When swimmers listen to surfer’s lingo, they may overhear some of the following terms:
Ankle Slappers/Busters: small waves.
Back Down: to decide not to take off on a wave.
Bail out: to get away from, jump off, or dive off the surfboard just before a potential wipe out.
Barrel: a hollow channel formed inside a good wave when it breaks and curls over.
Blown Out: conditions that are created when the winds blow so hard and chop up the surf to render it difficult to ride.
Breaker: a wave that breaks on the way to the beach.
Crest: top portion of a wave.
Cruncher: hard-breaking wave that quickly folds over and is almost impossible to ride.
Cut out/Pull Out: to pull out of a wave.
Dolphin Pop: an underwater takeoff where a body surfer dives under the surface of the water as the wave prepares to break, does dolphin (butterfly) kick and then pops out on the face of the wave like a dolphin to perfectly catch the wave.
Eat It/Wipe out/Nailed: to miss catching the wave and get thrown by or off the wave.
Face: the unbroken wall, surface, or nearly vertical front of a wave.
Glassy: smooth water surface conditions caused by absence of winds.
Outside Break: area farthest from shore where the waves are breaking.
Over the Falls: To wipe out, or to get dragged over as the wave breaks.
Pounder: a hard-breaking wave.
Set: a group of waves.
Shape: the configuration, or form, of a wave.
Shore Break: waves break very close to the beach.
Soup: foamy part of the broken wave; the white water after the wave breaks.
Stoked: Happy; excited; contented.
Swells: unbroken waves moving in groups of similar height and frequency.
Takeoff: the start of a ride.
Tube: the hollow portion of a wave formed when the crest spills over and makes a tunnel or hollow space in front of the face of the wave.
Photo by Jeff Johnson.© 2014 Daily News of Open Water Swimming“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“A World Open Water Swimming Federation project.
Surfer Talk
When swimmers listen to surfer’s lingo, they may overhear some of the following terms:
Ankle Slappers/Busters: small waves.
Back Down: to decide not to take off on a wave.
Bail out: to get away from, jump off, or dive off the surfboard just before a potential wipe out.
Barrel: a hollow channel formed inside a good wave when it breaks and curls over.
Blown Out: conditions that are created when the winds blow so hard and chop up the surf to render it difficult to ride.
Breaker: a wave that breaks on the way to the beach.
Crest: top portion of a wave.
Cruncher: hard-breaking wave that quickly folds over and is almost impossible to ride.
Cut out/Pull Out: to pull out of a wave.
Dolphin Pop: an underwater takeoff where a body surfer dives under the surface of the water as the wave prepares to break, does dolphin (butterfly) kick and then pops out on the face of the wave like a dolphin to perfectly catch the wave.
Eat It/Wipe out/Nailed: to miss catching the wave and get thrown by or off the wave.
Face: the unbroken wall, surface, or nearly vertical front of a wave.
Glassy: smooth water surface conditions caused by absence of winds.
Outside Break: area farthest from shore where the waves are breaking.
Over the Falls: To wipe out, or to get dragged over as the wave breaks.
Pounder: a hard-breaking wave.
Set: a group of waves.
Shape: the configuration, or form, of a wave.
Shore Break: waves break very close to the beach.
Soup: foamy part of the broken wave; the white water after the wave breaks.
Stoked: Happy; excited; contented.
Swells: unbroken waves moving in groups of similar height and frequency.
Takeoff: the start of a ride.
Tube: the hollow portion of a wave formed when the crest spills over and makes a tunnel or hollow space in front of the face of the wave.
Photo by Jeff Johnson.© 2014 Daily News of Open Water Swimming“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“A World Open Water Swimming Federation project.