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

Alexandre, João (Dapin)

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

Southern California surfboard manufacturing and retail business, founded in 1960 by hotdog forefather Dewey Weber of Hermosa Beach; second in output only to Hobie Surfboards during the '60s.

Weber, the flashy wrestler-turned-surfer known as "the Little Man on Wheels," opened the first Weber Surfboards in the same Venice, California, building that had for six years been the home of Velzy Surfboards. Weber had been Dale Velzy's protégé, and while details of the sudden turnover at the Venice location remain unclear, the two men never spoke again. Velzy told a surf journalist in 1996 that he'd "treated Dewey like a son," and that Weber had ended up "stabbing me in the back."

The intense and driven Weber soon proved to be a gifted businessman: he hired top boardmakers (particularly shaper Harold Iggy from Hawaii), and assembled a first-rate surf team (including David Nuuhiwa, Joey Hamasaki, Jackie Baxter, Mike Tabeling, and 1966 world champion Nat Young), which he dressed in matching red nylon jackets and trunks. Weber Surfboards also cranked out some of the industry's most eye-catching print ads, and was the first surfing company to offer credit terms to customers.

By 1966, Weber was producing up to 300 boards a week, with a majority shipped off to more than 35 distributors around the country. The brightly colored Weber Performer model, manufactured in 1966 and 1967, sold roughly 10,000 total units and was the best-selling model of its time; Weber Surfboards logo T-shirts flew off the shelves by the tens of thousands. A second Weber factory-retail outlet opened in 1968 in Hermosa Beach; showroom-only outlets later opened briefly in San Diego, Honolulu, and Cocoa Beach, Florida.

The late-'60s shortboard revolution was disastrous for Weber, as it was for all big-name surfboard manufacturers of the period, none of whom could keep up with the week-by-week changes in board design. Weber introduced the streamlined Ski model in 1969, designed by Young, followed by the wide-backed Pig model in 1970, but the business never fully recovered, and by 1973 Weber Surfboards had been reduced to a single factory-retail outlet, in Hermosa Beach.

Weber, an alcoholoic, died in the backroom of his shop in 1993. Shea Weber, Dewey's son, opened a nostalgia-filled Weber Surfboards showroom in 1998 in San Clemente, California.

Weber Surfboards

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