Life is Mo Bettah, when you Surf!
4100 Seawall Boulevard, Galveston, Texas 77550
Surfer Lingo
Aerial- a move where a surfer hits the crest of the wave and flies through the air
A-frame - a wave peak breaking left and right with perfect shape
Alaia - a surfboard made of wood originally used by Hawaiians to surf breaking waves in the late 1800s
Aloha- Hawaiian greeting that means "hello" or "goodbye"
Amped - excited, stoked
Backdoor - when a surfer pulls into a hollow section from behind the section
Backside- when a surfer rides with his back to the wave
Backwash - when a wave sweeps up the beach and returns to the ocean, sometimes colliding with incoming waves
Bail - an evasive maneuver used when a surfer is caught inside or about to wipeout
Bailing - letting go of your surfboard
Barrel - the tube, the curl of the wave
Beach break - waves that break over sandbars
Beach bum -someone, usually a surfer, that hangs around the beach
Bellyboard - a bodyboard, a small board used to ride waves in prone position
Blank - a rough block of polyurethane foam that will be transformed into a
surfboard
Bodysurf - the sport of riding waves using the body and swim fins
Bogging - when a surfer's weight is too far back and the surfboard nose lifts up
Bombora - a deep water, offshore reef break
Bottomturn - when a surfer turns at the bottom of the wave to start trimming the optimal surf line
Burn - to drop in on someone, or steal a wave from another surfer without priority
Carve - a sharp turn on the wave face
Chandelier - water falling at a barrel opening threatening the tube rider
Chop - bumpy ocean and wave conditions that are rough due to strong winds and/or currents
Closeout - when a wave breaks all at once, with no shape or shoulder
Corduroy - the vision of a series of swells marching in from the horizon
Crest - the top and highest point of a wave
Cutback- a turn performed on the flats or in the shoulder of the wave, in order to get the surfer back on the surf line
Dawn patrol - early morning surf session
Deck - the top of the surfboard
Ding - a crack, hole or fracture in a surfboard
Drop in - to get in the right of way of a surfer who is already riding a wave
Drop - the moment after paddling in and standing up, just before the first turn of the wave face
Duck Diving - a technique of pushing the surfboard under and through a breaking wave
Dude - a cool person, surfer or skateboarder
Epoxy - a type of plastic resin used to produce surfboards
Fetch - the uninterrupted distance over which the wind blows without a significant change of direction
Fin - a hydrofoil mounted at the tail of a surfboard to improve directional stability and control through foot-steering
Flat - no waves or surf
Flats - the horizontal part of a breaking wave, also known as the shoulder
Floater- surf maneuver where the rider goes over the top of a crumbling section and ends up in the flats
Foam - whitewater
Foam board - a surfboard for beginners with a soft foam exterior
Frontside - when a surfer rides facing the wave
Glassy - smooth water with no ripples
Gnarly - awesome, as in “Gnarly Dude!”
