The best surfing quotes of all time

Legendary surf quotes have inspired many generations of wave riders. The world's greatest surfers have made historic statements and expressed unforgettable thoughts.

Surfing quotes are revolutionary, groundbreaking and inspirational. Surfers' quotes add controversial point of views, humorous jokes and provoking ideas.

Duke Kahanamoku, Kelly Slater, Bethany Hamilton, Frosty Hesson, Andy Irons, Laird Hamilton,Mark Foo, Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, Miki Dora, Shane Dorian, unknown authors and even James Cook and Ziggy Marley have all issued great surf quotes that are repeated every day in academic works, books and speeches.

The best surfing quotes of all time can change a surfer's life forever. They can even make sense for anyone who has never surfed waves.

Quoting surf quotes at the right moment might also win the admiration of your friends, work colleagues and lovers. Pick your favorite quotes on surfing, memorize them, and impress:

"The best surfer out there is the one having the most fun."
Phil Edwards

"Out of water, I am nothing."
Duke Kahanamoku

"My passion for surfing was more than my fear of sharks."
Bethany Hamilton

"Surfing is attitude dancing."
Gerry Lopez

"We're all equal before a wave."
Laird Hamilton

"Never drive away from good surf."
Roger Sharp

"Surfing's one of the few sports that you look ahead to see what's behind."
Laird Hamilton

"A big wave is like a beautiful woman, exciting to look at and thrilling to ride."
Buzzy Trent

"The biggest sin in the world would be if I lost my love for the ocean."
Laird Hamilton

"There is not one right way to ride a wave."
Jamie O'Brien

"There are a million ways to surf, and as long as you're smiling you're doing it right."
Unknown Author

"Surfing in crowds is like mind over matter. If I don't mind it don't matter."
Brodus Rogers

"Wiping out is an underappreciated skill."
Laird Hamilton

"It's like the mafia. Once you're in - your in. There's no getting out."
Kelly Slater

"Your surfing can get better on every turn, on every wave you catch. Learn to read the ocean better. A big part of my success has been wave knowledge."
Kelly Slater

"Style is a natural extension of who you are as a person."
Mark Richards

"It's all about where your mind's at."
Kelly Slater

"I invented localism."
Miki Dora

"The joy of surfing is so many things combined, from the physical exertion of it, to the challenge of it, to the mental side of the sport."
Kelly Slater

"I think when a surfer becomes a surfer, it's almost like an obligation to be an environmentalist at the same time."
Kelly Slater

"I'm just a surfer who wanted to build something that would allow me to surf longer."
Jack O'Neill

"I took off on a wave, went down the side, popped out the other end, and went, shit, I'm still alive!"
Greg Noll

"It's a culmination of your life of surfing when you turn and paddle in at Mavericks."
Jeff Clark

"I surf to get tan."
Shane Dorian

"If you're having a bad day, catch a wave."
Frosty Hesson

"If in doubt, paddle out."
Nat Young

"I am not famous. I am a worker."
Adriano de Souza

"It's not tragic to die doing something you love."
Mark Foo

"Eddie would go."
Mark Foo

"I've committed to surfing the rest of my life."
Lance Armstrong

"I think you could build a couple of humans with the amount of skin lost on the reef at Pipe."
Martin Potter

"I try changing my surfing, which is the absolute worst thing you can do. Everyone surfs their own way. If I try to surf like someone else I look like a dork."
Andy Irons

"Waves are not measured in feet and inches, they are measured in increments of fear."
Buzzy Trent

"Surfing is very much like making love. It always feels good, no matter how many times you've done it."
Paul Strauch

"Surfing is for life."
Bruce Jenkins

"When the surfs up, your life is too."
Wilhelm Sverdvik

"If there was no such thing as barrels I probably wouldn't even surf."
Clay Marzo

"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf."
John Kabat-Zinn

"One drop in is an accident, two is rude, three is a twatable offence."
Roger Sharp

"Sometimes in the morning, when it's a good surf, I go out there, and I don't feel like it's a bad world."
Kary Mullis

"Surfing soothes me, it's always been a kind of Zen experience for me. The ocean is so magnificent, peaceful, and awesome. The rest of the world disappears for me when I'm on a wave."
Paul Walker

"One of the greatest things about the sport of surfing is that you need only three things: your body, a surfboard, and a wave."
Naima Green

"I've tried body surfing. It's nice."
Ziggy Marley

"It's funny, 'cause you think surfing is your whole life, but then when you make a family it seems like it's not at all."
Joel Parkinson

"Surfing is the most blissful experience you can have on this planet, a taste of heaven."
John McCarthy

"There is nothing, nothing, more sad than a surfer who used to surf."
Unknown author

"I love surfing more than cricket. It's more interesting and you meet great people."
Hansie Cronje

"There's nothing quite like surfing by yourself in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but unpredictable weather patterns, below deck accommodation, sea snakes, coral cuts and packs of reef sharks make it a trip for the committed seadog."
Mark Thornley

"Surfing, alone among sports, generates laughter at its very suggestion, and this is because it turns not a skill into an art, but an inexplicable and useless urge into a vital way of life."
Matt Warshaw

"As for my own surfing, let's just say that when the waves start pushing 10 feet, I get this tremendous urge to make a sandwich."
Bruce Jenkins

"Surfing is such an amazing concept. You're taking on Nature with a little stick and saying, 'I'm gonna ride you!' And a lot of times Nature says, 'No you're not!' and crashes you to the bottom."
Jolene Blalock

"If it swells, ride it!"
Unknown author

"I could not help concluding this man had the most supreme pleasure while he was driven so fast and so smoothly by the sea."
Captain James Cook

"Live to surf, surf to live."
Mike Doyle

"What I love the most about surfing is that it's my first love. It's the first thing I can remember being consumed by."
Stephanie Gilmore

"Surfing's the source. Can change your life. Swear to god."
The Surf Shop Kid (Christopher Pettiet) in "Point Break"

"Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true."
Patrick Swayze

"The only one whom can whisper to you the ways of the surf, is the wind."
Wilhelm Sverdvik

"Waves are toys from God."
Clay Marzo

"Charlie don't surf."
Lt Col William Kilgore

"Thank God for a few free waves."
Miki Dora

"It's a cakewalk, when you know how."
Gerry Lopez

"There is not one right way to ride a wave."
Jamie O'Brien

"The reason he [Duke Kahanamouku] didn't like me was that I liked him too much."
Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz

"You can take a surfer out of the surf, but you can not take surf out of surfer."
Bob McTavish

"Sliding a wave removes our brains out of the ordinary and slips us into the extra ordinary of being there now. No more worries about mortgages or strife of being poor or rich. When you enter the domain of an ocean cylinder, that moment, those split seconds belong to the Zen part of just being. Period."
Bill Hamilton

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