How Well Do You Know Surfing Slang?

If you "kick out," it means that you're turning back over the top lip of the wave at the end of your ride. It's a controlled end to what was hopefully a good wave.

Don't let those big waves take you down! You gotta bail so that you can collect your board, your bearings and then try again.

A bomb is a really big wave. "Grab your boogie board, dude, we've got a bomb coming in!"

Turning on a wave is "carving." The best surfers can skillfully carve their way through waves of all shapes and sizes.

A "cutback" means to cut back the way you came, in other words, reversing the direction of your board. Novice surfers typically struggle with this maneuver.

If you wipe out and wind up caught in a breaking wave, you'll feel like you're stuck inside a washing machine. In some cases, this can be a downright terrifying event.

The barrel is the inside tube of a big, breaking wave. Skilled surfers can ride right through the heart of the barrel without stopping or wiping out.

When the waves are "cranking," they are great surfing waves that are rolling in with regularity. It's a good time to be out there.

"Aggro" means aggressive or perhaps even outright rude on the waves. No one really likes the aggro guy.

The dawn patrol refers to the surfers who are so excited that they start surfing right at sunrise. If you're part of the dawn patrol, you know that you're truly hooked on surfing.

Surfers on long surfboards paddling out away from shore often must duck past breaking waves. They may grab the rails of the board and turn upside down to push efficiently through the wave.

Wave hogs are the aggro dudes who refuse to share a wave. They are the bane of courteous surfers everywhere.

The deck is the standing surface on your surfboard. If you can't identify the deck of your board, you probably shouldn't take up surfing.

A party wave is a wave that numerous people are riding at the same time. A crowded wave can be fun, so long as people are careful not to run into each other.

"Wipeout" is one of surfing's most famous slang terms. It means that you've fallen off of your board while surfing, perhaps in a spectacular manner.

An overhead wave is a big wave -- one that's taller than a surfer standing on his or her board. Good surfers love big overhead waves.

"Fish" surfboards are smaller, shorter and thicker boards. Their size and shape make them ideal for surfing smaller waves.

Slow, low-quality waves that won't work for surfing are called "mush." Forget the mushy waves, dude, you may as well go home for the day.

Ankle busters are small waves. They're hardly worth even trying to surf.

A "booger" is a body board, a small surfboard that's also called a boogie board. Many surfers look down on people who opt for boogers instead of full-sized surfboards.

Leashes are common for many surfers -- they use a length of rope to attach the board to the surfer. Leashes can save surfers a lot of time and energy they'd otherwise expend trying to catch up to a board after a wipeout.

A "paddlepuss" is the person who seems really leery of this whole "surfing" thing, instead preferring to mess around in the shallow areas where there are no waves. They aren't generally the most popular guys on the beach.

The rails are the sides of the surfboard. All surfers spend a lot of time gripping the rails in anticipation of a big wave.

Surfing is a physical sport, and you have to paddle a lot with your arms. You'll get noodle arms if you surf all day.

"Oh, dude, check out Randy, he's hanging ten! Oh wait, no, he ate it. Ouch, that had to hurt." If you "eat it," you wiped out.

You save your gun for the really big waves. A "gun" is a surfboard that's the right size for tackling the biggest and most powerful surf.

Surfers usually just called them "boards." But sometimes they'll call their surfboards "sticks."

You definitely don't want to be the kook on the beach. The kook is the surfer who breaks rules of etiquette and who probably tries too hard to look cool ... while failing miserably at surfing in general.

A hodad is a person who stands around on the beach, typically not surfing at all but still managing to annoy people who want to enjoy the waves. In other walks of life, they'd be called posers.

If a "Noah" is hanging out near the beach, your surfing session might be over. No one wants to deal with a shark.