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

Depression-era regularfooter from Los Angeles who beat former schoolmate Pete Peterson, among others, to win the 1940 Pacific Coast Surf Riding Championships. According to the 

' coverage, Tucker was "rated the most daring rider on the West Coast."

Biographic information about Tucker is hard to come by. He went to grammar school, and was in the same grade, as champion surfer and paddler Pete Peterson. 

By the late 1930s, Tucker was a member of the elite Palos Verdes Surfing Club, and was likely living in either Redondo or Hermosa Beach. 

While surfing Hermosa Pier in the spring of 1940, the metal fin screwed to the tail of Tucker's board sliced him on the ankle. "It required 30 stitches and two hours to close the gap," photographer Doc Ball wrote his 1946 

Tucker nonetheless was in top form later that year when he won the 1940 Pacific Coast Surf Riding Championships, at San Onofre. As he told writer Leonard Lueras, years later, "I won by switching boards at the proper times. I rode an 'ultralight'—a hollow 50-pound plywood board—in the morning, and then when the chop came up later in the day I switched to a heavier 120-pound spruce. Once enough people were eliminated [from the contest], and I didn't need the extra weight for personal protection, I went back to the more maneuverable ultralight." (Tucker clarified what he meant by needing "protection" for a surfing event: "If you were in a contest situation and a guy took off in front of you, it was your obligation to show no decency. You went right through him or otherwise mowed him down.")

While he was regarded for a number of years as among the best surfers in California, Tucker himself knew where he stood. Pete Peterson, he said, "was the greatest waterman on the West Coast. He was the best, and maybe Lorrin Harrison was second best. I was hot one year and beat 'em both, but I was just lucky." 

Tucker was also among the most decorated paddleboarders of the era, and in 1940 he led the Hermosa Beach Surfing Club to an undefeated paddleboard season. 

Tucker, Cliff

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Contests

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Contests