three friends with surfboards and a yellow campervan at the ocean

Surfer Slang & Terms

Your Surf Lexicon

Wipe-outs, barrels and tides everywhere and you can’t understand a word? Especially if you’re a so-called kook and new to the surfing community, you might get confused and overwhelmed when experienced surfers start talking about the line-up, inside and outside, lip, A-frame and the mysterious stoke in surfer slang. With our ABC of surfing lingo and terms, you’ll be able to talk like a pro in no time. For those who are not yet familiar, we have created a cheat sheet with the most important terms.

A

A-Frame – a wave that breaks equally on both the left and the right.
Air or Aerial – a manoeuvre where the board leaves the water surface of the wave and is completely in the air

B

Barney – an untalented uncool beginner.
Barrel – a tubular wave, the hollow part of a wave. For many surfers it is a lifelong dream to be able to surf a barrel.
Beachbreak – the surf spots where waves break over sandbanks.
Bomb – a massive wave
Break – the place where the swell breaks and turns into waves.

C

Clean Waves – smooth waves that roll cleanly towards the shore without interruption.
Closeout – a wave that breaks very suddenly and all at once.
Crest – the highest point of the wave.
Curl – the point in the wave where it breaks.
Cutting off – when you steal the wave from another surfer who was heading for it and was actually closer to the wave – also known as snaking.

D

Ding – when you damage the surface of your board with a hole or dent.
Drop – the first part of the wave ride when you go down the face of the wave.
Dropping in – refers to the person who has the right of way to surf the wave.

I

Impact Zone – the area where the waves break the most.
Inside – between the shore and the impact zone

K

Kook – a beginner surfer or someone who is not very good at surfing.

L

Left – a wave that breaks on the surfer’s left side.
Line-up – where surfers sit in the water waiting for waves to come in.
Lip – the topmost part of a wave, just before it breaks.

N

Nose – the front, usually pointed part of the surfboard.
Nose Dive – when the nose of the surfboard dives underwater causing the surfer to fall.

O

Offshore – winds blowing from the coast towards the sea
Onshore – winds blowing from the sea towards the coast.
Outside – the area beyond the line-up, where no waves break.

P

Party Wave – a wave that is surfed by several people together.
Peak – the highest point of a breaking wave.
Pop-up – the act of standing up, i.e. the movement to get from lying on the surfboard to standing.

R

Rail – the sides of the board,
Right – a wave that breaks on the right side of the surfer.

S

Set – a series of waves approaching the line-up in direct succession.
Shorebreak or Shorepound – usually unsurfable waves that break directly on the shore.
Shoulder – the part of the wave that is unbroken.
Stoked – extremely happy, excited and psyched. Usually after a good wave.
Swell/Groundswell – the energy in the ocean that creates surfable waves.