#FROTHING SURF LINGO SERIES#

Backing out: pulling back rather than continuing into a wave that could have been caught.

Air/Aerial: Riding the board briefly into the air above the wave, landing back upon the wave, and continuing to ride.Techniques and maneuvers Tube riding at Teahupo'o ( Tahiti) Whitewater: In a breaking wave, the water continues on as a ridge of turbulence and foam called 'whitewater' or also called 'soup'.

Whitecaps: The sea foam crest over the waves.

Wedge: Two waves traveling from slightly different direction angles that converge to form a wedge when they merge, where the wedge part of the two waves usually breaks a great deal harder than the individual waves themselves.

Wall: The section of the wave face that extends from the shoulder to the breaking portion, where the wave has not broken and where the surfer maneuvers to ride the wave.

Undertow: An under-current that is moving offshore when waves are approaching the shore.

Trough: The bottom portion of the unbroken wave and below the peak, low portion between waves.

#FROTHING SURF LINGO SERIES#

Swell: A series of waves that have traveled from their source in a distant storm, and that will start to break once the swell reaches shallow enough water.Surf's up: A phrase used when there are waves worth surfing.Shoulder: The unbroken part of a breaking wave.Set waves: A group of waves of larger size within a swell.Sectioning: A wave that does not break evenly, breaks ahead of itself.Sections: The parts of a breaking wave that are rideable.Riptide: A strong offshore current that is caused by the tide pulling water through an inlet along a barrier beach, at a lagoon or inland marina where tide water flows steadily out to sea during ebb tide.Point break: Area where an underwater rocky point creates waves that are suitable for surfing.Pounder: An unusually hard breaking wave.The steepest part of a wave, also known as the energy zone. Where you should surf if you want to generate the most speed. Pocket: The area of the wave that's closest to the curl or whitewash.Outside: Any point seaward of the normal breaking waves.Off the hook: An adjective phrase meaning the waves are performing extraordinarily well.Line-up: The queue area where most of the waves are starting to break and where most surfers are positioned in order to catch a wave.Inshore: The direction towards the beach from the surf, can also be referring to the wind direction direction traveling from the ocean onto the shore.Green: The unbroken portion of the wave, sometimes referred to as the wave shoulder.Gnarly: Large, difficult, and dangerous (usually applied to waves).

Glassy: When the waves (and general surface of the water) are extremely smooth, not disturbed by wind.Face: The forward-facing surface of a breaking wave.Curl: The actual portion of the wave that is falling or curling over when the wave is breaking.Crest: The top section of the wave, or peak, just before the wave begins to break.Close-out: A wave is said to be 'closed-out' when it breaks at every position along the face at once, and therefore cannot be surfed.Chop or choppy: Waves that are subjected to cross winds, have a rough surface (chop) and do not break cleanly.

Channel: A deep spot in the shoreline where waves generally don't break, can be created by a riptide pulling water back to the sea and used by surfers to paddle out to the waves.

Bottom: Refers to the ocean floor, or to the lowest part of the wave ridden by a surfer.

Bomb: An exceptionally large set wave.

Blown out: When waves that would otherwise be good have been rendered too choppy by wind.

Beach break: An area with waves that are good enough to surf break just off a beach, or breaking on a sandbar farther out from the shore.

Barrel: (also tube, cave, keg, green room) The effect when a big wave rolls over, enclosing a temporary horizontal tunnel of air with the surfer inside.

A-Frame: Wave with a peak that resembles an A and allows surfers to go either left or right, with both sides having a clean shoulder to work with.

Frothing surf lingo