The surfer’s slang dictionary
Hey broski, if this conversation do not make any sense for you, you are at the right spot. We gona list a few surfing slangs for you to understand how the surfing community talks to each other !
-Hey bro, check out that kook trying to paddle out to the line up but keep on getting locked in.
-Yo dude, I have seen he is totally stoked. He eats all the soup for lunch , I guess he got noodled arms already for now.
two rad surf dudes
Greetings!
Aloha – a Hawaiian greeting that means “hello” or “goodbye”;
Yo, dude – Greeting a fellow surfer
Hey, bro – brother, mate-calling a friend
Hey Grom – a young and inexperienced surfer; also known as a grommet or gremmie.
Hang Loose! – the salutation that accompanies the sign of Shaka
Shaka! – a Hawaiian hand gesture used to say “hello,” “great,” “cool,” and “alright”
U stoked!? – Are you motivated? Being ready to surf?
About surfboard:
Nose – the front and pointed part of the surfboard
Tail – the backside of the board
Rails – the sides of the board
Fin – a hydrofoil mounted at the tail of a surfboard to improve directional stability and control through foot-steering
Deck – the top surface of a surfboard
Ding – any damage done to your surfboard
Rocker – the curve under the surfboard
Soft board – a surfboard with a soft surface, meant for beginners
Stick – a surfboard
Shortboard – a small surfboard, using for more aggressive surf
Longboard – the longest surfboard, using for easy small waves
Gun – a big wave surfboard
About Waves and conditions
A-frame – a wave-shaped like a peak that breaks both left and right, equally
Ankle slappers – waves that are too small to ride
Beach break – the places where the waves break over sandbars
Bomb – a massive wave
Break – when the swell of the water breaks, turning into waves and white water
Caught inside – being caught between the shoreline and the breaking waves
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
Curl – the area of the wave where it is breaking
Double up or humpback – when two waves combine; one large wave closely followed by a smaller one
Heavy – big, awesome waves that are sometimes dangerous
Hollow – barrels, tubes
Impact zone – the place where the waves are breaking the hardest and where beginners tend to get hurt
Inside – the place between the shore and the impact zone
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 wait 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
Locked in – when a surfer gets caught inside a crashing wave
Lull – the moment of calm between swells
Maxed out –waves that are too large to break without closing out
Messy – irregular and unpredictable waves
Nug – a good wave
Offshore – winds that are blowing from the shore towards the ocean
Onshore – winds that are blowing from the ocean towards the shore
Outside – the place beyond the lineup; beyond the place where the waves break
Overhead – when a wave is higher than an average surfer
Party wave – a wave that several people are surfing
Peak – the highest point of a breaking wave that generates both left and right surfable shoulders
Peeling – when a wave breaks perfectly
Pointbreak – a type of wave that is found around a point of land, a coastline with a headland
Pumping – decent surfing conditions
Right – a wave that breaks on the right of the surfer, from the peak
Riptide – a stretch of water that is particularly turbulent
Set – a series of waves that are approaching the lineup
Shoulder – the part of the breaking wave that is unbroken
Soup – whitewater, foam of breaking wave
Spit – the water that gets sprayed out from a barrel
Tube – barrel, the hollow of the wave
About surfing
360 – a surf move consisting of turning the surfboard at a 360-degree angle while on the face of a wave
Air or Aerial – is a maneuver in which the board leaves the surface or the water/wave
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
Bottom turn – a turn that is made at the bottom of the wave; a very important maneuver that sets the tone for the ride
Charging – aggressively going for a wave
Cutback – a surf move done sharply in the shoulder or the wave or on its flats to get back on the surf line
Dawn patrol – going surfing first thing in the morning
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
Hang Five – riding a surfboard with one foot placed on the nose of the board and five toes hanging over the nose
Hang Ten – riding a surfboard with both feet placed on the nose of the board and your toes hanging over the 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
Kick out – finishing the ride by going over the back or through the wave
Layback – laying backward on the wave
Off the lip – re-entry
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
Rad/radical – awesome and impressive surfing
Re-entry – when a surfer goes through or over the lip of the wave and then goes back in
Stall – a surf move meant to slow down the surfboard
Take off – to catch a wave
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
White water – a broken, foamy wave
Wipeout – falling off a wave while surfing
Other slangs referred to a surfer or situation:
Amped – feeling excited, pumped up
Barney – a surfer that is not cool, untalented, rookie
Benny – a person who is not a local
Clucked – being scared of waves
Hodad – a person who hangs around the beach and does not surf
Jake – a surfer who inadvertently is in the way of more experienced surfers
Junkyard dog – a surfer with poor style
Kook – a rookie surfer or someone who isn’t very good at surfing
Namer – a surfer who shares a secret surf spot with others
Noodle arms – tired arms
Quimby – a beginner surfer who is usually annoying
Sick – astounding, impressive, amazing
Washing machine – getting rolled around underwater by a breaking wave
Wave hog – a surfer who will not share a wave
