tall (6'3") broad-shouldered regularfooter placed second in the Gunston, and made the finals of the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational and the Smirnoff Pro, both at Sunset Beach. "People [in Hawaii] at the time didn't realize how big the waves got back where I lived," Paarman said later, explaining how he was able to adapt so easily to big surf on the North Shore. "Going to Hawaii was getting into a warm bath."

Paarman's reputation, however, was based less on competition results and more on his forceful big-wave performances, often alone, at a number of frightening reefbreaks near his Cape Town home. Paarman also impressed during his annual forays to Jeffreys Bay. "Much has been made of the surfing of Occy, Curren, and Fitz at J-Bay," former world champion Shaun Tomson said 2016. "But my all-time favorite is Jonny. He had an absolute balls-to-the-wall approach, and at one time he was, without a doubt, the best power surfer in the world."

In the mid-'90s, Paarman became one of the first to regularly surf the massive deep-water waves at Dungeons. By that time he was a well-established boatbuilder in St. Francis Bay.

Paarman appeared in a small number of surf movies, including 

Paarman, Jonathan

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Contests

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Contests