Everybody's going surfing. Each year, the surf industry brings in $4.5 billion, and more than two-and-a-half million Americans, from California to Delaware, have caught the wave. Surfers have popped up on postage stamps, in television commercials, and in Hollywood movies, and the sport has developed the remarkable depth, color, and history that can only be cataloged in encyclopedic form. With 1,500 alphabetical entries and 300 illustrations, The Encyclopedia of Surfing is the most comprehensive review of the people, places, events, equipment, vernacular, and lively history of this fascinating sport by "one of surfing's most knowledgeable historians" (San Francisco Chronicle). A remarkable collection of expert knowledge, spine-tingling stories, and little-known trivia, this is a book that no surfer-or armchair adventurer-will be able to resist.