Surfing Dictionary P-R

R
Racy
Another term for a fast wave. A racy wave is makeable but really fast down the line so you need to have a lot of speed.

Radical
Used to describe dramatic and difficult maneuvers, situations, or conditions.

Radius of Maximum Winds
The distance from the center of a tropical cyclone to the area where the maximum winds are located. In strong hurricanes, the maximum winds are generally found at the eyewall immediately bordering the center of the hurricane.

Rail
The edge of a surfboard where the deck wraps around to meet the bottom; usually used to describe the lower half of the edge. and Surfing A-Z

Rail grab
Holding or grasping the rail of a surfboard to maintain control. Most commonly used in backside tuberiding (see "pigdog") but also used in aerial surfing.

Rake
The distance between the back edge of the fin base and the tip of the fin, measured lengthwise down the surfboard.

Real-time
The descriptive term for information gathered and distributed at close to the current time.

Reef break
Surf that breaks over a solid base, usually rock or coral, instead of sand. Some reef breaks can be a combination of rock and sand. Generally more dependable than a beach or pointbreak.

Re-entry
A classic maneuver in which the surfer goes through and/or over the lip of the wave, almost to the point of pulling out, then drops back down into the wave. A re-entry is the base term for numerous move varieties, such as floaters and off the lips.

Reflection
A surf condition in which a wave or swell bounces off a hard object like a seawall, jetty, or rock, and merges back into the original wave or swell. Reflected waves often create bowly, peaky waves, which are good shape for surfing. Reflected waves also include "backwash" when a wave is returned seaward after a wave impinges on a steep beach, barrier, or other reflecting surface.

Refraction
A) The bending or turning of the wave crests toward shallow water. When a wave drags its bottom over an uneven ocean floor, the portion of the wave dragging over shallower water slows down while the portion wave passing over deeper water maintains its speed. The part of the wave over deeper water begins to wrap or bend in toward the shallower water-much the same as how waves wrap and bend around a point like Rincon or Malibu. Deep-water canyons can also greatly increase the size of waves as the portion of the swell moving faster over deep water bends in and converges with the portion of the swell over shallower water. B) Also the bending or turning of wave crests by currents.

Regular foot
A surfer who surfs left foot forward and faces the wave on rights, and doesn't face the wave on lefts. Also called natural foot in Australia.

Release
The effect that allows water flow to be accelerated as it passes along a surfboard's surfaces. Causes of release are usually available in the second (tail) half of the board, through tail rocker, outline curves and trailing fin edges, and through bottom features which open up opportunities for water to move, such as concaves and channels. Controlled release (along with its opposite, drag) is essential to successful surfboard design.

Resin
A liquid plastic that is catalyzed (set hard) when mixed with MEKP; used in surfboard manufacturing to seal the shaped blank and repair dings.

Reverse Vee
A bottom shape dating back to 1991, credited to Maurice Cole of Australia, in which vee is placed in the front half of the board, flattening out through the tail, accompanied by considerable tail rocker. This design idea completely reversed the traditional image of the surfboard, thus the name "reverse vee". Reverse vee, also known as "revee" or forward vee, is in common use, particularly in large-wave boards.

Rhino Chaser
Big wave board (see gun)

Right
A wave breaking towards the right from the vantage of a surfer riding the wave. From a beach viewpoint, a wave breaking toward the left as the onlooker is facing the ocean.

Rip

Also called current or riptide: Water traveling along the shore or seaward in a coherent distinguishable mass. Rips are created by water piling up near shore after a series of waves, and then escaping back out to sea in the attempt to equalize the water level. Rips, like rivers, usually focus in areas of the least resistance, like areas with slightly deeper water or lesser wave activity than the adjacent area. These currents may proceed along the shore before finding a slightly deeper area to escape back out to sea. These currents may also dig a channel between sandbars, which actually improve the shape of the surf and provide an easy access back out to the lineup. Swimmers should never try to swim directly against a current, but swim sideways out of the current before attempting to swim back to the beach.

Rocker

The curve of the surfboard bottom from nose to tail viewed from the side. Probably the single most important factor in surfboard design, because it controls the general flow of water from its entry (where water first contacts the bottom) to its release (where water leaves the board). Generally, a surfboard with more tail rocker will turn easier but might be a little slower, while a surfboard with less tail rocker will turn harder but might be a little faster. The difficulty of hand shaping an evenly balanced rocker is legendary among shapers, but has largely been relieved by improved blank technology and the use of computer shaping machines. and Surfing A-Z

Roundhouse cutback
A complete 180-degree directional change in which the surfer turns from the shoulder all the way back into the curl or whitewater of the breaking wave, before completing the ride. A very advanced maneuver, which is difficult to complete if enough speed isn't carried throughout the entire 180-degree turn. A roundhouse cutback is usually complemented by a foam bounce recovery off the approaching whitewater.

Round tail
A tail shape in which the two sides of the board come together in smooth curves to form a semicircle. The round tail is a neutral tail shape, not resisting or adding to any turn. * See illustration

Rubber arms
The feeling of very weak arms after a lot of paddling. Beginners will often feel "rubber arms" until they build up paddling muscles in their shoulder and arms. Advanced surfers may feel rubber arms after multiple hours of intense paddling. Also called "noodled".