Goofy foot - a surfer who rides waves with his right leg forward
Grommet - a young surfer
Groundswell - swell that traveled thousands of miles through the ocean, with a period of 15 seconds or more
Gun - a big surfboard for riding big waves
Hang loose - a Hawaiian expression for a relaxing, easygoing and carefree attitude
Hang ten - to surf a wave with all ten toes on the nose of the surfboard
Hawaiian scale - an underestimated way of measuring waves by the Hawaiians
Heat - a competitive period held in surf contests
Inside - the area where waves end, as opposed to outside
Kahuna - wizard, magician
Kick out - a surf maneuver done at the end of a wave ride to exit it
Knot - a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour
Leash - the cord that attaches a surfboard to the surfer
Lineup- the spot in the ocean where surfers line up to catch waves, just behind the breaking zone
Lip - the curling part of a wave
Local - a surfer from the area
Longboard - the longest surfboard
Lull - time between sets of wave with no waves breaking
Mack - big
Mental - crazy or radical
Mysto spot - a surf spot that breaks on a far away reef
Neoprene - an ultra stretchy rubber made from melted-down petroleum chips used to make wetsuits
Offshore wind - wind blowing from the shore out to the ocean, holding the curl line and smoothing the wave face
Onshore wind - wind blowing from the ocean toward shore, destroying the quality of waves
Out the back - an Australian expression for paddling through the breaking waves into the line-up zone
Outline - the shape of a surfboard from nose to tail
Outside - the line-up area, as opposed to inside
Paddle battle - a race between surfers to get into a curl first and get the right of way
Paipo- a small bellyboard
Peak - the spot in the ocean where the wave breaks for both sides
Pearling - what happens when a surfer's weight is too far forward and the surfboard nose dives underwater
Perfect 10 - a perfectly ridden wave in competitive surfing
Pit - the impact zone of the wave, or the most hollow part of the tube
Pitted - tubed, barreled
Point break - a really long wave to ride as the wave wraps around a point or headland and then runs along the coastline of a bay or cove
Polyurethane - the most common type of material used in surfboard manufacturing
Pop-up - the quick move a surfer makes to rise to a standing position when taking off on a wave
Punt - to perform an aerial maneuver
Quiver - the number/collection of surfboards owned by a surfer
Rail - the edge of a surfboard
Rash guard - a form-fitting shirt made of nylon-polyester-spandex mixture used under the wetsuit
Reef break - a wave that breaks over rock or coral
Reflection - when a wave strikes a hard object and bounces some of its energy off into another direction
Refraction - the effect by which a swell moving along a point of land slows down where it feels shallow water
Regular foot - a surfer who rides waves with his left leg forward
Right of way - priority given to the surfer closer to the breaking part of the wave
Rip - to surf very well
Rip Current - strong surface current of short duration flowing seaward from the shore, also known as rip tide or undertow
Rocker - the curve of the surfboard bottom from nose to tail viewed from the side
Rogue wave - an open ocean wave bigger than the current sea condition
Section - a part of the wave that breaks ahead of the curl line
Set - a group of waves
Shaka - a Hawaiian hand gesture used to say "hello," "great," "cool" and "alright"
Shaper - a surfboard designer and producer
Shoaling - the effect by which waves entering shallower water increase in height
Shortboard - a small surfboard
Skeg - an old expression for surfboard fin
Slab - a heavy reef break coming out of deep water and breaking in shallow water
Soup - the broken foam of a wave
Spear - Australian slang for surfboard
Stall - when a surfer slows the speed of the surfboard to let the tube catchup
Stance - the surfer's feet position on a surfboard
Stick - slang for surfboard
Stringer - the wooden material that runs down the center of the surfboard to give strength and flexibility to the foam
Stoked - enthusiastic, exhilarated, or excited
SUP - stand up paddleboard
Surging wave - a wave that doesn't have time to break because the transition from deep-water to shallow water is too fast
Swell - energy powered by strong winds which produces wave trains
Take-off - the start of a wave ride
Tow-in - when surfers get towed into waves on jet skis that can't be paddled into
Trimming - finding the perfect surf line for speed on the wave face
Trough - the bottom of the wave, the opposite of a crest
Tube - the hollow interior of a wave, also known as barrel
Turtle roll - a surfing technique where the surfer flips the board over in front of an oncoming wave to get under it
Twin-fin - a surfboard with two fins
Wahine - a female surfer, AKA Val
Wave height - the difference between the elevations of a crest and a neighboring trough
Wave period - time between two consecutive wave crests
Wave train - a group of swells of similar wavelengths
Wavelength - the distance between the crest of one wave to the crest of the next wave
Wax - a paraffin-based product which is applied to the surfboard deck to increase traction and reduce slipperiness
Wedge - a steep wave
Wetsuit - a garment made of neoprene which provides thermal insulation
Whitewater -the foamy, white-colored water created where a wave breaks
Windswell - a group of waves generated by local winds less than 800 miles from the coast
Wipeout - an unexpected fall off a surfboard while surfing a wave
Now accepting Credit Cards
Pre-pay for your Surf Lessons via PayPal or Venmo
MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express accepted