Im New to surfing and need to know some of the lingo.

l know a few bits and pieces like what beach/breaks are. But any thing that l may find usfull would be good.

Cheers

l think cowabunga is still pretty popular, used in the same vein as ''geronimo''.
Surfs up is often said whe the ''surf'' is ''up''.
Gnarly is sometimes said of peoples toes that have become gnarled from too much surfing.

surfers are hot.

l surf a bit - it depends on where you are.
Universally though, gnarly means scary or dangerous not 'exciting' or 'cool'. Two more- 'dropping in' i.e. taking a wave from somone who is closer to the breaking part of the wave & 'snaking' paddling around somone who merits the wave due to their position in the 'line-up' - surfers waiting to catch a wave. Avoiding these will endear you to other surfers far more than knowing the lingo.

There are a number of good sites on the Internet that provide all kinds or surf slang. I've listed some below. Many terms are actual Hawaiian language terms that have been used extensively in the surfing world. Probably the words most often used are kook, dude, grommet, awsome, glassy, tubed, and wahine.

Hey Here is a good site which has like almost 500 surfer lingo words. Hope it helps, it helped me.

http://rippinh2o.com/dropzone/surflingo.shtml

by the way.do not just full out start talking like every word surfer lingo just casually add them in slowly.

Heres some advice, if you dont want to look retarded then dont try to learn surf lingo. If you like to surf and you start to surf alot you will be surrounded by surf lingo and then it will just come natural. Learning it isnt the hard part its trying to stop saying the little things like ''dude'' or ''bra''

l have a friend who had a caricature done of him surfing. The caricaturist titled it ''Hangin' 10 1/2!!''. Which was weird, because to hang ten means to be able to hang all ten toes off your board.

http://cougartown.com/surf-slang.html

that site has great lingo

Start with getting a copy of: ''The Encyclopedia of Surfing''

l hate it when alot of wannabes starting asking stupid questions about the ''surfing lingo'' just talk normal when ur out there and if u dont know what something means ask!!!

Do not try to 'fit-in' with all the lingo. part of learning a new sport is learning the etiquate too. It is bad etiquate to start asking how best to 'fit-in'. Be yourself pal ;-)

Although surfing certainly has its own language l would not try to jump right in & start ''bro-ing it up'' with people if u can not walk the walk. It is important for u learn a lot of the terms that relate to things like surf reports & understanding surf etiquette.

So yes it is important to be able to understand if l tell u that a break is a waist high, mushy, right point break with a tight take off zone. In English: a good wave to ride a long board on but probably hard to catch a wave if u r not a regular in the line-up. No it is not important for u to be throwing around surfer-pidgin, in fact l tend to look down on it since it perpetuates the image that surfers r slacker idiots.

Check out the Surfing A to Z section & Surf Glossary on Surfline.

u dont get it kook