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

Tireless bottle-blond jack-of-all-trades from Newport Beach, California; 

 magazine editor in 1989 and 1990; co-owner of Kanvas by Katin beachwear from 1991 to 1997; founder of 

 magazine, and creator of the K2 Big-Wave Challenge (later the XXL Big Wave Awards), as well as the Billabong Odyssey. "Bill Sharp," in the words of fellow surf scribe Sam George, "is the man who gets surfing noticed."

Sharp was born (1961) in Novato, California, the son of an Air Force fighter pilot, raised in Newport, and began surfing in 1974. As National Scholastic Surfing Association's top-rated kneeboarder in 1982, he was invited to that year's World Amateur Championships, where he placed fourth. Sharp began an internship at 

 in 1983, just after earning a B.A. in business administration from San Diego State University; in 1987 he became managing editor, and two years later was promoted to editor. 

, which grew to produce 200-plus-page issues during the late '80s, was animated and flashy under Sharp's watch, full of exclamation points, bikini-clad girls, and neon boldface cover blurbs. Sharp himself provided some of the magazine's most incisive and well-crafted articles.

 in 1991, Sharp became co-owner of Kanvas by Katin, a popular surf trunk line in the '60s that had lay moribund since the early '80s; in 1997 the company did $4 million in wholesale business. That same year, Sharp began working for ski equipment giant K2, for which he developed the K2 Big-Wave Challenge, a provocative first-of-its-kind competition offering $50,000 to the surfer photographed riding the largest wave of the winter season. Critics portrayed the much-hyped event as demeaning and potentially dangerous, saying the cash prize might cloud a rider's judgment. Sharp and K2 ignored such remarks, and hit the marketing jackpot, as the Big-Wave Challenge—won by San Diego surfer Taylor Knox, for a 50-footer he caught at Mexico's Todos Santos—was covered by the 

Sharp left K2 in 1998, and the following year launched 

 Although filled with cheeky headlines such as "Are Pro Surfers All Overpaid Kooks?" and "Chow Time! Shark Attack at Maverick's," 

 coverage of the Southern California surf scene, particularly the surf industry, was always more timely and often more pointed than that produced by 

 photographer Larry Moore organize a group of tow-in surfers for a one-day visit to Cortes Bank, an eerie open-ocean reef located 100 miles west of San Diego, where Mike Parsons caught and rode a 60-foot-plus wave. Later that year Sharp developed the Odyssey, a three-year international hunt sponsored by surfwear giant Billabong in search of a ridable 100-foot wave.

Sharp, Bill

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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