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

The world’s first, largest, and most successful surfing-based environmental organization, headquartered in San Clemente, California, with chapters worldwide; founded in 1984 by spacecraft computer systems engineer Glenn Hening and activist Tom Pratte, along with Malibu surfing icon Lance Carson.

Hening, who came up with the Surfrider name ("borrowed" from Santa Monica's Surfrider Inn), later said he originally envisioned the group as “a sort of Cousteau Society for surfers,” with surf schools and outreach programs, a surf movie production house, and a geologic design department to build artificial reefs. Budgetary realities and pressing surf-related environmental problems—beginning with river runoff contamination in Malibu lagoon—immediately turned Surfrider into a more narrowly defined educational-activist group.

In addition to annual membership dues, Surfrider hoped to tap into corporate surfing’s skyrocketing profits, but aside from a few medium-sized donations—Yvonne Chouinard of Patagonia and Gordon Clark of Clark Foam each gave $10,000—the surf industry proved to be more interested in environmental sloganeering than financing. Surfrider scored an early victory in 1986 when it helped stop a mile-long breakwater project at San Diego’s Imperial Beach. By 1990, however, despite a steady flow of surf media advertising and supportive editorial copy, the nonprofit Surfrider had fewer than 15,000 members, and was nearly bankrupt.

Surfrider made national headlines the following year as sole staff attorney Mark Massara, fighting a David-versus-Goliath case against two ocean-polluting pulp mills in Humboldt County, California, won the second-largest Clean Water Act suit in U.S. history. In addition to $5.8 million in government fines and a multimillion-dollar outflow renovation tag, the pulp mills paid Surfrider $500,000 in legal fees. The sudden windfall threw the organization into turmoil, however, as Massara battled Surfrider over his fee. He eventually got $125,000, but left Surfrider in 1993—taking several board members with him—to form the Surfers’ Environmental Alliance.

Surfrider soon developed two new and popular nationwide programs: Respect the Beach, an educational program for students, and the Blue Water Task Force, a volunteer ocean-water quality testing and monitoring program. Surfrider also adopted a chapter-based organizational structure, essentially dividing itself into dozens of linked regional, then international, groups.

In 2000, Surfrider was again in the headlines, first with its debut “State of the Beach” report, which assesed the condition of America’s beaches as measured by public access, water quality, shoreline structures, beach erosion, and recognition of surfing areas. Less successful was the long-delayed completion of a Surfrider-led artificial reef project in southwest Los Angeles County. Chevron Corporation years earlier had been ordered by the California Coastal Commission to “replace” the waves it had ruined in 1983 by building a jetty extension in front of its El Segundo beachfront refinery; Surfrider was eventually given $300,000 to build what it later called “Pratte’s Reef”—named in honor of group cofounder Tom Pratte, who died of cancer in 1994. The 120-sandbag reef was installed just to the north of the Chevron refinery in September 2000; by midwinter it was embarrassingly obvious that the reef was virtually no effect on the surf. A $200,000 “phase two” sandbag extension was added in the spring of 2001, but also failed. The sandbags were eventually removed altogether.

Surfrider also helped with the passage in 2000 of the Beach Bill, mandating states to test and post water-quality results.

Meanwhile, Surfrider marketers had put together a set of three 

(MOM) benefit albums, with contributions by Pearl Jam, Jane’s Addiction, Brian Wilson, Chris Isaak, and Beck, among others, collectively raising more than $300,000. The MOM albums were preceded by 

a 1990 compilation featuring songs by top surfers including Tom Curren, Wayne Bartholomew, Frieda Zamba, Lance Carson, Pam Burridge, and Corky Carroll, with a percentage of profits donated to Surfrider.

In 2010, Surfrider launched Beachapedia, a wiki dedicated to cataloguing and making publicly available a host of coastal science information. Surfrider Europe attracted attention, and a bit of controversy, for its 2011 calendar featuring gorgeous mostly-nude tar-covered models on the beach and in the water.

By 2013, Surfrider had over 250,000 members spread out over 100 chapters worldwide. Celebrity Surfrider members include Jeff Bridges, Woody Harrelson, and Eddie Vedder. The foundation brought in more than $6.2 million in 2012, three-quarters from membership dues and small donations.

In 2005, Surfrider received the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Award for Non-Govermental Organization of the Year.

Surfrider Foundation

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

The Sunday Joint

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

The Sunday Joint