Runoff
Often referred to as urban runoff, storm water runoff and non-point source pollution, this type of pollution is rain and river water that collects land-based contaminants and flushes them down to the beach. Surfing A-Z

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

P
Paipo
A wooden handboard or bodyboard historically used by Hawaiians and other Pacific islanders.

Panels
Neoprene is cut into sheets that are formed to various parts of the body and then joined together at the seams. Panel development is ongoing and fierce, as rubber gets more and more flexible; fewer panels (and fewer seams, always a good thing) are needed.

Peak
A) A wave with a distinctly higher central point of the wave, tapering down smaller toward the shoulders or sides of the wave. A peak will offer rides to go both left and right with most rides starting from the center of the peak. Similar to an A-Frame. B) When a swell is at its maximum size.

Peak periods
The swell period with the most energy during a wave or swell event. Typically a swell will initially arrive with lower energy in the longer swell periods, peak with maximum energy in the swell period a few seconds less than the initial swell period, and then the energy will slowly drop in the lower swell periods.

Peaky Lines
A combination of Lined Up and Peaky-the wave is a long line connecting across the beach with defined peaks at spread along it. You can take off at any of the peaks and usually get some sort of ride before the smaller sections between the peaks start to close out. Generally, there is one dominant direction with longer rides in one direction, and shorter rides in the other direction.

Pearl
A wipeout where the nose or front of the surfboard goes under the water, usually when dropping into a steep part of a wave. (After "pearl diving".)

Peeling
A wave condition in which the wave breaks perfectly from takeoff all the way down the line, the lip creating a curve or arc of similar angle from start to finish.

Period
See interval or swell period.

Phazer
A type of surfboard design with golfball-like dimples on the bottom. The dimples are intended to create air pockets underneath the board, which would lessen water drag to make the surfboard faster.

Pidgin
Pidgin is the street language of the Hawaiian Islands and other islands in the Pacific, where a variety of European, Asian and native cultures mix. In linguistic terms, pidgin is a simplified version of some language, often augmented by features from other languages. A pidgin typically arises in colonial situations and is used solely as a trade language. Unlike Creoles, pidgins do not have native speakers. Surfing A-Z

Pigdog
Crouching low and grabbing the rail of a surfboard when going backside to hold in the barrel or tube.

Pintail
A tail shape in which the two sides of the board come together in smooth curves to form a point. The pintail is a sensitive controlling shape, ideal for powerful hollow surf.

Pit
The power pocket of a hollow, intense wave, usually a barrel or tube. This is where you want to be if you're an advanced surfer, but probably not where you want to be if you're a beginner, or if you're paddling out.

Pitching out
A wave condition in which the lip throws forward creating a very hollow wave face, barrel, or tube. This happens when the wave is shoaling over a fast transition from deep to shallow water such as an abrupt reef. See jacking.

Planer
An electric tool designed for carpentry and co-opted by surfboard shapers to trim foam from the blank during shaping. Usually the Skil 100 brand. Loosing importance over the years, due to the development of computer shaping machinery; still widely used by "backyard" low-volume manufacturers.

Plug
In shaping, a highly crafted shaped blank produced by a top designer as a template for a computer shaping machine. Also a similarly crafted shape supplied by a designer to a blank manufacturer as a basis for blank molding.

Plunging Waves
Mostly a scientific term to identify steep, hollow waves that break quickly with lots of power.

Variety of surf break when waves wrap around a point of land creating perfectly lined up, peeling waves. The waves actually interact with the bottom contours just offshore of the point to refract and wrap around the point.

Polar stereographic
A type of weather chart which shows the curved surface of the Earth, contrary to a Mercator chart which shows a flat surface of the Earth.

Polyester
A type of plastic resin; the most common type used in surfboard manufacturing.

Polypropylene
Wicking material (i.e., it doesn't absorb water) replaced many nylon linings in wetsuits in the late '80s and is often used for insulating rash guards today.

Polystyrene
A type of plastic foam used to make surfboard blanks, usually employed together with epoxy resins.

Polyurethane
A type of plastic foam; the most common type used in surfboard manufacturing, usually employed together with polyester resin. Surfing A-Z

Pop-up
The process of a surfer getting to ones feet on a surfboard, just after catching the wave.

Primary swell
The dominant swell in the water at a specific location like a buoy. The second dominant swell would be called the secondary swell, and the third dominant swell would be called the tertiary swell.

Prog
Abbreviation for prognosis chart, which is a weather chart for a forecasted time in the future. Surf forecasters make final decisions on "analysis" charts, which are real time charts, and other factual information after the storm actually happens. But the progs are great for looking out further to get a heads up on what may happen in the future.

Propagation
The term defining the movement of swells through the ocean. Waves and swells will "propagate" from the storm source to other areas.

Pull in
The process of turning the surfboard up to enter the barrel or the tube.

Pull out
See kick out.

Pumping
Excellent surf; a surf condition of very consistent waves with a very strong swell. Also, the act of making deep quick turns on a surfboard to gain speed down the line.

Punchy
A surf condition in which the waves are powerful, but not extraordinarily so. Often used to described short interval beachbreak.

Q
Quiver
Possession of a number of surfboards combining various lengths, templates, rockers, and bottom contours suited to varying types of surf. Surfing A-Z