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

Avuncular regularfoot surfer from Los Angeles, California; Malibu trendsetter in the mid- and late 1950s; model for the "Kahuna" character in the book and movie versions of 

. Tracy was born (1935) and raised in southwest Los Angeles, and began surfing at age 15. In the summer of 1956, he lived in a palm-frond shack on the beach at Malibu where, as surf journalist Craig Stecyk recalled decades later, he "held court with humor and ruled with a velvet-shrouded iron hand."

Tracy later claimed he was nicknamed "Tubesteak" because he worked at a Malibu restaurant called Tube's Steak and Lobster House. Surf lore holds that Mickey Dora owned the waves at Malibu, while round-bellied Tracy owned the beach; their composite Malibu style, in turn, was exported up and down the California coast and across the surfing world. It was Tracy who looked at Kathy Kohner, a 16-year-old Malibu newcomer, and nicknamed her "Gidget," short for girl-midget. Teenage surfers flocked to Malibu in the late '50s— 

 was published in 1957; the movie followed two years later—and Tracy, overwhelmed both by the crowds and the new Los Angeles County Lifeguard beach restrictions, dropped off the surf scene for 25 years.

In 1985, encouraged by the longboard renaissance and a new interest in the sport's past, Tracy co-produced the 

, held at Malibu. Five years later he appeared in a nationally aired Nike ad, along with a few other late-middle-age surfers, all of whom were interviewed and photographed for "Endless Summer," a 

 that he hadn't surfed for years, but still lived by a surf-inspired code: "You can have a pressured Mercedes life, or you can get from A to B in an old Ford and die of natural causes."

, and was featured in the 1987 documentary 

. In the late '80s and '90s he wrote surfing articles for 

Tracy died in 2012 of complications from diabetes, at age 77. In his 

 obituary, Tracy was described as "an anti-authoritarian sage in Wayfarer shades and Madras shorts who made bumming on the beach the essence of cool." Tracy was married to the same woman for 54 years, and had seven children.

Tracy, Terry "Tubesteak"

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features

Videos

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features

Videos