Yo, duuuude! Rad barrels out there!
Surfer slang has got to be one of the most unique and recognizable slangs in the English language. Countless movies have portrayed the special way surfers talk, and even cartoons are using the surfer manner of speech for comedic relief. Case and point: Remember ‘Crush’, the turtle/laid-back surfer dude in Disney’s Finding Nemo? He was speaking in ‘surferese’!
Needless to say, though we know that not all surfers talk like Crush, there is an undeniable surfer slang that one needs to know to understand the world of surfing. After all, you don’t want to be going on a surf camp and not understand some essential terms your instructor is using. This is why we’re going to help you out a bit and offer you a glossary of 180+ essential surfing terms that may just come in handy!
360 – a surf move consisting of turning the surfboard at a 360-degree angle while on the face of a wave
A-frame – a wave shaped like a peak that breaks both left and right, equally
Aggro – aggressive surfing/surfer
Air/Aerial – is a maneuver in which the board leaves the surface or the water/wave
Akaw! – awesome, cool
Amped – feeling excited, pumped up
Ankle busters – waves that are too small to ride
Backdoor – going inside a tube/barrel, also known as the curl of the wave, from behind its peak
Bailing – Jumping off your board into the water in order to avoid a bad encounter
Barney – a surfer that is not cool, untalented, rookie
Barrel – a tube, the curl of the wave, the hollow part of a wave when it is breaking, and one of the most sought after things in surfing
Beach break – the places where the waves break over sandbars
Benny – a person who is not a local
Bitchin’ – awesome, amazing, great
Body board – a small surfing board, also known as a booger, a boogie board
Bomb – a massive wave
Bottom turn – a turn that is made at the bottom of the wave; a very important maneuver that sets the tone for the ride
Break – when the swell of the water breaks, turning into waves and white water
Bro – dude, brother, surfer
Carve – a maneuver that is sharp turn on the face of the wave
Caught inside – being caught between the shoreline and the breaking waves
Charging – aggressively going for a wave
Choppy – rough waves due to wind conditions
Clean wave – a smooth wave, with no bumps
Closeout – when a wave breaks suddenly and all at once
Clucked – being scared of waves
Crease – damage to the surfboard by impact
Crest – the highest point of a wave, the top of the wave
Curl – the area of the wave where it is breaking
Cutback – a surf move done sharply in the shoulder or the wave or on its flats to get back on the surf line
Cutting off – the action of catching a wave in front of a surfer, who was going for it and was closer to it, stealing a wave; also known as snaking
Dawn patrol – going surfing first thing in the morning
Deck – the top surface of a surfboard
Dick drag – a derogatory term referring to the action of lying down on your board while riding a wave
Ding – any damage done to your surfboard
Double up/humpback – when two waves combine; one large wave closely followed by a smaller one
Drop – the first part of a ride, when the surfer goes down the face of the wave
Drop in – synonym to cutting off but also to drop down the face of a wave
Duck Diving – diving under a breaking wave, ducking your body and the surfboard under a breaking wave
Dude – a surfer, a friend
Dumping – waves that are break hard, are hollow and not surfable
Epic – great surf session, awesome wave, top surf
Eskimo roll – a surf move that gets the surfer through a large wave or a broken wave without being washed to shore
Face – the part of the wave that has yet to break, where most rides take place
Fade – when a surfer puts themselves into the most powerful part of the wave
Far out! – great, amazing, spectacular
Firing – fun surf
Flat – no surf, no waves
Floater – a surf move where the surfer rides the top of the wave, then drops back into the main part of the wave
Foam – the material surfboards are made of and it also signifies the white water/bubbles that occurs when a wave breaks
Foamies – waves made of foam
Forehand/ front side – surfing with your back to the beach and your face to the wave
Frube – a surfer who does not manage to catch a wave for the entire time they are in the water
Funboard – medium-length surfboard
Glassy – smooth, when referring to the water
Gnarly – nasty, unpleasant
Goat boater – a surf ski
Going off – great surf, as in “It’s just going off today, dude!”
Goofy foot – when a surfer’s right foot is forward and the left is in the back, while on the surfboard
Green room – the inside of a barrel
Grom – a young and inexperienced surfer; also known as grommet
Grubbing – falling off the surfboard while surfing
Gun – a big wave surfboard
Hang Eleven – used to describe a made surfer who rides naked
Hang Five – riding a surfboard with one foot placed on the nose of the board
Hang Loose – the salutation that accompanies the sign of Shaka
Hang Ten – riding a surfboard with both feet placed on the nose of the board
Header – to fall off a surfboard
Heavy – big, awesome waves
Helicopter – a surf move where the surfers spins their surfboard around from its nose
Hit the lip – when a surfer turns up their surfboard to hit the falling lip of the wave, allowing the surfboard to be smashed down
Hodad – a person who hangs around the beach and does not surf
Hollow – barrels, tubes
Impact zone – the place where the waves are breaking the hardest
Inside – the place between the shore and the impact zone
Into the soup – inside the foam, the white water
Jacking – when the wave swells rapidly, from deep waters to shallow ones
Jake – a surfer who inadvertently is in the way of more experienced surfers
Juice – the power of the wave
Junkyard dog – a surfer with poor style
Keg – a barrel, a tube
Kick out – finishing the ride by going over the back or through the wave
Kickflip – rotating the surfboard 360 degrees, while in the air
Kneeboard – a special type of board meant for riding on knees
Kook – a rookie surfer or someone who isn’t very good at surfing
Layback – laying backwards on the wave
Leash – the piece of material that ties the leg to the surfboard
Left – a wave that breaks on the left of the surfer, from the peak
Line up – the area in the water, away from the swell, where the surfers await to get their turn at catching a wave
Lines – the swell, when it is approaching the shore
Lip – the upper-most part of a wave, right before it breaks
Localism – hostility shown by local surfers towards non-local surfers
Locked in – when a surfer gets caught inside a crashing wave
Longboard – a surfboard with a round nose that is at least 8 foot long
Lull – the moment of calm between swells
Macking – huge waves breaking
Making the drop – catching a wave and sitting on the lower part of the wave’s shoulder
Maxed out –waves that are too large to break without closing out
Men in grey suits – sharks
Messy – irregular and unpredictable waves
Mullering – wiping out
Mush/Mushburger – soft non-surfable waves, without any energy
Namer – a surfer who shares a secret surf spot with others
New school – trick surfing
Noah – shark
Noodle arms – tired arms
Nose – the front and pointed part of the surfboard
Nose guard – a rubber tip meant to protect the nose of the surfboard
Nose riding – a longboarding move where the person surfs on the nose of the board
Nug – a good wave
Off the lip – re-entry
Offshore – winds that are blowing from the shore towards the ocean
Onshore – winds that are blowing from the ocean towards the shore
Out back – beyond the place where the waves break
Outside – the place beyond the lineup
Outside break – the furthest place from the shore where the waves are still breaking
Over the falls – refers to when a surfer goes over the lip and into the face of the wave
Overgunned – when the board is inappropriate for the surfing conditions
Overhead – when a wave is higher than an average surfer
Paddlepuss – a person who plays in the white water and is afraid to stray from the beach
Party wave – a wave that several people are surfing
Peak – the highest point of a breaking waves that generates both left and right surfable shoulders
Pearl – when a surfers buried the nose of their surfboard into the wave
Peeling – when a wave breaks perfectly
Pig dog – a position that reflects the surfer grabbing onto the rails while inside a barrel
Pintail – a surfboard tail shape that is perfect for hollow surfing
Pit – the barrel of a large and strong wave
Pocket – the power pocket of a barrel or powerful wave and where you want to position yourself
Point break – a type of wave that is found around a point of land, a coastline with a headland
Pop up – the move surfers make to move from lying on the surfboard to standing up to surf
Pull in – turning the surfboard up to enter a barrel
Pumping – decent surfing conditions
Quimby – a beginner surfer who is usually annoying
Quiver – a surfer’s surfboard collection
Racy – a fast surfable wave
Rad/radical – awesome and impressive surfing
Rails – the sides of the board
Rail bang – to take a surfboard between the legs, while falling
Raked over – to be pounded by strong waves when paddling out to catch a wave
Re-entry – when a surfers goes through or over the lip of the wave and then goes back in
Regular footed – a surfer who surfs with their left foot forward (this means that they don’t face the wave on lefts)
Ricos – rich, perfect
Right – wave that breaks on the right of the surfer, from the peak
Riptide – a stretch of water that is particularly turbulent
Rock dance – the moves made by surfers who exit the water through a rocky section
Rocker – the curve under the surfboard
Section – the location in the water, where the waves aren’t breaking and where surfers are waiting their turn to advance and ride
Set – a series of waves that are approaching the line up
Shacked – riding a great, big barrel
Shaka – a sign surfers use, made from extending the thumb and the little finger
Shape – a word used to rate the quality of the breaking waves (perfect shape is when the wave breaks evenly)
Shore break/ shorepound – mostly unsurfable waves that break very right on the shore
Shoulder – the part of the breaking wave that is unbroken
Shove-it – the action of moving the surfboard (180 or 360 degrees) under the surfer, while riding a wave
Shubie – a person who buys a surfboard and surf clothing, but does not surf
Sick – astounding, impressive, amazing
Sketchy – bad form when surfing
Slotted – a surfer well-positioned inside a barrel
Soft board – a surfboard with a soft surface, meant for beginners
Soup – white water
Spat out – the action that occurs when a surfer exits a barrel alongside air and foamy water
Spit – the water that gets sprayed out from a barrel
Sponger – derogatory term for body boarder
Stall – a surf move meant to slow down the surfboard
Stick – a surfboard
Stoked – pumped, extremely happy, excited
Sucking dry – the action performed by powerful breaking waves, causing the sea bed to become exposed
Surf camp – surf vacation with accommodation included, where an instructor teaches surfing
Surfer’s knots – swellings on the back side of the leg, below the knee, as a result of kneeling on the surfboard waiting for a wave
Swell/groundswell – surfable waves
Tail – the back side of the board
Take off – to catch a wave
Through – the bottom of the wave as it starts breaking
Tombstoning – when the surfer is wiped out and sinking below the surface and their surfboard is bobbing up and down connected to them through a leash
Tow in – used by big wave surfers, it refers to being towed in by a jet ski to the place where the big waves are
Tube – barrel, the hollow of the wave
Tubular – awesome, great, rad
Turtle roll – a technique used to get the surfboard to go through a breaking wave; it implies hanging on to the rails, turning over so that the surfer is fully submerged and the fins of the surfboard become visible.
Twin fin – a twin fin surfboard
Wall – a face of the wave that has no area to ride on
Washing machine – getting rolled around underwater by a breaking wave
Wave hog – a surfer who will not share a wave
Wax – the substance surfers use on their surfboard to help with traction
White water – a broken, foamy wave
Wipe out – falling off a wave while surfing
Worked – getting knocked off by a wave and then being in the washing machine
Hope you found our glossary of surfing terms useful! It’s a great tool for beginners to use when learning how to surf. Why not sign up for a surf camp? It’s a great way to put your surf talk to the test!
About the Author
Cristina is the Community Manager of BookSurfCamps.com, a themed travel website offering a vast collection of surf camps and holidays. She is also a passionate traveler, cat aficionado and novice writer.